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Vladimir, a new Netflix dramedy, has a great cast and an interesting story. But it seems to be in love with storytelling gymnastics that made us so frustrated that it became very hard for us to go beyond the first episode. Read on for more.
VLADIMIR: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: We push in on a house in the woods. A woman is writing while laying on her couch, cozy under a blanket. She turns to the camera and says, “It has recently come to my attention that I may never again have power over another human being.”
The Gist: As she talks to the camera about the perils of being an “older woman,” we see an unconscious man chained up in a chair. When the woman, M (Rachel Weisz), goes out for a smoke, we hear the man waking up and yelling, wondering what’s going on.
“Six Weeks Earlier (A Different Time).” M is shopping to make a “Fuck You Salad” for her 30th faculty retreat at the college where she teaches in the English department. She eyes a handsome young man in one of the aisles and he smiles back at her.
At the retreat, M waits in her car while the faculty inside discuss the fate of her husband John (John Slattery), a fellow professor and the chairman of her department, who has one too many liaisons with students. The two of them have an open marriage, but M is still annoyed at how dumb John has been with keeping these affairs discreet. A discussion about “motorboating” ensues inside, much to the chagrin of David (Matt Walsh), John’s replacement as chair.
M waltzes in with her salad, and she sees Vladimir (Leo Woodall), the sexy man she saw at the supermarket. He is perfectly flirtatious, offering her his chair. He’s the department’s new assistant professor, and as they flirt during the post-meeting mixer, he’s flirtatious again. Then he introduces M to his wife Cynthia (Jessica Henwick), who is also a new teacher there.
At home, things are tense with John, and at school, three of M’s favorite students tell her that she doesn’t have “to do the whole supportive-wife thing.” John doesn’t want M to tell their adult daughter Sid (Ellen Robertson) about the suspension when she comes to visit, but M lets out the news during dinner with Sid and her wife Alexis (Tattiawna Jones), mainly out of frustration over how pompous John is, and how she has to clean up his messes. She kicks John out of the house, and her fantasies about Vladimir start to dominate her thoughts.
Photo: NetflixWhat Shows Will It Remind You Of? Vladimir, created by Julia May Jonas based on her novel of the same name, seems to have shades of Fatal Attraction crossed with college-based comedies like The Chair.
Our Take: The first episode of Vladimir left us extremely frustrated. We know there’s a good story in there somewhere, with Weisz, Woodall, Slattery, and the rest of the cast doing the best they can with the material. But the series is so in love with its stylistic touches that the story gets obliterated by them.
M’s self-aggrandizing narration dominates the first episode, and it sometimes consists of M talking directly to the camera, and sometimes it’s a voice over. We’re not really sure if the method indicates whether M is in fantasy mode or not. But it does seem like M can’t get out of her own head, and doesn’t even want to try.
But like we said, there is a story in there somewhere, about how the “older woman/younger man” dynamic still is considered more taboo than the other way around, and how M has to take all the bullets for John at work despite the fact that he’s the one who messed up. Her push towards Vladimir isn’t just about lust, it’s about M wanting to take back the narrative.
It’s hard to dig that out amongst the fourth-wall breaking monologues and M’s general speechifying, like when her colleague Florence (Miriam Silverman) tells M how anxious her students are after talking to M about John’s suspension. So what we’re left with are a bunch of pompous people who use a lot of words to say very little of interest.
Photo; NetflixPerformance Worth Watching: Rachel Weisz does a fine job of communicating both of M’s sides, feeling like she’s becoming invisible as a middle-aged woman but also knowing that she’s a hell of a catch.
Sex And Skin: We see some of M’s fantasies about Vladimir, but just glimpses.
Parting Shot: Vladimir shows up at M’s door, saying, “Is this still a good time?”
Sleeper Star: John Slattery’s drollness is a perfect fit for the arrogant John, and of course we’ll always like seeing Matt Walsh, who plays the mostly-inept David.
Most Pilot-y Line: We can’t emphasize enough how grating the fourth-wall breaking is, and how inconsistently it’s applied.
Our Call: SKIP IT. As good as Weisz and the cast of Vladimir is, they’re trapped in a story that’s smothered in gimmickry instead of character development.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
English (US)