PUBLISHED
June 14, 2026
The first season of Murder Mindfully introduced us to an unusual protagonist: Björn Diemel, a stressed lawyer discovers mindfulness techniques and somehow manages to use them as a framework for organised crime, murder, and personal fulfillment. It was a premise so absurd that it should never have worked and this thought returns more frequently in the new season. Yet the series finds a peculiar sweet spot between crime comedy, satire, self-help parody, and family drama. Season 2 arrives with the difficult task of continuing that balancing act while raising the stakes, and remarkably, it succeeds by becoming even stranger, darker, and funnier.
What makes the second season so entertaining is not simply that Björn gets himself into new criminal complications, it is the way the show commits fully to its central joke. The idea that a man can become increasingly ruthless while sincerely believing he is achieving emotional growth. Season 2 pushes this contradiction further. Björn is calmer, more confident, more self-assured—and also a much more accomplished liar, manipulator, and murderer. He is losing the plot so to speak but is in perfect control over every major inconvenience (read: crime) as he inhales and exhales his way out of every squirmish (read: illegal act).
The result is a season that constantly invites viewers to snigger at behaviour that would be horrifying in almost any other context. Somehow, through clever writing, sharp performances, and a relentlessly cheerful tone, Murder Mindfully continues to turn moral catastrophe into delightful entertainment. In the first season, mob boss and Bjorn’s client Dragan’s recklessness forced Björn into a corner, ultimately resulting in Björn “mindfully” doing away with him and taking over his syndicate. A rival cartel leader and former friend-turned-bitter enemy of Dragan, Boris crossed paths with Björn in his quest to find Dragan.
By the start of Season 2, Boris is kept prisoner under Björn’s daycare centre to keep a lid on his secrets. Bjorn has employed Boris’ righthand man Sascha as a kindergarten teacher. Whereas Detective Nicole is hot on the heels of Bjorn’s trail of crimes, the joke is always on her as Bjorn is always one step ahead of her. Plus nobody takes her suspicions seriously.
Sort of a Lestrade character, her interactions with him frequently highlight the widening gap between the image he presents and the reality he is hiding. Nicole often approaches problems with the expectation that people will behave rationally and honestly, an assumption that becomes increasingly difficult to sustain around Björn. The resulting misunderstandings and awkward encounters generate much of the season’s dry humour.
Many comedy dramas struggle in their second season because the novelty has worn off. The audience already understands the central gimmick, and repeating the same jokes risks becoming stale. Fortunately, Murder Mindfully understands this challenge.
Instead of merely replaying the formula, the second season explores what happens when Björn becomes genuinely skilled at balancing his criminal and personal lives. The tension no longer comes from whether he can survive his circumstances. The tension comes from watching him apply mindfulness principles to increasingly outrageous situations.
The show understands that the funniest version of Björn is not a panicked amateur stumbling through disasters. The funniest version is a man who has convinced himself that every terrible thing he does is perfectly reasonable as long as it helps him maintain his inner peace.
As unhinged as it gets, Season 2 feels larger, more confident, and more ambitious. The criminal plots become more and more elaborate. Bjorn’s internal conflicts become more complicated. The absurdity becomes more pronounced. Yet the series holds a grounded emotional perspective that made the first season work.
Even when events become ridiculous, the characters continue treating them with complete sincerity. This deadpan commitment remains one of the show’s greatest strengths.
Björn himself is the most fascinating aspect of the second season.
At this point, he can hardly be described as an accidental criminal. The first season allowed viewers to imagine that circumstances pushed him into extreme actions. Season 2 removes that illusion. Björn has become something much more alarming.
He lies constantly. He manipulates people with impressive ease. He engineers complex schemes.He eliminates obstacles with startling efficiency. Most importantly, he has become very good at all of it.
Viewed objectively, Björn is now a sociopathic mastermind. He possesses the strategic thinking of a crime boss combined with the language of a wellness coach. He can justify almost anything through a carefully crafted mindfulness lesson.
And yet he remains oddly likable.
The secret lies in the show’s perspective. Björn never sees himself as evil. He genuinely believes he is making rational decisions that improve his life and protect his family. His self-awareness is simultaneously impressive and completely absent.
This contradiction fuels much of the season’s humour. Every time Björn explains a morally outrageous action using therapeutic language, the gap between his words and his behaviour becomes funnier.
The audience knows he is becoming a monster. But Björn thinks he is becoming a better person.
Season 2 introduces one of the show’s most inspired ideas: Björn’s therapist encourages him to reconnect with his inner child.
In most dramas, this would be the beginning of a healing journey. A troubled protagonist would confront old wounds, rediscover vulnerability, and gradually become a better person.
Murder Mindfully takes a different route.
