Vladimir premieres March 5 on Netflix.
By Elazar Abrahams
Adapted from Julia May Jonas’ 2022 novel of the same name, Vladimir drops viewers into a liberal arts college ecosystem where everyone is in everyone else’s business, and affairs between faculty flow like wine.
The eight episodes flow cleanly and are sublimely enjoyable, mostly focusing on Rachel Weisz as a middle-aged professor whose life starts to unravel when her husband’s relationships with students come to light, and his flirtations fall under heavy scrutiny. This coincides with the arrival of a much younger colleague, Vladimir, played by Leo Woodall, whom Weisz immediately becomes obsessed with. The show sells the lust and yearning excellently, and you believe the characters’ bad decisions because the all-consuming attraction feels real.
Weisz, especially, loses herself in the role. Woodall is also excellent, and it’s fun watching his career keep taking these interesting turns after his White Lotus breakthrough.
The third MVP, at least for me, is the husband. John Slattery (of Mad Men fame) brings a delicious, messy energy to a role that could have been a one-note punching bag. The show’s broader social web, the faculty gossip, the politics of the department, the way people posture and perform their morality in public while behaving differently in private, is all captured really well here.
I fear two major issues are holding the miniseries back. First: the fourth-wall-breaking narration from Weisz is too frequent and too in-your-face. Assuming this is based on a first-person novel, the urge to keep her inner monologue front and center makes sense. But on screen, it creates a frustrating amount of telling instead of showing. The show is already doing strong character work through performance and atmosphere. When the narration constantly steps in to explain what we can plainly see and feel, it dulls the impact.
Second: the show already feels outdated. Vladimir is grappling with cancel culture, power dynamics, and the post-#MeToo world. The material will never be irrelevant, but in a moment where culture has whiplashed so hard over the last couple of years, it feels like yesterday’s discourse. Incredibly, something from a 2022 book can already feel like a period piece. It’s not necessarily the show’s fault; it’s just the speed of the world right now.
Even with those issues, Vladimir is well worth a watch. It’s propulsive and sexy, but with moments of levity. The two leads are stellar and magnetic. Check it out.
I give Vladimir a B+.
TV and City 