The logline for the show reads, “As a woman’s (Weisz) life unravels, she becomes obsessed with her captivating new colleague. Full of sexy secrets, dark humor and complex characters, Vladimir is about what happens when a woman goes hell-bent to turn her fantasies into reality.” Sexy secrets, dark humor, and complex characters is a pretty good description of Weisz’s resumé thus far! The Oscar winner hadn’t dabbled much in television before starring in the 2023 reimagining of David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers for Amazon’s Prime Video. So Vladimir will be an opportunity for her to further explore the episodic medium, and to flex her comedic muscles—though it’s “not really any different from doing drama,” Weisz told The A.V. Club in 2009. “When you’re doing comedy, you’re not trying to be funny. I think things are funny when the character is taking it totally seriously. I think when people are winking, it becomes slapstick, it becomes something else,” she said. “If you try to go for a laugh, it’s death to the comedy. Personally, that’s how I approach comedy. But I’m no expert.”
Speaking of comedy experts, writer-performer Horgan will produce through her Merman banner. (She recently signed a first look deal with HBO; between this Netflix show, Bad Sisters on Apple TV+, and Catastrophe streaming on Prime Video, she’s kind of run the gamut for prestige television outlets.) “I fell in love with Julia’s writing from the very first paragraph. I feel very lucky and incredibly excited for Merman to bring Vladimir to life alongside Small Dog,” Horgan said in a statement (via THR). “Getting to partner with Netflix and have Rachel attached is a thrill and testament to the brilliance of the scripts.”
