Summary
It is an interesting and dark retelling of the Ottoman Empire that other documentaries wouldn’t have been able to depict accurately. This style is the best format to date.
We review the Netflix series Rise of Empires: Ottoman Season 2, which was released on Netflix on December 29th, 2022.
Rise of Empires: Ottoman Season 2 dives further into the story of this grand historical battle between empires. The first season accurately depicted the families who reigned and the court surrounding them.
This unique documentary structure forces a re-enactment of what had happened while a narrator explains the backstory to fill in the gaps. It is a more effective way to explore these historical stories, and Netflix has been doing something different.
If you are a history buff, then this type of storytelling will definitely keep you engaged because of the structure and interviews with fellow historians. It covers all angles and makes you want to watch more projects that have this style of documentary filmmaking. There is so much to cover about the Ottoman Empire, and the director Emre Sahin had a vision for how he wanted all of this to play out.
Rise of Empires: Ottoman Season 2 review and plot summary
As far as historical accuracy goes in documentaries, Netflix has really captured these epic stories quite well. The Ottoman Empire is one of the largest and most long-lasting empires in world history. So it makes sense as to why there have been two seasons. To pick up where they left off, Mehmed the second had won numerous battles and had been King in Constantinople. Naturally, as he grew his army and fought everyone around him, he also gained enemies. The second season revolves around the famous battle between Mehmed the second and Vlad Dracula. It’s not like Vlad Dracula was an outsider, he was someone who lived with Mehmed in the Ottoman Empire so he was knowledgeable enough to go up against him.
Is Rise of Empires: Ottoman Season 2 good?
As someone who isn’t a history buff, this season was incredibly engaging. To have two people from the same empire battling, all while gaining enemies at the same time, make it entertaining. It has this cinematic feel equivalent to Game of Thrones while educating viewers on what actually happened.
The historians being interviewed go into detail to fill the time between scenes and events that occurred. Each episode is filled with information that can be hard to grasp at times, but on the grand scale of the season, it does cover every single base so viewers can become invested in this story.
Much like Blood, Sex & Royalty centered on Anne Boleyn and her ventures, the dramatization of these events with facts sprinkled in between allows all angles to be covered. We must remember that documentaries aren’t meant to be biased, so to have many different ways to retell these events only helps the historical accuracy.
What did you think of Netflix’s Rise of Empires: Ottoman Season 2? Comment below.
