When Netflix first dropped a teaser of their new Rachel Weisz and Leo Woodall drama, fans were left scratching their heads over whether the show was about…Vladimir Putin.
It makes sense, since the show is titled Vladimir. But since the streamer used some rather suggestive (read: raunchy) imagery to promote the new eight-parter, it did raise the question of how the two elements would marry.
But, fear not fans! It isn’t about Vladimir Putin, just a regular married professor called Vladimir (Leo Woodall), who’s in possession of buckets of charm.
In this world of academia, he starts to grow close to an older English professor, played by Weisz and mysteriously named M, who’s going through something of a midlife crisis in her liberal arts college town.
She’s in an open relationship with her, also academic, husband John, played by another John, of Slattery denomination. His extramarital exploits have left his career in jeopardy.
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If you can believe it, Weisz’s M has been left questioning her own wily ways, wondering if she will ever again be ‘the cause of a spontaneous erection’.
Vladimir seems like he might be the answer to all her woes, and thus M develops an obsession with her younger colleague.
Adapted from the Julia May Jonas novel of the same name, the new Netflix erotic offering is narrated by Weisz, taking us inside M’s twisting inner monologue, where it’s no longer wholly clear what’s fact and what is her personal fiction.
The streamer has dropped all of the snappy episodes in one go, running to around 30 minutes each and often leaning into the humour (this may come as a surprise to viewers, since it wasn’t quite marketed as such).
Metro's take on Vladimir
Read Senior TV Reporter Asyia Iftikhar’s three-star review here
Once you suspend your disbelief that someone of Weisz’s beauty and grace could possibly be overlooked, the show takes you on several unexpected twists and turns.
For those hoping to enjoy a kinky, envelope-pushing exploration of female desire, I think you’ll be disappointed.
Ultimately, Vladimir takes you on a tumultuous ride that doesn’t exactly do what it says on the tin and with just enough steaminess to keep your heart racing, the show might take you by pleasant surprise.
The show was filmed last summer in Toronto and Weisz has spoken about how she balanced the role alongside her family life with Daniel Craig.
She told the Los Angeles Times of M: ‘I deeply empathise with her and understand her. But I left her when I got home. She’s like a projection of what a viewer might want to live out.’
She added of her character: ‘People are contradictory. They can be brilliant at their jobs and have a very messy personal life.
‘I know it’s very heightened and ridiculous, and it is in the genre of comedy, but it’s very true. Humans can have these massive contradictions.’
The show has been billed as a ‘dangerously sexy’ drama by the Guardian and the publication’s five-star review praised Weisz’s performance in particular.
Does Vladimir sound like one for you?
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Definitely
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Not my cup of tea
Vladimir is available to stream on Netflix.
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