Rise of Empires: Ottoman (Seasons 1–2)

Rise of Empires: Ottoman (2020) is a Netflix docudrama series you can watch online on iFILM — two seasons, 12 episodes total, now complete. It follows Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II's campaign to capture Constantinople in 1453: how a 21-year-old ruler ended the Byzantine Empire after it had stood for over a thousand years.

The show mixes dramatic reconstruction with historian commentary, narrated by Charles Dance. Cem Yiğit Üzümoğlu plays Mehmed; Damla Sönmez appears as a key figure on the Byzantine side. The series tracks both the military mechanics of the siege — Mehmed's artillery strategy, the chain across the Golden Horn — and the political pressures tearing apart the city's defenders, including Genoese commander Giovanni Giustiniani.

It's less about spectacle and more about decision-making under pressure: why the city fell, what Mehmed risked, and what was lost. Stream all seasons of Rise of Empires: Ottoman online on iFILM.