L'Impératrice

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.

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.

What an absolutely stunning series. Everything about The Empress was top notch. From the sets, to the costuming and the acting. It was perfection.

If you love a historical series then this is for you.

I could have quite easily started from the beginning again and gone straight into a second viewing.

I do hope that this series comes back for a second season.

The story is about Princess Elisabeth von Wittelsbach and her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. Their story is one of love at first sight, however Elisabeth is non conventional and not easily controlled and ready to bow to the rules of being an Empress.

Devrim Lingnau and Philip Froissant have perfect chemistry as Elisabeth and Franz.

Actually all of the acting is amazing throughout this series.

Watch The Empress - the only thing you will be disappointed by - is that it ends.

The first thing the actress playing Elisabeth does NOT look 16. She's pretty but not drop dead gorgeous like Roma Schneider was in Sissi and she really was 16. The Emperor Waltz indeed was written for Emperor Franz Joseph...in 1889. NOT for his wedding to Elisabeth of Bavaria which was in 1854. And what's with the blonde pageboy hairdo sported by the spurned older sister Helene. And the weird modern dance routine. Wasn't the REAL story of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth interesting enough without these embellishments. And yet all the night scenes lit by torches and candlelight are period authentic and very hard to watch. I will probably continue watching because it's not bad just not great.

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.