Months later, to open 2025, I finally binge-watched The Empress, the successful Austrian production about one of the most famous regents in History, Sissi or Elizabeth of Austria, which premiered in 2022 to great success, but was far from one of my favorites.

It wasn’t for lack of luxury or good actors. Still, there were so many options for historical biographical series, especially about the English monarchy, which I’m more familiar with, so this series didn’t win me over. I must say that the second season helped me overcome the problem.

Sissi was one of the most beautiful women in history and modern for her time. She didn’t have a flawless trajectory, but she was idolized and immortalized for her undeniable beauty, and the films of the 1950s, with Romy Schneider, romanticized her life in such a way that it is almost impossible to revisit it. Furthermore, Sissi’s unpopular initiatives at the time, which are normal for today, would be (and were) easily highlighted with little historical reference.

Season 1: The Romance

Devrim Lingnau is Netflix’s Sissi, with less charisma than Schneider, but extremely competent in the role. In the first season, they contextualized that the House of Habsburg was one of the most powerful in central Europe. The first episodes focus on the romance between Sissi and the young Emperor Franz Joseph I (Philip Froissant), as well as the complex first months of their marriage in the imperial palace in Vienna, precisely because of her innovative personality.

Many, at the time, suggested that one of the problems of The Empress was that it was not as sexy as Bridgerton or as popular as The Crown, both also on Netflix. Nonsense, it is undeniably of equal quality, just from a less-explored historical period.

Everything seemed overly dramatic to me in the first phase, even if the historical facts are addressed there in some way. That’s why I almost missed a second phase, which would have been a mistake!

A tighter, more political, and exciting plot
One of the most complicated things in Sissi’s biography is her emotional turmoil, and the roots of all the problems from her second phase of life are planted here.

If in the first season, Sissi had difficulty navigating the strict rules of the Court, in the second season she faces the pressures of motherhood, still under the harsh and confrontational position of her mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie (Melika Foroutan). Brothers Franz and Maximilian (Johannes Nussbaum), (a William and Harry of their time) try to survive the betrayals of the past, but the political pressure is destined to divide the House of Habsburg because Franz needs to establish his identity as emperor.

There are several parallel stories, but the heart of the season is the great personal trauma that Sissi and Franz must survive and that will impact both of their lives forever.

I avoided all spoilers because I already posted the real story of the empress and it is much less romantic than it usually appears on screen. The second season is infinitely better than the first and leaves open the possibility of at least one more. I hope the focus is on following the real facts. They are much more exciting. Always.

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