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Netflix’s “Murder Mindfully” (Original title: Achtsam Morden) is a German comedy crime miniseries based on Karsten Dusse’s eponymous bestseller book. It follows a lawyer who accidentally becomes a murderer after looking for ways to find a work-life balance through a mindfulness class. Tom Schilling stars in the central role of Björn Diemel, alongside Emily Cox, Murathan Muslu, Britta Hammelstein, Peter Jordan, Pamuk Pilavci, Johannes Allmayer, Sascha Geršak, Marc Hosemann, and Luca Maric. This offbeat crime thriller with deadpan humor consists of eight episodes and is now streaming on Netflix.
Spoilers ahead
Murder Mindfully (Achtsam Morden, 2024) ‘Netflix’ Miniseries Recap:
“Murder Mindfully” on Netflix revolves around a lawyer who suddenly finds himself caught in a web of crime after entering a mindfulness class to help give more time to his family. It uses the ‘You might be wondering how I got here’ approach to storytelling by initially showing the absurd point in a character’s life and then backtracking it.
What happens in Murder Mindfully (Achtsam Morden, 2024) on Netflix?
Episode 1: Breathing
Björn Diemel (Tom Schilling) is an accomplished lawyer, who dedicates his life to his work at his legal firm. Due to his busy schedule, he cannot spend enough time with his family. So, he often disappoints his wife, Katharina (Emily Cox), and their daughter Emily (Pamuk Pilavci) with his lack of work-life balance. While trying to meet their needs, he must fulfill the demands of his clients, many of whom happen to be criminals. Subsequently, he takes a mindfulness class to help with his daily affairs. After a few lessons, he starts spending more time with Emily and pleases Katharina.
One day, Björn plans a picnic with Emily so that she can spend some quality time with him. He accepts Katharina’s every demand on how to take care of Emily. Besides, he agrees not to attend any of his work calls that will ruin the day for Emily. Unfortunately, while driving to their destination, he receives a call from his violent mob boss client, Dragan Sergowicz (Sascha Alexander Gersak), who forces him to meet immediately. Björn sees no other option but to drive back to the office.
Dragan shows him a now-viral video that shows him beating a member of his rival cartel in a bus full of 12-year-old students. The video shows Dragan burning his cartel member, Igor in jest, which led to his death because he received an intel of Igor betraying him. Eventually, he realized that it was a false tip only when it was too late. Now, he wants Björn to help him clean up this mess and threatens to kill him otherwise.
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Episode 2: Happiness
After Dragan burns Igor to death, the cops start looking for him. So, he expects Björn to get him safely out of the city. He hides in Björn’s car trunk and expects him to drive to his remote house. While driving, Björn receives a call from Officer Nicole, his old friend and now a police officer, investigating Dragan’s case. She suspects Dragan will contact him for help. Björn doesn’t let her get even a hint of his plan for Dragan. Soon, he reaches Dragan’s house but does not let Dragan out of the trunk. While Björn experiences a mindful relaxation with his daughter, Dragan slowly loses his life.
The next morning, Björn brings Emily back home. Outside, he meets Dragan’s cronies, Toni (Marc Hosemann) & Sascha (Murathan Muslu), who expect him to reveal where Dragan is. Björn hides the truth and returns to Dragan’s remote house. There, he drags Dragan’s body out of the trunk, ties it like an animal, and cuts it into pieces. Before destroying the remains in a wood chipper, he cuts a few fingers from Dragan’s hand to use in the future. He ensures that he leaves no trace behind. After he burns Dragan’s body, a raven flies away with one of Dragan’s fingers.
Episode 3: Fear
After taking care of Dragan’s dead body, Björn returns to his routine, not to let the guilt consume him. At the office, the board of directors wants to fire him for his connection to Dragan. Instead of giving in to their pressure, Björn uses his legal know-how to pressure them into offering a hefty severance package if they want him to leave. He ensures that Dragan’s finger remains in good condition so he can use it for his future. Then, he uses Dragan’s emergency plan to benefit from him. Soon, another one of Dragan’s rivals, Murat calls him to meet.
