Karla Fazius (Anke Engelke) sings to her husband on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary with a self-invented, cheerful, and a bit naughty song. They cannot enjoy their anniversary for long, because Stephan (Johannes Zeiler) suddenly falls dead on the dining table. Engelke is charismatic and portrays her character energetically and honestly, immediately capturing the viewer’s attention.
Then the grieving process begins and all the paperwork that comes with when someone dies. Karla intended to give the eulogy herself, but when she discovers that her husband has been hiding something for two years, her daughter Judith (Nina Gummich) decides that a funeral orator should take office. Funeral director Andreas Borowski (Thorsten Merten) cannot find anyone and therefore decides to give the funeral oration himself. Of course he ruins it and Karla takes over himself.
The series follows the family how they deal with the loss of their loved one. Unfortunately, the storylines of the son and daughter remain somewhat superficial. In search of a way to fill the financial hole that Stephan has left behind, Karla comes up with the idea to become a burial orator. She doesn’t understand why a funeral should always be a gloomy affair. After obtaining a certificate, she starts working at Borowski, who tries to keep his family business running. ‘I don’t believe in rules. I believe in creativity, honesty, sense, humor. ‘ And that creates a fresh and unconventional wind in the funeral home.
The five episodes that follow are all about grief, love and death, and tell stories of diverse characters. But the series mainly shows the different ways people can deal with death. For example, there is a woman who has to bury her dominant mother who was nice to everyone but her, a man who searches for what his wife who has died of cancer would want for burial, and a man who is about to die and wants to fill in his memorial together with his ex-wife, current husband and daughter.
Although death is often seen as a charged subject, the series shows that it can also be dealt with more lightly, but still lovingly. What The Last Word mainly shows is that there is no wrong – and therefore no right – way of mourning, but that everyone does this in their own way and that that is okay.
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