In Murder Mindfully episode 1 we meet Björn Diemel (Tom Schilling) a successful mafia lawyer who's struggling with his work-life balance. Based on Karsten Dusse's bestselling book, the eight-part series is now on Netflix. Here's what happened in episode 1...
"I've never been a violent guy," says our leading man, carefully pushing his wheelbarrow around a snail so as not to squash it. "Quite the opposite in fact. I never got into schoolyard fights. Or bar fights, for that matter. I didn't even kill anybody until I was 42. To be fair I did rack up half a dozen bodies that first week. But who’s counting? And I had really, really good reasons. I'd recently embraced mindfulness. The killing was all kinda downstream of that. It was my way of finally finding some of that coveted work-life balance." Meanwhile, he's feeding a foot into a shredding machine, and blood splatters everywhere!
We then head back three months before, with Björn in a sharp suit with a client who stole a ring at gunpoint. Björn attempts to argue that his extremely grumpy-looking client regrets his actions. Even the robber doesn’t look convinced by Björn's arguments! As he sets out his client's "modest monthly" income to a judge, he indicates to the crook that he should cover up his very expensive watch! Bjorn gets his client out of custody and back to his "bozo pals in twenty minutes flat".
An expensive car pulls up and causes the robber and his pals to flinch. "The man striking terror in his lovely followers was Dragan Sergowicz. My main client," explains Björn. Dragan is a major gangster and Björn's job is to keep him and his pals out of jail.
Poor Björn is struggling with his work-life balance and keeps getting home late to his frustrated wife Katharina, who complains she's been watching their daughter Emily cry as she awaited her father to come to her fourth birthday party. Katharina hands Björn an article about mindfulness but he dismisses it as "bullshit". She demands he change for their daughter. Björn carries his daughter up to bed.
Back at work, Björn sees drinks going on in the conference room but he's not invited. He explains he's an outcast because of the way he earns his money. Björn explains that he also helps a load of other businesses cut corners. At his desk, he looks at a family photo and at the magazine on mindfulness and he decides for Emily to take the plunge.
He turns up at the apartment of his mindfulness coach. He asks for a fast track of the process, but the coach replies, "Running doesn't make the road short." Björn tries to leave but is told he should stay. The Yoda-like figure introduces himself finally as Joschka Breitner. They start with Joschka asking Björn for five things that distress him, he replies with a long list: exhaustion, not being able to relax, pressure, frustration, not being able to see his daughter enough, his wife doesn’t respect his job… "You can’t count to five," replies Joschka.
Joschka wants Björn to stop taking his mind to places of stress. "Mindfulness means that your mind and body act in unison," explains Joschka. He says it’s "idiotic" to be standing in a hallway while in your mind you're arguing with your wife. Björn tells him to be mindful that he needs to "only focus on the present moment".
"What if my mind wanders?" asks Björn. "Then you breathe," explains Joschka. "Our breath is a powerful and central tool within mindfulness."
They stand up to practice deep breathing. Björn starts breathing in the sights and sounds around him. Joschka says he can't solve Björn's problems but he can improve his responses to them. We then see Björn in his office, shoes off, practicing Joschka's methods. We see him turning his phone off to Dragan and sitting with his daughter. It seems to be working! He's finally spending quality time with Emily. His marriage starts to improve. He moves out of the family home to focus on mastering mindfulness and Katharina is on board with his decision.
Being taunted in the office over missing out on a promotion, he manages to stay in control using the techniques. Björn goes to collect his daughter to take her away for a weekend trip. He gets a long list of instructions from his wife about looking after Emily including warning him to avoid mafia idiots. Oddly she leaves the mafia warning to last after she's told him about how to give Emily her breakfast — personally I'd worry more about the mafia than what she eats!
Björn and Emily head off on their trip in the car but then Dragan calls. Dragan says he needs to see him now. Dragan says they need to go out for ice cream, which gets Emily excited. But Björn explains ice cream is a code word for "drop what you’re doing and get here now". He turns around the car and heads back to his office.
After getting one of the trainees to look after his daughter, Björn heads to the basement of the office where an ice cream shop is located. "It was just another tax write-off" he explains. He and Dragan have the only keys.
In the basement ice cream shop, Dragan says his problem is he's beaten to death the right-hand man of a rival drug boss.
"Were you spotted?" Björn asks. "Yes, this goddamn tour bus drove into the parking lot full of 12-year-olds on a field drip." And it seems they were all filming him on their mobile phones. "So, we're talking about up to fifty videos that show you killing someone in front of school children, am I getting this correctly?" "Yeah". And the videos have been uploaded online showing Björn murdering Igor!
And to make matters worse Igor wasn't even getting drugs, he was getting hand grenades, explains Dragan. Watching the video footage further, Björn sees Dragan actually board the bus and threaten the kids! This isn't looking good!! Dragan threatens Björn, saying he has to sort out this mess. Björn suggests turning himself in or going into hiding for the next few decades.
Dragan thinks vanishing is a good idea but Björn points out there are cops outside the building. Dragan wants Björn to put him in his boot so he can escape. Dragan infuriates Björn by not only ruining his weekend with Emily but also repeatedly calling her by the wrong name.
Björn insults Dragan who then grabs his head and thrusts it onto the table. But then overwhelming peace and calm comes over Björn. He embraces the mindfulness techniques to stay in the moment. He knows that to save Emily and himself he has to do what Dragan wants. Or perhaps murder him...
