Series Review: "Woman of the Dead" ("Totenfrau") (2022).

From Austria and Netflix comes Woman of the Dead (Totenfrau). This Austria crime mystery series created by Benito Mueller, Wolfgang Mueller, and Barbara Stepansky. It is a story about the lengths a passionate woman will go to for vengeance after her husband’s death and the tug-of-war between good and evil that exists in all of us.

By late April 2021, Anna Maria Mühe, Yousef Sweid, Hans-Uwe Bauer, Felix Klare, Emilia Pieske, Lilian Rosskopf, Romina Küper, Simon Schwarz, Sebastian Hülk, Shenja Lacher, Gregor Bloéb, Robert Palfrader, and Michou Friesz were cast in an Austrian crime mystery series created by Benito and Wolfgang Mueller, and Stepansky. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in early July. Filming took place in Vienna, Sellrain, and Ternitz, Austria.

The film stars Mühe, Sweid, Bauer, Klare, Pieske, Rosskopf, Küper, Schwarz, Hülk, Lacher, Bloéb, Palfrader, and Friesz. With a raft of well-judged performances, not least that of Mühe as the woman who is on a revenge quest to avenge her murdered husband, the show returns the viewer's investment in spades. Mühe delivers a performance of great physicality, intensity and occasional vulnerability, and creators Benito Mueller, Wolfgang Mueller, and Barbara Stepansky gave her a lot to do. The show works on a range of levels from revenge story to old-school murder mystery thriller.

The series progresses with remarkable fluidity, supported by a constant bet on the surefire tropes of German TV. Subscription television has allowed German TV to thrive in their expanded themes and this series is luxurious and liberal. An entertaining thriller with the soul of a revenge drama that mixes mystery, drama and violence. Sometimes a murder mystery is just a set-up for a good, old fashioned revenge drama. That's certainly the case for this show. The show has a few logic problems, but its overall vibe is energetic enough, with good performances, to keep viewers' attention. Like a lot of things about the show, this can wear at your patience while you wait to see if your own pet theory turns out to be right. The show may have finally reached the truth regarding Brünhilde's husband's murder, but it does so with a strained story trying to make a larger but not needed conspiracy. The show delivers a tense thriller that, despite its shortcoming, manages to get the viewer to invest in its believable cast of characters as the complex web surrounding a husband’s murder comes to light. While the show was exciting and occasionally even surprising in its first half, the episodes in its back half are dreary and repetitive by comparison. It's realistically grim, but also offers the simple satisfaction of watching smart professionals bring some order to a chaotic world, one case at a time. The show is a tense, psychological thriller series that is sure to satisfy any fan of the genre. If you're looking for the next Lisbeth Salander, you'll have to look elsewhere, as this series focuses on a terror that's much more personal.

Simon says Woman of the Dead (Totenfrau) receives: