Rise of Empires: Ottoman – Netflix Season 2 Review

Episode Guide

House of War
Troubled Waters
Land of Dracula
Brothers No More
Night Attack
Destiny

When it dropped on Netflix back in 2020, Rise Of Empires: Ottoman delivered a concise and interesting account of the Ottoman Empire and Mehmed II’s conquering of the world.

With the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power, this second season moves into murky military waters, depicting the war between Mehmed’s Ottoman Empire and Vlad the Impaler’s Wallachian forces. Across the six episodes, the usual blend of talking head narration is interwoven around the re-enactments, with a healthy dose of mystery and action for good measure.

We’re 8 years after the conquest of Constantinople and Mehmed II is now the most powerful ruler in the east. Rumblings about an infamous leader known as Vlad the Impaler starts to become a real threat. Residing in the kingdom of Wallachia, which is nestled between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, all roads lead to a big fight between the pair.

The first episode really works to set the scene and each segment builds up toward the inevitable fight between the pair. Nestled around this though, we get a subplot involving spies in Mehmed’s ranks and a brewing plot to assassination Mehmed’s family.

The war itself is really the bread and butter of this season, and the pair have some pretty tasty stand-offs, leading to a very dramatic final episode that finally puts this issue to bed. However, it’s worth noting that the last 15 minutes feel very rushed, especially given the methodical pace this one adopts in the previous 5 episodes. That’s a bit of a shame because beyond that, there’s actually some pretty decent material here.

Notably, this second season shows a fair amount of military tactics too, including psychological warfare with the infamous “forest of corpses” which is just a horrific sight to behold. There’s also a lot of chatter around the evolution of different weapons, including specific cannons used during the time period.

The usual array of diagrams and expository text helps to flesh this world out further, and the usual sweeping, establishing shots of the maps are certainly welcome. Much like the first, Rise of Empires: Ottoman is an education series that works to flesh out more of the history around this period in history that some may not be wholly aware of. This one’s definitely worth checking out.

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