Björn reaches their meeting place to realize Murat is dead and the police are investigating his death. He evades Nicole’s doubts about his involvement in Murat’s death and Dragan’s disappearance. Once he returns to his apartment, Toni shows up, suspecting Dragan is there. Since he can’t find anything to help his theory, he leaves. As it happens, the raven that carried Dragan’s cut finger drops it in a glass at a restaurant.
Episode 4: Shamelessness
Björn realizes that Emily got rejected by a couple of daycare centers because they heard one of Björn’s clients speaking about turning their school into a brothel. So, she expects him to fix this issue. As he drives to the ‘Like Fish in Water’ care center, Toni keeps calling him. Björn does not pick up any calls and reaches the center. There, the establishment’s owner humiliates him and refuses to have a conversation. Back home, Björn reads about this holier-than-thou owner’s allegedly sustainable business that turns wasted tires into products while creating bigger environmental problems and using child labor.
Soon, Björn meets Sascha, who reveals Murat tipped them about the parking lot to find evidence for Igor’s supposed betrayal. Sascha believes Murat was planning to blow him and Dragan to pieces. He suspects that Toni is the one selling a part of their stash, on his own. Back at the office, Björn receives the hefty severance package he asked for. His aged secretary’s apartment gets bombed.
Toni suspects Björn isn’t being truthful about Dragan’s whereabouts. He warns Björn to get him in touch with Dragan to keep his daughter out of danger. Nicole discovers Dragan’s finger in the restaurant. The ring on it makes her conclude that it is Dragan’s. It leads her to another tangent in her investigation. Sascha helps Björn with the daycare center issue by finding dirt on its owners. Right outside, they both get kidnapped.
Episode 5: Panic
After getting kidnapped, Sascha and Björn find themselves next to Dragan’s long-time rival, Boris (Luca Maric). Björn speaks on behalf of Dragan since neither Sascha nor Boris knows Dragan is dead. He does not get intimidated by Boris and manages to strike a deal with him. Soon, he returns home and pleases Katharina with an acceptance letter for Emily in the daycare center. Later, Björn’s now-past office expects him to return his office car. He does not return it right away. So, a young lawyer arrives outside his building to pick it up. Moments later, that same car suddenly blows up into pieces, scaring him and the other lawyer.
Soon, Nicole shows up at Björn’s apartment to check if he shares any details on Dragan’s whereabouts. Björn remains nonchalant and does not reveal anything. The next day, he meets Sascha and his two associates, Paula & Pepe, who kidnapped Malte. Together, they question Malte about Toni. Malte admits that Toni initially lured Dragan to the parking lot to kill him, Igor, and Sascha so he could take the crown of the cartel. Later, Toni got in touch with his contact in the police, Officer Klaus Möller (Nicole’s close associate), and tapped his phone to realize he was meeting Murat. So, Toni got rid of Murat and bombed the aged secretary’s house to get to Björn.
Episode 6: Brainstorming
Boris wants Björn to get him in touch with Dragan. So, Björn worries about his next course of action. His mindfulness lesson guides him to take a walk to clear his mind and put things into perspective. He also contemplates whom to kill among his foes. Meanwhile, Officer Möller meets Toni and shares the new evidence about the discovery of Dragan’s ringed finger. Soon Björn brings all of Dragan’s associates together around a table in a kindergarten for discussion. Björn pretends to be Dragan’s spokesman and reveals the next path for all related to the kindergartens.
Suddenly, Toni shows the evidence of Dragan’s finger to everyone. As a skilled lawyer, Björn knows the nuances in such cases. So, Toni counters with strong arguments, causing everyone to forget about the issue. Sascha also claims that Dragan contacted him because he trusts Björn as the leader of their ship rather than someone reckless like Toni. Meanwhile, Nicole shows up at Katharina’s house to question Emily about her day out with her father, suspecting Björn to be connected to Dragan’s potential death but gets no help to strengthen her case.
