Sisi

The cast is excellent, a viewer can really feel the chemistry between Franz and Sisi. But unfortunately the plot lacks historical accuracy. Franz Joseph is depicted as the most horrible, emotionally unstable husband, healing every personal tradegy or political defeat by escaping into heavy drinking and having sex with prostitutes, leaving his wife suffering alone (for example, after the death of their daughter).

Season 2 started very promising but lost track soon after part 1. The character of Marie doesn't seem to have a logical place there; it is somehow forced and innatural to the development of the story. And when the "Hungarian" part of the story kicks in, the imagination of the screenwriters went very very very wild (here, they got completely off the track as far as the historical facts go).

On the flip side, the scenery is beautiful and some shots are breath-taking. I feel really sorry for the actors, they would deserve a better-written story. The public as well.

Make sure you read up on Emperor Fran's Josef and Elizabeth to learn their true story, because this series is not it.

That being said, it was a very good TV series, well done and entertaining. If you're a stickler for history it will grate for sure, but hopefully will spur viewers to do some research on these characters and the times, and that would not be a bad thing.

The true story of Sisi is actually far more tragic than this portrayal. She did influence her husband in certain matters, particularly in relation to Hungary but her experience as Empress was nowhere near that depicted in this show. She was beloved by the people but spent little time even living in Vienna, and she herself was assassinated when she was in her 60's.

Also interesting is that the Emperor Franz Josef would later be responsible for setting the wheels in motion that resulted in WWI, after his presumptive heir, Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, were assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serbian.

To me, the true story -or history - is almost always better than what these writers and producers feel they need to conjure up for whatever reasons. That's disappointing.

But it's a good TV series, "based on a true story", with good acting, and beautiful direction in a beautiful country. You'll just have to bear with the alterations of fact, something I'm not fond of watching happen but as I said hopeful folks will be intrigued enough to do some research and find out the true story.

I'd recommend watching it but with those caveats.

Some of this is historical fabrication, however, real history recalls that Sisi was indeed a fantastic horse rider, she did lift weights and stick with a fitness regime, climb mountains with her 7 brothers and sisters and that she did in fact, champion the poor and passionately embraced life in a fantastic and empowered free-thinking way. She was, in real life, in a word, exceptional and strikingly so for her time.

This retelling is vibrant and mostly beautifully acted. But series three must have been directed by someone else as it's lacklustre, lengthy, more of a yelling, tantrum throwing emperor than one will ever need, and some historical great gaffs. And way too many sex scenes... yeah, we get it, people have sex but this seems to leverage the fact and, although they are very pretty people romping, it nonetheless gets a bit tired.

It appears that in real life Sisi did suffer mental health issues related to the absurdity of being a monarch and most likely because of her husband's constant tirades, therefore she sought freedom - for herself and others. I enjoyed this show very much through season one and two, although one of the subplots left me scratching my head and It's beautiful to look at, but it manages to keep some very important core elements of this brave, amazing woman true to history despite its faults.

This show probably has very little to so with the actual lives of the emperor and empress. If the characters were names to fictional persons, people might have given higher ratings. As the story is entertaining, the decor and costumes are beautiful and the acting is good. So if you are looking for more insight in the imperial couple watch a documetary, if you want an entertaining costume drama, this is a good watch.

I saw this series not having expectations about it. With curiosity of a high school history teacher, hunting not the inaccuracy but interested by the manner of director to propose the portrait of Elisabeth of Wittelsbach.

Dissapointment is missing.

For many reasons, it is a correct historical series and Dominique Devenport is an inspired option for main character. It is just unfair to compare it with other adaptations. It is only a fair, surprising well nuanced series , not docu-drama, not documentary, seductive for costumes and locations but not reduced at them.

The cinematography has a great good point and the manner to tell the story is far to be bad. The target is large and one of precious virtues of Sisi remains the historical sketches, good kick to history books.. Jannick Schumann? Yes, he can be a problem. He has the sin, especially the sin, to not be the expeted Franz Joseph. But his work is interesting and the hopes about the second season are not so reduced.

So, just a correct series, nice for atmosphere and for the honest , fair effort to resurrect the air and flavors of a period.