Murder Mindfully Series: Dark Humor at Its Best

Murder Mindfully or Achtsam Morden is a thriller dramedy that is very popular these days on OTT platforms, such as Based on a True Story, The Residence, and No Good Deed. Capitalizing on the trending sub-genre, this German series gives us a nice and clean series with good plot points, great acting, and wonderful execution.

The Plot of Murder Mindfully Series

Tom Schilling plays a brilliant yet struggling lawyer, Björn Diemel, who defends members of an organized crime ring that is involved in drugs, illegal arms, and other unsavory trades. He is basically one who takes care of all the dirty work in the law firm so that the partners in the law firm can keep their hands free and take on more classy cases and issues to deal with.

After missing one too many birthdays of his daughter, Diemel's wife recommends a therapist to her husband who specializes in mindfulness to help people better their lives in every way possible.

After weeks of mindfulness-centered therapy with Joschka Breitner, played to perfection by Peter Jordan, Björn Diemel begins to implement his learnings in a way that is uniquely his own.

His unconventional ways of handling highly stressful and even life-threatening situations with hardened criminals are so dangerous and offbeat that it becomes outright funny.

The Cast

Murder Mindfully's cast gives us their best performances, and their on-screen chemistry comes across well.

Tom Schilling as Björn Diemel reminds me of James McAvoy as Professor X in X-Men First Class and is a great fit as the lawyer stuck between his hateful job and his life, which is suffering due to his job, causing him to often forget important family milestones.

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Emily Cox plays Katharina Diemel, Björn's wife well as the spouse exhausted by her well-intentioned husband's forgetfulness and tardiness. Schilling gets the lion's share of the screen time in this series, with further seasons probably giving more screen time to other key characters to shake things up.

Britta Hammelstein plays Nicole Eckmann, a police officer who is hot on the trail of the mafioso Dragan Sergowicz ( played by Sascha Alexander Geršak ), who is the main client of Björn Diemel. You might recognize Britta Hammelstein from both seasons of Totenfrau or Woman of the Dead on Netflix, where she plays a cop as well.

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Keep in mind that the dark humor in this series can get pretty dark, even though it is set against a comedic background, with some scenes being quite violent and graphic. If you can stomach the periodic bursts of graphic violence ( which isn't that bad tbh ), then this series will be a fun watch.

The Cinematography

Murder Mindfully uses its excellent cinematography and special effects for great storytelling, with the series being filmed in Åre, Jämtland County, Sweden, and it looks really beautiful on-screen.

Unlike Totenfrau, the cinematography is not essential to the plotline, yet it is wonderfully done, contrasting Schilling's grand offices with the countryside to see why he is enduring such terrible work conditions. He actually voices this exact thought in the very first episode of the series.

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There are many fourth wall breaks with Schilling talking to the audience directly in key moments to voice his frustrations, opinions, and immediate plans to resolve problems, depending on his newly acquired coping skills.

Should You Watch It? Yes!

The Netflix Series Achtsam Morden is really entertaining, blending crime thriller and comedic genres seamlessly to give the audience something fun to watch for a while.