The Empress, Netflix series, 2020

The history is turning around Elizabeth who accidentally by destiny became the new Empress of Austria.

Elizabeth, the Dutchess of Bayern, is a young lady living in a big house with her mother and her two sisters. She loves to ride horse and is a very energic girl. Her horse was sacrificed by her mother's husband who affirms that the horse will not recover of a broken leg (while she was riding the horse got injured). 

Her mother gives more preference to her daughter Helene, so she is preparing her to get married, and they go in a visit in the Emperor's county. His brother Maximilian arrives in the same moment of the visit because he knows that they are preparing his marriage. 

     The Queen welcoming her son Maximilian and a Baronesse of somewhere in Italy. She receives her with a large smile. 

The Baroness of somewhere says: "They will all die in Venice". 

Franz Joseph has Maximilian and the little one Ludwig-Victor as brothers, this little one is very educated boy and very smart. He will be a great man one day. He is in my opinion the legitim king by heart. 

In the Acquaintance it happens to Franz to approach Elizabeth and he decides to marry her instead Helene, everyone gets surprised, but this was his decision. Helene don't accept well the treason. 

Elizabeth accepts immediately the proposal without thinking in her sister. In the beginning of the movie, she declares her wish to marry a true soul mate. She is young, passionate and free. 

She marries in a period of turbulence in the Kingdom, people are in a Revolt fighting for better life conditions, they are starving, so they are in an occult rebellion, killing the citizens with better possesses. The King hangs some of them in the beginning. 

Apafi is one of the rebels who will get unfiltered in the court. 

                                   

The life of Elizabeth in the court is not easy, she has 10 ladies-in-waiting to make her company, included one is a descendant of Baba Iaga, and they are all very invasive, she didn't have any privacy out of her room. She feels the pressure of being under their rules, because she wants to be free to take decisions. 

Franz is a very focused King, he is trying to avoid his men to go to war, but is inevitable, his counselling voted to war against the rebels. He also wins a loan to build a railroad. 

His brother wants to take his place because he believes to be better than Franz. Franz sees his brother interest in Elizabeth so he guarantees that he will be out of his path. Meanwhile his brother is organizing an attack behind his back. Later he confesses to Franz telling him to abdicate his throne and tries to convince Elizabeth to betray Franz and marry him. 

The presence of a vessel gipsy Rebel disguised as Lady-in-waiting, Apafi puts in danger not only Elizabeth and the entire court, as organizing with a rebel an attack to kill them all, but living in the court she starts to see that they are good people and doubts because she is emotionally involved, but after a party where Elizabeth constantly gets drunk without her husband, Apafi has an self-intimate confirmation and tells her Conrade that for the Revolution she prefers all of them to die. Meantime, one of the countesses discovers Apafi's plan and prepares the proofs to take her out of the court, but Apafi discovers and kill her before.  

Franz and his mother are not satisfied with Elizabeth's behaviour and decide to send her away to her house to separate, in the same day Elizabeth discovers that she is pregnant and tries to tell Franz but is late, he sends her out and she didn't tell him about the pregnancy, Apafi knows because she told her. She starts to get close to Apafi's and believe her to be a good person. Actually, Apafi is a partaker of murder of a lady, she took the clothes and possessions, her partner of the Revolution killed the woman.  

When Elizabeth is leaving the castle in the carriage, a lot of citizens are in the Gate protesting, Elizabeth commands to open the gate and then kneel before them. They accept Elizabeth like a suitable Queen because she was there in their living place to know their condition. They saw it with good eyes. 

The series finishes with Franz going in her encounter in the gate.

The series has only 6 episodes, the history is only in the beginning. I will wait for more episodes and then to make an update here. 

Worth to see, you will learn some important lessons. We see the transition of the young and naive Elizabeth to a Queen. 

Derry Girls, 2018-2022, Netflix Series - Last Season

Derry Girls is going to the 3rd Season, streamed in October on Netflix, it's a comedy about the daily lives of the friends Erin, Saiorse Monica, Michelle, Jamie Lee-O'Donnell, Clare, Nicola Coughlan, Orla, Louisa Harland and James, Dylan Llewellyn the teenagers of the School of Our Lady Immaculate College, citizens of Derry, in the Northern Ireland, as well their activities at home.     

    

 Trailer Season 1

The series is so much fun, besides their peculiar accent and expressions, they are all the time getting in trouble because they just want to find a way to survive. The script is most of the parts enigmatic, they are always planning things, but you don't know exactly what it is, and it seems they are all struggling financially. 

One of the most beautiful things to see is their very strong friendship, and they have an open dialog, funny when Clare says she is gay, and no one believes but give all the support. God helps Cleare. Michelle is always saying some bad names, but she is being ironic most of the time. James is the one they spent most of the part bullying and Orla is the quietest of them all. 

They live with a big family inside the house, even Clare that is just a friend sleeps there all the time. They explore well the possibilities of activities in Derry, a city that has a constantly policing of the Irish army called IRA. Derry is a historical city know by the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants that began in 1922. In the beginning of the Conflicts the Catholics represented 85%, now, they report that the number of Catholics is around only 35%. In 1981, IRA expanded their operations outside Derry, bombing in London. This means the number of Catholics is less of 35%. When these groups take control of one place, they expand. That's the main point, included I read, that these groups were bombing in Derry, until now in 2021. This is not a good sign. They are terrorists and these terrorists are really going outside if they are out of control. 

Tribute to the girls that made Derry famous internationally, now in Brazil by Netflix. 

The series is restricted to their daily lives, but the Teacher, the sister Michael, that is so much fun, creates activities that educate all the students to be tolerant, peaceful and they are involved and conscious, what is to have their lives monitored. She is impartial and has nice decisions. She is always monitoring the Crew so they cannot get in trouble. One of the funniest parts with her was when she was in the same bus with the crew and they were carrying a luggage with Vodka, and they lied telling that was not theirs, so she called the IRA and they were with Robots in the street to inspect the Luggage, to check if had a bomb inside. 😁

      The Leader Jenny Joyce creates all the theatrical and musical of the School and the sister is always saying: - Jesus Christ Jenny. She is Epic. 

Interesting to note, Erin was about to greet a old woman in a village, Erin said like goodbye: - Slan.  I don't know what it means but, they seem to be a mix of Gypsies with other parts of Ireland. They are a kind of hybrid at the first view. They have some characters varieties but has some scenes where they seem innocent, in the case where two men stole the computers in the school. 

In the end Education is the main factor in the fight against terrorism. Now in Derry they are facing poverty and the population made a protest against the increase in electricity tariff, for sure these conflicts contributed to the impoverishment of the region.

Here the very interesting activities, in the Season 2, where they point the main similarities and differences between Catholics and Protestants, in case you are interested in Derry. 

Trailer Season 2

Trailer Season 3

😁😁😁

LEGO. HOLIDAY MAIN STREET

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style. 

Grow your winter village collection. 

The new LEGO holiday Main Street makes a great addition to your holiday display.