Vladimir review — Rachel Weisz is unswervingly brilliant

Vladimir is a rare visitor to the screen — proper television for proper grownups. The eight-part adaptation of Julia May Jonas’s provocative 2022 debut retains the book’s black comedy, bleak insight and evisceration of accepted pieties, and Jeanie Bergen has absorbed Jonas’s wit and her willingness to dwell in grey areas.

Rachel Weisz gives an unswervingly brilliant performance as the unnamed tenured English professor whose husband, John (John Slattery), has been suspended for sleeping with students. “It was a different time” becomes a recurring refrain from him, from colleagues and from his wife, who has long known about his affairs and describes their setup as “an arrangement – what kids today would call an open marriage, but without all the awful communication.” The professor’s attraction to a younger colleague, Vladimir (Leo Woodall), and his marriage to Cynthia complicate matters further.

vladimir, rachel weisz, jeanie bergen, julia jonas, leo woodall, john slattery, tenured professor, open marriage, black comedy, tv adaptation