Critic Reviews

The eight-part adaptation of Julia May Jonas’s provocative 2022 debut novel of the same name has not shied away from the properties that made the book great – black comedy, bleak insight, evisceration of accepted pieties – and fitted them perfectly to the new form.

Vladimir is a masterfully complex and devious adaptation anchored by an award-worthy leading performance by Rachel Weisz.

Vladimir may not be an obsessive page-turner, but it’s still definitely a book worth reading.

The style of the series takes a bit of getting used to – it’s fourth-wall breaking, with Weisz addressing the camera throughout and speaking in sometimes quite stilted, stagey language. But before long you fall into the rhythm of it. Think of it as Fleabag for 50-somethings.

It’s such fun. Awash with academic ego and sexual brinkmanship, it leans into the main character’s obsessiveness and makes us almost complicit in ways that feel naughty, grown-up and sophisticated — quite rare for a Netflix show these days but hugely welcome.

An antiheroine as sharply funny as she is willfully blinkered and as oddly compelling as she is repellent, she has a voice that defines Julia May Jonas’ adaptation of her own novel — elevating it into something knottier than the feminist cancel-culture treatise might appear at first glance, and all the more insightful for it.

It’s the superior of the two shows, in large part because of Weisz’s performance, which seduces the viewer with sensuality and humor, only to shock us with unhinged behavior. But what gives it the thematic resonance Rooster never reaches for is Jonas’ psychological insight into a place steeped in art and ideas that still gets bogged down in bureaucracy and appearances.

Sometimes, Vladimir finds the right balance, while at many others, it feels as lost in the weeds as its main character. Weisz is having a ball playing this dangerous mix of cockiness and cluelessness, but Vladimir as a whole never quite coheres.

"Vladimir" is the kind of TV show that starts at an eight and only revs up from there, fast-paced and heart-racing without any computer-generated imagery explosions or daring deeds.

“Vladimir” works because it is indeed funny and sexy but also because it has fully developed, complicated characters — the too-smart-for-their-own-good sort that are having a hell of a time sorting out their lives.