I gave it a 7rating due to high quality of visual effects. Moreover the actor playing the main character, Mehmed II, seems to be a great actor. Overall Production quality is good. On the other hand, the historical explanations, details are not really truthful. They made heroes out of Genoese and Venetians. ??!!! What about the story behind the conquest by Ottoman emperor? What was the emotional reason behind it ? Why are there no details about the christians' crusade wars? Where is the talk about revenge? Where is the talk about the importance of Istanbul ?
Plus, Mehmed's mother is known, she is Hüma Hatun, she even has a grave! But this productions says: "mehmet's mother is unknown". That is very confusing! This whole production is mainly lacking the truth. I didn't find it objective at all. The history has been demonstrated as if it was a Spartans movie. What about the customs and traditions of Turkish people? This documentary is Really really brain washing !! Who the f. is Giustiani?? Why is he at the center of this documentary? For example why didn't we see more of Zaganos Pasha? Isn't he more important as the right hand of the conqueror?? Doesn't he deserve more scenes than Ana character? Why is the emotional struggle of Ottoman army NOT shown, why does this production heavily weigh in towards the emotional struggle of Byzantine fighters? This production is very biased. This is a documentary but unfortunately NOT OBJECTIVE and NOT TRUTHFUL. Where are the great Turkish historians who can tell us the story better? For example Professor Ilber Ortayli. He should have been involved in this production.
Another problem is with language. The narrator is great, he gives a lot of fresh air while watching, nice to ears. However the spoken English of all actors/actresses is horrible. I could barely understand what they were saying. I had to watch it with English subtitles. Since English subtitles is a must to be able understand, then why was the outspoken language between ottoman characters not in their own language? Why do our ears need to suffer? History is needs to be represented as it is. In the production they could have easily made: the narrator speaks in English, historians speak in English, Byzantine characters speak in English or Latin, Ottoman characters speak in Turkish. At least among each other. It was ridiculous. At one point Ana speaks Turkish when she is talking to Sultan Mehmed, Apparently her parents are Turkish so she does speak the language, but when Ana meets the wounded Ottoman soldier, she suddenly forgets Turkish and they speak in English. B.S.!! Net net, if season2 is in the making, it needs to be objective and truthful.
Another problem is with language. The narrator is great, he gives a lot of fresh air while watching, nice to ears. However the spoken English of all actors/actresses is horrible. I could barely understand what they were saying. I had to watch it with English subtitles. Since English subtitles is a must to be able understand, then why was the outspoken language between ottoman characters not in their own language? Why do our ears need to suffer? History is needs to be represented as it is. In the production they could have easily made: the narrator speaks in English, historians speak in English, Byzantine characters speak in English or Latin, Ottoman characters speak in Turkish. At least among each other. It was ridiculous. At one point Ana speaks Turkish when she is talking to Sultan Mehmed, Apparently her parents are Turkish so she does speak the language, but when Ana meets the wounded Ottoman soldier, she suddenly forgets Turkish and they speak in English. B.S.!! Net net, if season2 is in the making, it needs to be objective and truthful.