‘The Empress’ Delivers a Satisfying Ending for One of Netflix’s Best Hidden Gems | Review

Published Nov 12, 2026, 12:00 PM EST

Lacy Baugher Milas is an entertainment and culture writer whose bylines have appeared in Paste Magazine, The A.V. Club, Den of Geek, Jezebel, Digital Spy, Telly Visions, and more. A lover of Time Lords, fantasy stories, period dramas, and tumultuous 90s rock bands, you can find her on social media pretty much everywhere as @LacyMB.

German period drama The Empress is one of Netflix’s most underrated gems, a historical series that dramatizes the story of Elisabeth I of Austria (Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu), the daughter of a Bavarian duke who married an emperor for love and became famous the world over for her beauty and independent spirit. Set not in Tudor or Regency England—as so many of these sorts of series often are— but in 19th-century Austria, the story blends fairytale romance with political conflict and social intrigue as Elisabeth and her husband, the Emperor Franz Joseph (Philip Froissant), attempt to navigate both threats to their throne and the stifling responsibilities of power.

Much like the historical period it’s set in, the show’s third and final season takes on a darker and increasingly tense tone. Struggles for independence in various crown lands spark war, political upheaval, and questions about what the future of the Habsburg Empire can and should look like. The fate of one marriage is perhaps a small thing next to the intensity of international geopolitics, but it is Franz and Elisabeth’s relationship that remains the heart of The Empress until its final frames.

What Is 'The Empress' Season 3 About?

The final season picks up a few months after the dramatic conclusion of Season 2, which saw Franz leave to command his army on the front lines of the Sardinian War. Elisabeth, who has finally managed to give birth to the male heir that secures the Habsburg family succession, is left behind in Vienna, alongside her difficult mother-in-law, the Archduchess Sophie (Melika Foroutan). But while Franz ultimately makes it back from the fighting safely, the emperor who returns from the front is a very different man from the one who left.

Traumatized by all the death he has both witnessed and been responsible for, he’s rude and standoffish, repeatedly pushing away his family and rejecting the comforting advances of his wife. Froissant does some of his best work in these early episodes focused on Franz’s return, where it's not only clear how much he’s hurting, but how ill-equipped he is to deal with the mental and emotional fallout from a war he chose to fight.

Only through his affair with an unassuming woman named Terese (Marlene Burow) does Franz begin to find something like peace again, though that decision ultimately costs him in other areas of his life. It’s a dark period for both the Austrian royals: the discovery of her husband’s infidelity, along with a debilitating health scare, sends Elisabeth out of Vienna—and, more importantly, away from her husband and his mother—for the first time since her marriage.

'The Empress' Season 3 Explores Themes of Freedom and Independence

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The real Elisabeth loved to travel, and this shift is an important part of the character’s understanding of both herself and her relationship to the larger world. Lingnau is luminous as a young woman restored to the freedom that has long been denied her, and she effortlessly conveys determination to do right by the people who have entrusted her with power over them. On her journey home from the picturesque island of Madeira, she meets the dashing Count Andrássy (Dejan Bućin), a mysterious Hungarian revolutionary. Their intense connection happens almost laughably quickly–-over the course of what is maybe two conversations—but his charismatic personality draws her swiftly into his country’s political fight for self-determination, even though it frequently puts her at odds with Franz and Sophie’s ideas about Austria’s future.

Still, despite all the political wrangling between empires, vassal states looking for the chance to determine their own destinies, and Habsburg sibling Maximilian’s (Johannes Nussbaum) ascending to the throne of Mexico, the chemistry between Lingnau and Froissant remains the emotional glue that holds this series together. Sure, Franz and Elisabeth struggle with both marital and political problems, but no matter what happens, they still can’t seem to give up on one another.

Foroutan pulls double duty this season as both Archduchess Sophie and her twin sister, Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria, who appears just long enough to ruin a key political negotiation with Kaiser Wilhelm II (Sebastian Blomberg). And Nussbaum gets to play Maximillian at both his most idealistic and utterly defeated. While his character has long been notable for being... let’s just call it performatively over the top, this is perhaps the most human version of him we’ve ever seen. Also, it should be noted that costume designer Gabriela Reumer once again knocks it out of the park, crafting a stunning series of sumptuous gowns and lavish uniforms that serve as various forms of armor for almost all of the show’s characters.

'The Empress' Season 3's Ending Fudges History in the Name of Love

In keeping with its overall fairytale feel, The Empress’ ending blends both fiction and fact. The show simply doesn’t mention some of the more harrowing events of Elisabeth’s later life and reign, glossing over the eating disorder-like obsession with her own weight and leaving out the tragic loss of her only son Rudolf, who was found dead with his mistress in what was suspected to be a murder-suicide. Her assassination at the hands of an Italian anarchist is reduced to a footnote that appears onscreen before the finale’s closing credits.

Instead, The Empress turns the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy into a turning point for many things — a new dawn for independence in Europe and a fresh start for Franz and Elisabeth’s relationship, grounded in an understanding that this particular empress needs the freedom to be herself. Is it an ending that's particularly truthful about the events of these people’s lives and their relationships with one another? Not really. But is it a satisfying (if poignant) conclusion to the story we’ve spent three seasons watching? Absolutely. In a season festooned with so much darkness, it offers a welcome burst of hope that maybe, sometimes, love really can conquer all.

The Empress Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.

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  Svenja Jung

• Melika Foroutan

Pros & Cons

• Lavish and beautiful from start to finish, with sumptuous costumes and lush settings that go behind the Viennese court
• The chemistry between stars Devrim Lingnau Islamo?lu and Philip Froissant grounds complex geopilitical problems in genuine emotional stakes
• The bitersweet final scenes are lovely.

• Elisabeth's life changing relationship with Count Andrássy is rushed and underdeveloped