The Empress (Seasons 1–2)

The Empress (Die Kaiserin, 2022) is a German Netflix period drama you can watch online on iFILM. Young Bavarian Elisabeth was never meant to marry the emperor — her sister was the intended bride. Then Franz Joseph picked the wilder of the two, and an outsider landed on the Habsburg throne.

The fairy tale curdles fast. Her mother-in-law Sophie rules the court like a fortress and reads the new bride as a threat to be contained. The emperor's brother eyes both the crown and Elisabeth herself, while unrest simmers in the streets outside the palace gates. Devrim Lingnau plays the future Sisi not as a porcelain princess but as someone learning to survive a system where feeling anything is a liability; Philip Froissant is the husband caught between his heart and his duty.

The series reworks the legend of the real nineteenth-century Austrian empress into something sharp and modern — think closer to The Crown than to the sugary Sissi films of old. Good for anyone who likes court intrigue stripped of its postcard gloss. Stream The Empress (2022) online on iFILM.