When the 2002 film Secretary was released in theaters, viewers were shocked by its workplace B.D.S.M. eroticism. But what was once taboo is now a trope. Netflix’s newest sexual thriller, Vladimir, updates the gender dynamic. The show stars Rachel Weisz as a middle-aged professor who becomes infatuated with Leo Woodall, her younger colleague—so much so that her career and marriage are thrown into jeopardy. “It’s a nod to novels that name themselves after the young woman who the man is obsessed with,” said Julia May Jonas, the show’s creator. “I wanted to flip the script and have it be coming from a woman’s perspective.” The narrative is intentionally unreliable, as it is the obsessive internal dialogue of Weisz’s character that we hear. Vladimir doesn’t shame its characters but instead takes pleasure in their behavior. —Maggie Turner