In the era of Netflix with its mini-series and the release of all episodes at once, I was lucky enough to stumble upon the good old detective procedural “Vienna Blood”, aka “Murder According to Freud”. And you know, I’m an ardent fan of completed mini-stories (the same “Mair of Easttown” was great), but sometimes I’m in the mood to re-watch a random episode of “Criminal Minds” or “The Mentalist”. Just to relax and watch one completed investigation apart from the global plot. And so, as such a replacement for the old proven procedures, I can offer you “Murder According to Freud”.
We are treated to a classic plot where a policeman is forced to work with another specialist (writer, doctor, pathologist, psychic, zombie – insert as appropriate) because of his useful skills, which will become the focus of the series. That is why, despite the rather dark picture and the presence of blood, I will still put this series on a par with more entertaining projects such as “Castle”, “The Mentalist”, “Body Investigation”, “Bones”, etc.n.
The series did not invent anything new: we have police officer Oscar Reinhardt and young doctor Max Liebermann, a follower of Freud, and it is they who will jointly investigate the intricate murders on the streets of Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century. The emphasis in investigations will be on psychology, at some point they will even introduce the concept of a psychological portrait of the killer. And, to be honest, I am far from Freud’s teachings; I cannot say how well the series showed his methods and principles in solving crimes. To me it looked more like profiling to the extent that it was possible, given the time period of the series. However, in parallel with the detective story, we were shown the doctor’s practice, and there we could already observe Freudian hypnosis, dream analysis, and the search for the causes of trauma in childhood memories.
Probably the biggest advantage of this series https://luckytreasurecasino.co.uk/bonus/ is the creative complexity of things, and most likely this is due to the book source, but even if this is so, it was adapted perfectly. It was really interesting to watch the investigation, find out the identity and motive of the criminals. And isn’t that what we expect from a good procedure?? Of course, it is possible to figure out the killer – according to the classics, during the course of the series we will meet minor characters, one of whom will turn out to be the villain. This formula has not been canceled either.
And the creators, perhaps realizing the secondary nature of their format, played their trump cards right away: the plot and denouement of the first episode is a spoiler, the best story of all. I’ll just describe the plot: A girl was found in her apartment, locked from the inside, with a bullet wound and a farewell note. Everything pointed to suicide, but no weapon was found next to her. But if she was killed, then how did the killer enter the closed apartment?? And these are not all the riddles, the rest will appear as the story progresses. Other cases are also quite good and thought out, some I liked more, some less (there are not so many of them, only three in the season, but each episode is an hour and a half long), but I enjoyed watching the two available seasons, and I hope the series will be extended.
The main characters were played quite nicely by actors unknown to me (the series was co-produced in Great Britain and Austria, and the cast was international), they looked good together and complemented each other. What is important is that the policeman did not look useless compared to the doctor, as sometimes happens in this type of project. And the joke with the hat, which carried over from episode to episode, became for me a cute token of this series.
I can’t say anything bad about the supporting characters, they all play convincingly. The only thing that upset me was the replacement of the actress for the role of one important secondary character in the second season. Wild mistcast. Plus, in the background we also have rather clichéd characters such as an envious fellow policeman, an evil boss, greedy politicians, but all of them are shown within the framework of time and look appropriate.
If you are skeptical or, like me, are not fans of detective stories set in past centuries, then I hasten to reassure you a little. Yes, there are no modern technologies, yes, the police do not wear gloves and shoe covers, but the series shows the collection and analysis of evidence, the use of archives and, as I already mentioned, attempts to compile a psychological portrait of the killers. I don’t presume to judge how historically accurate this is, but it was interesting to watch the investigations.
Conclusion: I recommend watching the series if you want a classic “one episode, one case” detective story, but everything has already been reviewed.