Sisi

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.

Got to admit that I wasn't expecting anything out of it, and yes this isn't for everyone because it's historical BUT the cinematography and the fact that the actress that plays Sisi were great!

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.

I have to say I enjoyed the first episode quite a lot and was disappointed when the series began to lose its way in the labyrinth of ill-fitting desiner clothes, mediocre rock music, sloppy plot twists and completely improper comedy. A few drone shots of Vienna don't give the series any Viennese flavour, which instead feels kinda very post-Soviet. It struggles between being authentic and modernized, probably to attract a 21st century young adult viewer, and in doing so tends to lose its way. Moments of beautiful camerawork save induvidual scenes but are not enough to cover the somewhat empty narrative and the moments that reak of anachronisms. It almost feels as if there were two competing units at work - one that strives to make a downtonabbeyesque detailed trip into the history, and another that strives to make a rock opera in the vein of The Phantom that really doesn't give a damn about historical etiquette, accuracy or plausability of the events. Many overly dramatic but emotionally empty and disconnected scenes bear witness of an insecure and disfunctional team of writers and script doctors.

Often a nice fairy tale and a handsomely mounted tale, if you can look past the very preposterous twists, Franz Josef's waxed bodybuilder boobs and the endless array of haute couture dresses with zippers. And no, they didn't eat breakfast, ride or roll in the hay always in glittering, much-revealing, sex-oozing evening gowns.

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.