Björn does indeed connect with his inner child. The problem is that his inner child turns out to be less a source of wisdom than an enthusiastic accomplice. Throughout the season, the younger version of Björn appears like an imaginary companion, commenting on events, expressing impulses, and encouraging actions that are impulsive, selfish, or vindictive but all innocently. What begins as a therapeutic exercise gradually becomes another tool that Björn uses to justify increasingly questionable decisions.
The joke works because the show treats the concept with complete sincerity. The emotional wounds are real. Björn’s childhood trauma genuinely matters. His childhood memories give the audience context for why he is angry, and controlling. Yet every moment of genuine psychological insight is accompanied by the absurd realisation that he is using this self-knowledge to become a more efficient criminal.
Season 2’s darkest and funniest idea is that personal growth does not automatically make Björn a better person. It simply makes him a more self-aware version of himself.
That is why Björn becomes such a fascinating character this season. He is effectively a sociopathic liar, murderer, and criminal mastermind, capable of constructing elaborate schemes and manipulating everyone around him. Yet many of his decisions are framed as acts of self-care or emotional healing. He follows the urges of his younger self with complete conviction, as though he is finally learning to honour his own needs.
Partly that is due to Tom Schilling’s charmingly restrained performance, but it is also because the series understands the absurdity of its premise. Björn isn’t embracing his inner child to become kinder or more compassionate. He is embracing his inner child while running criminal enterprises, hiding bodies, and outwitting enemies.
By the end of the season, the audience is left with a peculiar realisation: Björn may actually have made progress. He may genuinely understand himself better than ever before.
International audiences sometimes associate German comedy with dry wit, understatement, irony, and a deadpan appreciation for absurd situations. Whether entirely fair or not, those qualities are certainly visible throughout Murder Mindfully.
The series rarely relies on broad jokes or exaggerated comic performances. Instead, much of the humour emerges from logical reasoning pushed to absurd extremes. Björn approaches murder the way another person might approach tax planning. His accomplices discuss criminal activity with the calm professionalism of office workers reviewing quarterly reports. At the same time, mindfulness exercises are treated with complete sincerity even when they accompany deeply unethical decisions.
This style of comedy depends heavily on deadpan delivery. The characters rarely acknowledge how ridiculous their circumstances are. That restraint allows the absurdity to grow naturally.
The humour also reflects a distinctly bureaucratic sensibility. Björn often approaches crime as though he were optimising a business process.
There is something wonderfully German about transforming criminal chaos into an efficiency problem.
Deceptive visual tones
Crime dramas traditionally favour darkness. Murky lighting, rain-soaked streets, shadowy interiors, and cold colour palettes signal danger and moral corruption. Murder Mindfully often does the opposite. The series frequently unfolds in bright, warm, inviting environments. The first scene of season 2 opens in the verdant Austrian Alps with families on vacation, picnicking and hiking. Sunlight fills the frame. Natural colours dominate.
Then there are pleasant homes, peaceful landscapes and Bjorn’s daycare centre that create an atmosphere of comfort. If someone watched the show with the sound muted, they might assume they were looking at a family comedy or a lifestyle program about work-life balance.
The visual warmth creates a constant comic contradiction. Terrible things happen in beautiful settings. Discussions of murder occur in environments that look perfect for a relaxing holiday. Criminal conspiracies develop amid scenes of domestic tranquility.
The contrast amplifies both the comedy and the satire.
The audience is never allowed to settle into the expectations of a traditional crime series. Every sunny image becomes part of the joke. The pleasant atmosphere effectively disguises the darkness beneath it, much as Björn disguises his increasingly sinister behaviour beneath the language of personal growth.
One concern after the first season was whether the mindfulness satire could sustain itself over multiple installments. Surprisingly, Season 2 proves there is still plenty of material to explore.
The show doesn’t argue that mindfulness itself is foolish. Instead, it satirises the tendency to transform useful psychological concepts into universal solutions.
Björn treats mindfulness less as a tool and more as a moral operating system. Every challenge becomes another opportunity to apply a lesson. Every crime becomes a personal development exercise. This approach remains amusing because the logic is internally consistent.
Björn is not hypocritical in the traditional sense. He genuinely follows the principles he has adopted. The problem is that he applies them without any meaningful ethical framework.
Season 2 sharpens this critique by showing how self-improvement language can become detached from morality. Concepts such as boundaries, self-care, and authenticity are not inherently virtuous. In the wrong hands, they can justify almost anything.
Season 2 of Murder Mindfully accomplishes the difficult task of expanding its premise without exhausting it. The series becomes darker while remaining playful, more twisted while remaining charming, and more morally alarming while somehow becoming even funnier.
Björn himself has become an increasingly sophisticated architect of criminal schemes. Yet because he continues filtering everything through mindfulness jargon, family concerns, and earnest self-improvement rhetoric, he remains irresistibly entertaining.
Like its protagonist, Murder Mindfully appears calm, warm, and emotionally healthy on the surface. Beneath that surface lies something much darker, stranger, and considerably more dangerous.
Fortunately for viewers, it is also very funny.
