Die Kaiserin

Being a history buff, I was pretty skeptical. All I can say is, don't come to this for the history, as many, many liberties were taken. Come instead for the gorgeous production and wonderful acting. I was hooked after the first episode in spite of my eye-rolling during parts of it. You can't beat Austria for gorgeous exteriors and interiors, and the costumes are breathtaking. And the performances are stellar all around. I loved hearing it in German. Once in a while there's a slangy clunker in the English subtitles (like "okay"), but for the most part the translation seems to flow very well. Can't wait to see more.

I am just a gay man with no talent,just opinions. Netflick does its loyal customers a diservice. They get you hooked on a series then do 6 episodes! If they decide to Do more we wait a year or more for more! In this era of tech,audience sampling Do they really really REALLY need to wait to see how many watchers they get in a month before they decide to renew? This was a great show. I just wanted more! It is tough to wait so long for shows we love. Didn't we have to wait long enough during COVID for shows and movies? The Crown and other Netflick shows have proved 10 episodes should be the minimumum.

The huge problem for me, a humble history teacher , was to like it. I saw the first episode with high expectation. After the next five episodes, not exactly the dissapointment was the state but a sort of fatigue.

The series has only a virtue - two good looking young actors in the main roles.

And nothing more.

Sure, clothes, rooms, a lot of sensuality but each of them represents only details.

The good intentions are obvious, in same measure than the try to be original, ignoring the historical truth. And maybe , for a large public, it is just seductive entertainment. For me not, especially for bizarre excesses.

But I am real grateful to director for this series. It is an enough motif for appreciate little more its "adversary" - Sissi by Sven Bohse.

The story of Empress Elizabeth of Austria and husband Emperor Franz Joseph, and their families, told in German.

If you don't mind subtitles then it's much better in its original German with English subtitles.. but dubbed in English is available and also good.

While seemingly true to historical timelines and events for these characters from history books, the series obviously takes liberties with the details and is a work of fiction, and definitely feels romanticized.. yet intensity between certain characters well known in history come through, it does at times fanciful considering it's depicting 19th century royal characters and surrounding families, court and villages.

It is quite lavishly presented in costume and production, with great acting. It's a good series. Romantic. I liked it.

The first thing that I noticed was that "Sissi" who was supposed to be 15 years old, looked more like 25 years old. The exaggerated hairstyles of some of the female characters were entirely out of place. Why couldn't they just stick to what was correct for the period? And that troupe dance sequence?? Sorry, but that choreography just didn't fit either. The same went for some of the female costumes. Why did they have some of the female actors with a fifties cowl-like top to their gowns?

And did someone say at one point, "whatever floats your boat". Really, trying to paste 21st century slang into the 19th Century ! What are the script writers thinking? Or was it something that got badly distorted in translation? Anyway, it was jarring. That said, much of the camera work was inventive.

Like "The Crown" the film has little relationship to the facts and thus gives a distorted view of the period and the real Empress Elizabeth's story. The facts are just as interesting, and in my view, quite sustainable for television drama. When will someone eventually make a movie of the "true story"?

In any future series, I hope the writers, costumers and hair-stylists move closer to historical accuracy rather than continuing to pursue the quirky distortions of the first series.