Vengeances

The way the story slowly reveals the depths within the main character is stimulating in this story. It's got a revenge thread through it but I found the unfolding of the main character more interesting.

Ultimately the series is very satisfying. The protagonist dances with the multiple antagonists. One ups the other, then back again, like a game of tennis. Our 'hero' protagonist has a riveting journey form the viewer perspective. But the thing is, is she really a hero?

The whole film is well cast with the perfect villains and victims. There's some nasty torture implications in this, but these scenes are not so explicit thankfully.

This six part Austrian series is centred on Brunhilde Blum, the owner of a funeral home high in the Alps. In the opening scenes we see how her parents drowned while she slept on their boat's deck when she was much younger. Now she is married to a policeman who appears to be contacting another woman behind her back. The first she learns of this is when she finds his second phone after he is killed in an apparent hit-and-run accident. She manages to find the other woman and discovers something much worse than a suspected affair. It looks as though powerful people had reasons for wanting her husband dead. She is determined to get to the truth even though it puts her in danger.

I thought this was an impressive drama. The story didn't go quite as I expected, which was a pleasant surprise and, as well as an interesting mystery and revenge story, there are some delightfully dark comic moments. Brunhilde is a fine central character and Anna Maria Mühe does a great job in the role. The rest of the cast are solid too. The alpine location is scenic and adds to the cold atmosphere of the series. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to fans of European crime dramas.

These comments are based on watching the series in German with English subtitles.

Totenfrau is a worthwhile series, but why so many strange mistakes in such a series? In the first episode, a Ducati is hit at high speed, killing the rider. The car, which would normally have been badly damaged by a collision with a motorcycle weighing more than 200 kilos, drives away as if nothing had happened. The motorcycle can be repaired and will be picked up by the victim's wife. We see the woman in her fashionable tweed jacket, which flutters open in the wind, without gloves on, riding off on the Ducati through a snowy landscape. Normally, as a motorcyclist, you stop in this situation after 5 kilometers because your fingers are frozen off and your throat is swollen. Otherwise reasonable series.

Just finished binge watching this from start to finish. Although a tad predictable (at least for me) I found myself geared in and fully engaged in the story and the acting even though it's not in English (watched the VO English version).

I liked how the main character is dark and the revenge factor is really the driving force with no holds barred. That's what makes it effective. It also is gory and it does evoke happiness when revenge is enacted.

Overall for a VO show I finished it in one sitting, completely engrossed in the plot. It won't blow you away but it's very well directed, the score is good and the actors carry it well. 7/10.

Summary

A very Austrian thriller that goes from black humor to moments of enormous violence and others that border on terror, with a charismatic protagonist who reactivates her dark facets. An interesting look at the genesis of certain adult criminal behaviors resulting from impunity.

Review

Brünhilde Blum (the very German Anna Maria Mühe) is the owner of a funeral home in a tourist town in the Austrian Tyrol. After the death of her policeman's husband in an alleged accident, the widow begins a relentless search for those she considers guilty.

Several common topics in Central European police officers reappear in this thriller: trafficking in women, pornography, powerful businessmen linked to tourist interests, police corruption, lodges.

But the strength of the series is its protagonist: Blum does not follow the "correct" path to clarify the death of her husband, but one that reactivates dark facets that were already part of her, with an attitude that is also related to someone accustomed to dealing with with corpses. Brünhilde is an investigative force and an amateur and for this reason she progresses somewhat stumbling (and with few concessions from the script), but always with enormous audacity, in a very Austrian story that goes from black humor to moments of enormous violence and others. Bordering on terror. And all with the beautiful winter setting of the Austrian Alps.

On the other hand, and last but not least, the series is an interesting example of the genesis of certain adult criminal behaviors resulting from impunity.