There were so many shows in the 2000s that showed everyday people become criminal masterminds because something brought the sociopath out of them. The message tends to be if it can happen to them, it can happen to anyone. In a new German comedy, a lawyer who has gotten wealthy working for a mafia boss but has no control of his own time gets that control back — but he has to kill lots of people in order to do that.
MURDER MINDFULLY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: In a peaceful lakeside setting, a man pushes a wheelbarrow and avoids a snail on the ground. “I’m not a violent person. Quite the opposite,” we hear him say in narration.
The Gist: After he brings out the wheelbarrow, we see him smiling as he starts cramming severed body parts into a wood chipper, the blood streaming into the lake.
Going back to the week before, we see the same man, Björn Diemel (Tom Schilling), is working as a lawyer, helping to reduce the bail for his thug client. He’s really proficient at his job, and it’s afforded him and his family a good life. But it’s also an ethically questionable job, as his main client is the thug’s boss, Dragan Sergowicz (Sascha Geršak), who leads an organized crime family. Björn not only helps Dragan’s men stay out of prison, but set up accounts and businesses that launder his money and legitimizes him in the community.
He always seems to be at Dragan’s beck and call, and it’s cost him with his wife Katharina (Emily Cox) and daughter Emily (Pamuk Pilavci). When he misses Emily’s birthday party, Katharina is beyond angry, but she also knows it’s no use to argue with him. What she does is once again suggest mindfulness sessions, if not for her but for Emily. He thinks it’s bullshit, but knows his relationship with his family is at a tipping point.
Björn finally agrees to go, and during the first session, the coach, Joschka Breitner (Peter Jordan), tells Björn to breathe and to be in the moment. When he’s in the elevator, he’s in the elevator. When he’s at home, he’s at home. He’s even encouraged to give Katharina and Emily some space and move into a hotel. Björn buys into the coach’s teachings over the twelve sessions, and thinks he’s on his way to achieving more balance in life.
He picks Emily up for a weekend at the lake, and he promises Katharina to keep Emily away from anything having to do with Dragan. Of course, all this goes out the window when Dragan calls and calls for “ice cream,” which is their code for an emergency. When he goes to the secret location where he meets with Dragan, he finds out that Dragan killed a trusted member of a rival gang’s crew, and he needs Björn to drive him somewhere to hide out. While Björn claims it’s not his job, Dragan says otherwise, and doesn’t care if his lawyer has his daughter in tow — Dragan is so disdainful of Björn that he can’t even get Emily’s name right as they talk.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Murder Mindfully, based on the novel by Karsten Dusse, has a bit of a Weeds-meets-Dexter vibe.
Our Take: The first episode of Murder Mindfully ends a bit prematurely; you need to go to the second episode to understand just how Björn becomes a killer. The idea is that people like Dragan are getting in the way of Björn achieving the balance he wants in life, so as he practices mindfulness, people like Dragan are forgotten. In this case, it’s literal: He drives to the lake house with Dragan in the trunk of his car and forgets about him, leaving the mafia boss to die of heatstroke.
So from here, it seems that Björn, who is fairly nonplussed about the idea that he’s now a killer, will start eliminating people that, for lack of a better term, harsh his mellow. It’s a pretty funny premise for a series, even if the show itself isn’t exactly gut-grabbing funny. Schilling does a good job of playing just how sanguine Björn is about this, somehow able to get through cutting up and shredding bodies without much of a thought.
What’s the show trying to say? That mindfulness is great to bring out the hidden sociopath in people? Maybe. But more than anything, the show will be about a man who somehow finds peace through murder. It’s the type of premise that ruled cable and premium TV in the ’00s, and it was popular for a reason, because in many of these cases we can see ourselves in these people, and it makes it uncomfortable but very watchable.
Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: Björn holds Emily in the elevator of his office and tries to breathe through the stress of his situation.
Sleeper Star: Sascha Geršak plays Dragan as a monster who shows just how inept he really is.
Most Pilot-y Line: The narration and asides Björn makes to the camera need to be used more sparingly than they are in the first two episodes.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Murder Mindfully takes a high-concept premise and makes it relatable, thanks to sharp writing and Tom Schilling’s performance.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Murder Mindfully’ On Netflix, A Comedy Where A Lawyer Starts Killing People Who Disrupt The Balance He Wants In His Life appeared first on Decider.
