Vladimir on Netflix

[Anonymous]

So I was curious so I went and got the novel, which is actually pretty great. The idea is that she's playing with all the tropes you find in classic literature where the man falls for a younger ingenue. I was the one who said Vlad seemed kind of boring and dull in the movie -- but what you become aware of in the novel is that most of the fantasy takes place in her mind, and just like when you have an older colleague who goes on and on about his brilliant twenty something girlfriend who is wise beyond her years, it's pretty obvious that she's projecting. She seems what she wants to see. Honestly, in the novel she comes a bit more unhinged and stalkerish, going to visit the former girlfriend who works in the bakery, etc, stealing the files. But it's very Nabokovian, which is probably why she named it Vladimir and made him Russian, etc. There are overtones of Lolita and nabokov also slept with his students (taught at Wellesley for awhile) and wrote academic novels about college campuses. The novel is much more explicitly satirical, with the caricature of the politically correct college professor who has an open marriage and gay daughter, etc. etc. etc. Anyway, some of the choices in the TV series made more sense to me once I read the novel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I was curious so I went and got the novel, which is actually pretty great. The idea is that she's playing with all the tropes you find in classic literature where the man falls for a younger ingenue. I was the one who said Vlad seemed kind of boring and dull in the movie -- but what you become aware of in the novel is that most of the fantasy takes place in her mind, and just like when you have an older colleague who goes on and on about his brilliant twenty something girlfriend who is wise beyond her years, it's pretty obvious that she's projecting. She seems what she wants to see. Honestly, in the novel she comes a bit more unhinged and stalkerish, going to visit the former girlfriend who works in the bakery, etc, stealing the files. But it's very Nabokovian, which is probably why she named it Vladimir and made him Russian, etc. There are overtones of Lolita and nabokov also slept with his students (taught at Wellesley for awhile) and wrote academic novels about college campuses. The novel is much more explicitly satirical, with the caricature of the politically correct college professor who has an open marriage and gay daughter, etc. etc. etc. Anyway, some of the choices in the TV series made more sense to me once I read the novel.

I’m only halfway through the series (I’m reading bc I was curious whether to push through to the end - I feel like I can see where this is heading so not worried about spoilers) and I think the show does a pretty clear job of showing the themes and the satire that are in the novel (I haven’t read it, I mean based on your description of it).

[Anonymous]

Apparently the series was filmed in Canada but it's supposed to be set in NY.

[Anonymous]

Only 2 episodes in, but I'm enjoying it. It's quirky, sarcastic and sprightly and has short episodes --which I need after dragging through the John & Carolyn slogfest.

[Anonymous]

Didn’t like the last two episodes and especially the ending. Left a yuck and question mark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t like the last two episodes and especially the ending. Left a yuck and question mark.

I liked the ending a lot. And it's actually not ambiguous at all if you think about the character who - despite being full of silly fantasies - is a very ethical and seriously dependable person when it comes to everything she actually does. Her worst offense was forgetting to write the recommendation, and she confessed to it which many would not have done.

[Anonymous]

The book is ends differently. I always find it’s strange when they change things for tv.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t like the last two episodes and especially the ending. Left a yuck and question mark.

I liked the ending a lot. And it's actually not ambiguous at all if you think about the character who - despite being full of silly fantasies - is a very ethical and seriously dependable person when it comes to everything she actually does. Her worst offense was forgetting to write the recommendation, and she confessed to it which many would not have done.

Hmm. I had a different take than this. We the audience saw everything through the main character’s lens, literally verbally we were walked through the show that way. She sees herself as ethical and dependable- but was she really? I don’t think so, at least not to the level she viewed herself. Consistently most people she interacted with (husband, affair partner, daughter, colleagues) saw her differently than she saw herself. At first I thought she was being gaslighted by her husband, but by the end I thought she has narcissistic tendencies and never views her own culpability in any situation. I liked the show!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t like the last two episodes and especially the ending. Left a yuck and question mark.

I liked the ending a lot. And it's actually not ambiguous at all if you think about the character who - despite being full of silly fantasies - is a very ethical and seriously dependable person when it comes to everything she actually does. Her worst offense was forgetting to write the recommendation, and she confessed to it which many would not have done.

Hmm. I had a different take than this. We the audience saw everything through the main character’s lens, literally verbally we were walked through the show that way. She sees herself as ethical and dependable- but was she really? I don’t think so, at least not to the level she viewed herself. Consistently most people she interacted with (husband, affair partner, daughter, colleagues) saw her differently than she saw herself. At first I thought she was being gaslighted by her husband, but by the end I thought she has narcissistic tendencies and never views her own culpability in any situation. I liked the show!

I saw it totally differently. We see her doing all the domestic chores (not her dh), trying to appease her moody and pretty ungrateful daughter, be blamed when there is fall out from the husband's affairs, affairs she also could have had but did not (just the one grad student who was age appropriate), she was clearly loved as a professor too until the recent dh scandal. I think it's interesting you see it as her having narcissistic tendencies: She's essentially escaping in her head and losing it in a pretty classic "but what about me?" moment many women experience in mid life after decades of serving others' needs.

[Anonymous]

Her drugging Vlad’s drink and then tying him up with zip ties and chains while he was sleeping was wild. I don’t get why she did that at all. She seems psychotic.

[Anonymous]

But don't older men sometimes give a woman a little too much wine in various novels and then we hear how he 'seduced' her and it's supposed to be romantic. He 'whisked her away to Paris'. That weird creepy story from Ballerina Farm where he bought a ticket on the airplane to sit next to her and asked her out and wouldn't take no for an answer.

I think that's what we're supposed to be thinking about -- is this woman a romantic heroine, is this a love story or is she a predator? (She stalks the family and then takes him back to her cabin in a pretty premeditated fashion. If a man did that, would we view this as a romantic seduction? Did you ever watch the TV series "I Love Dick" -- it plays with this same idea, how a man can pursue a woman and kind of lose his mind and we view it as romantic, but when the woman does it we think she's nuts.)

[Anonymous]

I just finished this. Overall it was a weird show and dragged on for me. They could have easily cut out 4 episodes from the middle and not lost much. I kept watching just to see how it ended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t care for it. It was very weird. And Rachel Weisz looks good for 56 but she definitely looks older now. I don’t really see a young hot male like Vlad falling for her. When they finally had sex she acted very strange in the bedroom and made weird facial expressions, almost like she was in pain. It was not sexy at all.

The guy who played Vlad was in White Lotus Season 2. He had a heavy British accent then. I wonder if both Rachel and Vlad were disguising their scdebta for the roles.

This should say accents

Yes, they are both British. They both do an excellent job with their American accents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t like the last two episodes and especially the ending. Left a yuck and question mark.

I saw it totally differently. We see her doing all the domestic chores (not her dh), trying to appease her moody and pretty ungrateful daughter, be blamed when there is fall out from the husband's affairs, affairs she also could have had but did not (just the one grad student who was age appropriate), she was clearly loved as a professor too until the recent dh scandal. I think it's interesting you see it as her having narcissistic tendencies: She's essentially escaping in her head and losing it in a pretty classic "but what about me?" moment many women experience in mid life after decades of serving others' needs.

+100

This is exactly how I felt watching the show.

[Anonymous]

Spoiler from the last two episodes below.


So what was the deal with her husband and Cynthia? She saw them kiss but then it seems we are told there was nothing between them. Does that mean she imagined it as one of her fantasy moments? I didn’t understand