A Review of Netflix’s: Rise of Empires: Ottoman

 

“For one empire to rise, another must fall.”

 

Like many others in this time, one of the only things from keeping me from going stir crazy is streaming sites. Their practically endless variety of movies and series’ to watch allows us to escape reality, 40 minutes at a time.

 

One of my favourite hidden gems of Netflix, is the series Rise of Empires: Ottoman. This docudrama, portrays Ottoman leader- Mehmed II and his attempt to take the Roman occupied city of Constantinople (which changed to Istanbul after Mehmed successfully conquered the city). This docudrama, starring Cem Yiğit Üzümoğlu as Mehmed II and narrated by Charles Dance, was a great watch, increasing the viewer’s knowledge on the conquest of Constantinople.

 

Not only did this docudrama have excellent battle scenes, it was historically accurate, as it showed various historians (such as Roger Crowley and Jason Goodwin) with their wide range of knowledge of the Ottoman Empire, talking about what was often shown in the drama portion of the show.

 

The show portrays Mehmed’s great battle conquering the Roman capital city of Constantinople which had been under Roman (or Byzantine) rule for approx. 1100 years. It was an extremely difficult city to conquer (with its mighty stone walls), the only way in to the city was through the Mediterranean Sea- where there was a large chain stopping enemy boats from entering ‘the Golden Horn’ which led into Constantinople. The show also portrays the Hagia Sophia as it was before the Ottoman rule, a church which is now museum inside the famous Blue Mosque.

 

All in all, this show should absolutely find its way into your watch list after reading this article as it is not only historically accurate(which is rare) but is also very addictive, and with only 6 episodes, an easy watch.

 

Shanzay Yousaf