MURDER MINDFULLY on Netflix is a darkly comedic thriller based on — (Author of Achtsam morden) Karsten Dusse‘s best-selling book of the same name. It follows an unusually troubled lawyer as he tries to find inner peace in strange ways. Tom Schilling plays Björn Diemel in this German series. He is a mafia lawyer whose life goes crazy as he tries to get his work-life balance back. As a last-ditch effort to find peace, Björn takes up mindfulness to try to save his falling apart family life. But instead of being calm, he finds a violent side in himself that makes him kill someone. Within this eight-part series, viewers are treated to a taste of mindful chaos similar to “Breaking Bad,” as the path to mindfulness takes a dangerous turn.
Murder Mindfully Episode 1 Recap
At the start of the episode, Björn tells a strange story about how he has always avoided violence. In a funny and calm scene, Björn, who is putting a severed foot through a shredder, thinks back and says— “I’ve never been a violent guy…” I didn’t kill anyone until I was 42 years old. His new way of life quickly goes from peaceful exercises to a violent, bloody mess. This shows how ironic it is that his path to mindfulness has led him to murder.
Three Months Ago: The Lawyer’s Life
Three months ago, we see Björn very well-groomed and in court, defending his criminal clients. In his current case, he is representing a client who robbed a store with a gun and doesn’t seem sorry, despite Björn’s best efforts. It’s clear that things are tense in the courtroom as Björn tells his client to hide his expensive watch in order to make him look like any other person who is having problems. Bjorn is very good at what he does, so he quickly frees the man and sends him back to his gang.
Dragan Sergowicz’s Arrival
Not long after, a scary car pulls up, and Dragan Sergowicz, Björn’s main client and a feared crime boss, gets out. Björn talks about how his job in Dragan’s group is to keep him and his thugs out of jail. Everyone is scared around Dragan, which adds to the dangerous world Björn works in, which is full of violence and high-stakes risks.
Family problems and the need for change
Back at home, Björn’s two lives start to wear him down. He’s been missing family events over and over again, which makes his wife Katharina very angry and tired. She tells him he needs to make big changes if he wants to be a real dad to their daughter Emily and gives him a magazine article on mindfulness. Mindfulness is hard for Björn to accept because he calls it “bullshit,” but he can’t deny that he’s missing out on his daughter’s childhood. He feels more pressure when he knows he’s about to lose his family.
An Unwelcoming Place of Work
Björn doesn’t feel like he fits in at work the next day. His coworkers are having drinks in the conference room while he is not allowed to be there. This could mean that they don’t like or even respect his morally questionable job. Even though he is successful— his job as a mafia lawyer keeps him away from his friends and family, which makes him feel even more unhappy and alone. In a rare moment of openness, he looks at a picture of his family on his desk and thinks about the path he has chosen.
Start Being Mindful: A Last-Ditch Effort
Björn reluctantly joins the world of mindfulness because his daughter needs him to be there for her. He goes to the apartment of Joschka Breitner, a mindfulness coach. But Björn’s way of thinking is still rooted in his high-stakes life; he asks Joschka for a “fast track” to mindfulness so that he can solve his problems quickly. “Running doesn’t make the road short,” the coach says in a calm but firm voice, implying that there are no quick fixes for true mindfulness.
Joschka’s unusual way of doing things makes Björn uncomfortable, and he tries to leave, but is persuaded to stay. As a wise old man— Joschka tells him about an exercise and asks him to write down five things that are bothering him. It’s clear how unhappy Björn is by how quickly his answer turns into a rant about his too-heavy workload, family problems, and stress. Joschka cuts him off and makes a joke about Björn’s inability to stop counting after five. This is a subtle hint that Björn has more problems than he thinks.
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[Finale] Murder Mindfully Episode 8 Recap: Ending Explained!
