Vladimir is a subversive eight-episode series about a middle-aged professor (Rachel Weisz) who becomes infatuated with a younger colleague (Leo Woodall). “It’s like a lofty fairy tale,” said Wise, who also serves as the series’ executive producer.
No matter how mischievous or rambling her fantasies may be, they unfold on screen as she cooks dinner or absentmindedly at a faculty meeting, providing a euphoric escape from her boring reality. “This show explores what women feel they’re allowed to want and how they’re allowed to want it,” said Julia Mae Jonas, who will direct the show, which is based on a 2022 novel. The main character’s unrequited love is contagious, and the eight-episode story of her unrequited love draws you in like a torrent.
When she meets the unnamed protagonist, she feels out of place. Her writing career has stagnated, and each semester fewer people enroll in her once-legendary capstone course. Even her only daughter Sid (Ellen Robertson) keeps her at arm’s length. Jonas says, “She’s relatable because of her anxiety about growing older and the fear that as she grows into an older woman, she’ll be asked to have less, take up less space, and serve more.”
She no longer feels sexual desire, which deprives her of the agency and power she once so skillfully and often wielded. Her marriage to fellow professor John (John Slattery) is also on the decline, although they have had an open relationship for years. She also just learned that the liberal arts college where she has taught contemporary fiction for decades has filed a sexual assault lawsuit against John. “This series explores themes related to desire, obsession, sexuality, and lust. It also delves into the world of campus gender politics and cancel culture,” Wise says. His dalliance, which he believed occurred 10 years ago and was consensual, involved a student.
Against this backdrop, the protagonist becomes embroiled in an intense, unrequited love for Vladimir (Leo Woodall), a young writer of note who has joined the faculty with his mysterious wife, Cynthia (Jessica Henwick). The protagonist quickly falls down a rabbit hole of obsession. “There’s definitely comedy and drama. It’s mischievous, and it’s a perfect tonal cocktail to explore some very serious subjects and issues,” Wise says. “Her fantasy is about the power of desire. The exhilarating, exciting, inspired, reanimating feeling she gets from her obsession with Vlad. What it’s about is that something that has been dormant for a period of time (after telling a lie) comes to life in a way.”
You have direct access to what the character is thinking and what she wants you to think. What she wants you to think is a little far from the complete truth.
Rachel Weisz
Vladimir also revives the protagonist’s former self. “It’s the feeling of being filled with creative energy because you have a desire or an attachment to someone. Many people have felt that kind of release, how pleasurable it is to want something,” says Jonas. “Her mind is raging. She hadn’t written in 15 years, and he broke her writer’s block.”
“He’s interested in her writing career. He asks her questions that other people wouldn’t ask her,” Wise added. “Of course it helps that he’s stunningly handsome and beautiful. But it’s really his personality. His kindness and the fact that he notices her. She feels seen.”
The series’ title embodies Vladimir’s playful flipping of the script. “This is an homage to the novels named after young women that men are obsessed with,” says Jonas. “This is a subject of stereotypes that we’re going to talk about. I wanted to flip the script and talk about it from a female perspective.”
To capture the unique tone of the book’s narrator, Wise speaks directly to the camera, giving him access to his protagonist’s innermost thoughts. However, this mode often reveals what she is not saying, or the tension between perception and reality that has been clouded by her fantasies. Wise says, “You have direct access to what the character is thinking and what she wants you to think. What she wants you to think is a little bit far from the complete truth.”
“In Shakespeare, if there’s a digression, it’s a character telling the truth,” Jonas adds. “We thought, what if we flipped this on its head? It’s about self-presentation.” Wise added, “The main character is believable in the sense that she wants to be in control of her own story. The story she tells isn’t necessarily accurate, but it seems like a very human quality to adjust the truth to suit the audience when things get out of control.”
Was it flirting? Was it the familiarity? Am I making this up? Is it true? Am I crazy? That’s for everyone in the audience to interpret.
leo woodall
This is especially true when it concerns Vladimir, the nominal object of her affection. “The show is told through the main character’s perspective, so what you see about Vlad is open to a lot of interpretation,” Woodall says. “There are many moments when I wonder about the intent of that touch or that lingering look. ‘Was it cheating? Was it friendship? Was this a hoax? Is it real?’ Am I crazy?’ It’s up to the whole audience to interpret that.” Jonas added, “What makes the whole dynamic so funny is that she doesn’t really know, and hopefully the audience doesn’t really know, either.”
Christos Kaloholidis/Netflix
The protagonist’s unraveling, from her sexual awakening to her husband’s impending trial, is heightened by the oppressive campus environment. “It’s set in this wonderful world of academia,” says Jonas. “I know fall romance: walking around, books in hand, and all the fresh faces. They’re all obsessed with the subject matter and the ridiculousness of the details. The politics all feel huge in this bubble, but it’s such a bubble.”
Guided by this slippery, enigmatic narrator, Vladimir offers an antihero to root for, a sophisticated depiction of what it feels like to grow old as a woman, and a winking sense of mischief and sexiness. “The stories we tell ourselves in our heads are much better and more exciting than the stories that exist in real life, especially when we’re so obsessive about it,” says Jonas. “It’s all about emotion, not the actual reality of the situation.”
Fall down the obsession rabbit hole yourself when Vladimir hits Netflix on March 5th. In the meantime, read the show’s syllabus on Tudum.
