Carlos, Rey Emperador

I have to date, only watched episode 1 but that is because my Spanish is appalling and I have to take it slow, I would LOVE to watch this with English subtitles. The story picks up after the death of Ferdinand (Fernando) and Charles' V arrival in Castile to a less than enthusiastic crowd. The costumes are wonderful and the acting is as I have seen so far very good, even if Álvaro Cervantes is not my idea of what the Holy Roman Emperor would have looked like. I am looking forward to watching the rest of this show I enjoyed Isabel so much and having watched what she and Ferdinand went through to unite Spain I am so invested in this story! A great watch for anyone interested in this period of time.On a side note I would love to see a future production on Philip II, Charles' son.

For those interested to know more details/stories from the Ottoman's point of view can see from Turkish series Magnificent Century. Try searching on YouTube.. "Magnificent Century Battle of Mohacs" (Grand Battle scene!) "Magnificent Century siege of Vienna" (details of Ottoman retreat, with Charles and Ferdinan in it)

History lovers would enjoy them 🙂

TVE kind of continue their successful "Isabel" series with this one on her grandson Charles, known in Spain as King Charles I and in Austria/Germany as Emperor Charles V (whence the series name, Charles King & Emperor). They decided to jump ahead some 25 years after Queen Isabella's death, leaving Joan the Mad's reign aside and going straight on to Charles's arrival in Spain from Flanders, where he had grown. The series is very well made, although of course TVE don't seem to have the seemingly limitless budget of, say, HBO's Game of Thrones (which has nothing to do with this one on Emperor Charles V, but doubtlessly budgetary restrictions do impose some restrictions). Charles's reign was one of not only significant turmoil in continental Europe, but also the real beginning of Spain's conquest of the Americas, so he had quite a lot in his hands, from Luther in Germany to revolt in Castile (where he was seen by many local noblemen as some kind of foreign usurper) to the conquest enterprise. Each chapter is thus followed by a supplementary programme called "Charles's world", in which what was seen in that day's chapter is commented on by historians, TVE's staff and the actors themselves and thus illuminates further what the viewer has just seen and not only history-wise. I would urge viewers in the non-Spanish speaking world to pressure their cable or satellite TV providers to incorporate this series, or in the case of regular broadcasting, the likes of the BBC, the CBC, the ABC or PBS to air this show, a great example of what TV should be like.

So well written and well executed. And I freaking loved Blanca Suarez role in this series. Her whole love story with Carlos the emperor.

It's OK, the cast is good, they don't go The Tudors way, it's obvious there going to be some nudes (as in most Spanish movies, when I watch a French one I do expect to see someone smoking) but they try to do it by the book which is great, it's wonderful if you a bookworm who loves History as I am and you can tell they are doing it right, of course, some licenses should be taken out of a making this appealing to the audiences but that's fine, one thing I didn't like is that they chose to summon a lot of time within 17 episodes, that means some characters are introduced and killed or vanished within the same episode or two to say the most. This should have been scheduled as Isabel but I guess budged was an issue here, that was a pity, the whole thing felt rushed. Also, another concern here, Alfonso seems at the very end an old brother to his son Felipe (II of Spain) rather than his father, in those cases I guess is better to hire two actors, one young, one older for sometimes is puzzling to forget in spite of so much make up their real age. I'd advice anyone who loves history to watch this but If I have to choose, I will always go for Isabel instead of Carlos.