Episode 7: Anger
After their meeting in the kindergarten, Toni surprisingly shows up at Björn’s apartment to make him spill the beans. Björn’s response does not satisfy him. So, he ties Björn to a chair. Björn somehow manages to get in touch with Sascha over a phone call. Soon, Sascha convinces Toni to leave and rescues Björn. Then, Björn plans to trap Officer Möller for his next mission. Sascha and his associates trick Möller into meeting them.
He makes Möller admit his connection to Toni’s recent crimes and forces him to send a message to Toni. With Möller’s help, they trap Toni where they earlier trapped Malte. Meanwhile, Björn realizes Nicole’s strong suspicions about his involvement in Dragan’s murder. So, he calls her and sets up a meeting. Before that, he meets Boris and butters him up by showing gratitude.
Murder Mindfully (Achtsam Morden, 2024) ‘Netflix’ Miniseries Ending Explained:
Does Björn escape Boris’ threat or find himself in more trouble?
In the final episode of “Murder Mindfully” titled “Death,” Björn plans to protect himself from Boris. By then, Nicole finds evidence, connecting Björn to Dragan’s potential murder. Björn does not admit that he committed the crime. Instead, he bribes her, a single mother, with a daycare center admission letter for her child. He also subtly makes her doubt herself. As it happens, he gets Sascha to murder Officer Möller, who earlier posed a threat to his daughter’s life. Björn also gets his new office set up before heading to the place, hoping to bring all the puzzle together.
Björn and Sascha’s associates bring the abducted Toni to meet Boris face to face. He shows a video of Malte confessing to Toni’s evil plan of killing Dragan. He claims Dragan has sent Toni in exchange for killing one of Boris’ men. Boris gets his men to kill Toni. Then, a drone appears there out of nowhere. Björn claims it belongs to the police, who might have recorded them committing a crime. Boris does not realize Sascha is flying the drone. Regardless, Björn convinces Boris to get in his car trunk to save himself. After that, we do not see Boris but only Björn at Dragan’s remote house. It indicates that Björn killed Boris as well.
At the end of Murder Mindfully, Björn escapes both the threat from Boris and the possibility of police arrest for Dragan’s murder by diverting Nicole’s attention toward Möller’s culpability. Björn sits on the throne of this crime empire while pretending to be just a skilled lawyer. Nicole, who still suspects Björn, uncovers a toy that records and parrots a message. Through that, she only hears, ‘…and I’ve never felt more free’ – the second half from what Björn childishly said, ‘I chopped up my client and I’ve never felt more free.’
Murder Mindfully (Achtsam Morden, 2024) ‘Netflix’ Miniseries Review:
Tonally, “Murder Mindfully” on Netflix feels quite similar to an Australian series called “Mr. Inbetween,” which shows a professional assassin, living his day-to-day life taking care of his young daughter while killing people as if it’s a normal thing to do. The new German series falls in a similar territory of black comedic narratives that find humor in some of the darkest possible moments while maintaining an almost slice-of-tone tonality in its storytelling. First and foremost, “Murder Mindfully” is about a father trying to make his family happy.
The protagonist, lawyer Björn Diemel, works for some all-consuming clients that take a lot of his daily time and energy. So, he cannot spend enough time with his wife and his daughter. In an attempt to be an ideal man, he decides to take a mindfulness lesson to strike a balance between his work of representing shady clients and being a reliable family man in his personal life. Somehow, this sets him on a path toward murder, predictably plunging him into a slippery slope of criminal activity. He tries to conceal something and finds himself in another mess. So, it’s your standard fodder for similar journeys.
Is ‘Murder Mindfully’ any good?
Murder Mindfully remains captivating until the very end, skillfully balancing its quieter moments with bursts of violence. The story is utterly believable, depicting a man who employs lessons of mental peace in service of his inhumane deeds, thanks to its masterful execution and strong performances. With its half-hour episodes, the series delivers a sharp and concise narrative that communicates its central paradox with effortless sophistication and flair. Tom Schilling shines as the central nonchalant lawyer-turned-criminal, delivering a flawless performance. Overall, it serves as a worthy follow-up for fans of Mads Mikkelsen’s Hannibal and Bill Hader’s Barry, functioning almost like a crossover between the two.
