‘Vladimir’ Review: Rachel Weisz Goes Full ‘Fleabag’

Netflix’s Vladimir it’s too cheeky for its own good.

The limited series, based on creator Julia May Jonas’ 2022 novel of the same name, combines the steamy story of desire and #MeToo controversy on a small college campus. In theory, it is a hotbed of passion and arguments that are good for speech. Actually, Vladimirpaleness dulls its sharpness.

What Vladimir about?

Rachel Weisz stars as an unnamed creative writing professor at the heart of Vladimir. After 30 years of teaching at the same liberal arts college, he came to a frightening realization: “You’ve lost the ability to draw.” (Weisz, on the other hand, is as attractive as ever.) His students consider him an oddball. Her husband John (John Slattery), who is also a professor, always views other women as part of a liberal marriage arrangement that only benefits him. He is also interrogated about past affairs with students, putting his marriage under the microscope. (As part of the program, VladimirThe main character knew about these pranks, and doesn’t understand how a consensual relationship can go wrong.)

Enter Vladimir Vladinski (Leo Woodall), the hot new English department professor. Young, beautiful, and thoughtful enough to give up her Weisz professorship at a professional meeting, she becomes the object of all his dreams. His marriage to new professor Cynthia (Jessica Henwick) does not stop him from lust. And it doesn’t seem to stop Vladimir from being interested. Soon, VladimirThe lead’s life doubled down as he thought about both the frustration from John’s actions and his new obsession.

Is it VladimirAre fourth wall buildings annoying or enlightening?

Rachel Weisz in “Vladimir.”
Credit: Netflix

Vladimir gives viewers a front row seat to his character’s frenzied inner monologue by having him deliver his thoughts directly to the camera. See, by Phoebe Waller-Bridge Fleabag it doesn’t have the art of breaking the fourth wall, but it’s impossible not to see its influence on the professor’s side. If you’re going to use an almost identical approach to another TV show about a charming, complicated, unnamed woman, you better bring something new to it.

To its credit, Vladimir he tries, but he doesn’t take it away.

Where Fleabag’s fourth wall breaking comes from his ego, the main character’s fourth wall breaking is about self-deception. For the most part, he treats viewers like students who need to be held by the hand. She tells us why her husband’s stories were right, blaming the plight of the victims on their spending too much time on the Internet. He sings his own praises and points out when he makes a pun, making sure we don’t miss a single one of his visual talents.

Of course, viewers can tell that you often lie. Sometimes the camera even gets in on the fun of proving him wrong. In VladimirIn the first episode, he brags that his fellow members ate the “fuck-you salad” he brought to the department meeting. As he leaves, the camera pans down to reveal the salad, untouched. It’s a clever strategy, allowing us to engage the many skeptical students the professor will run into. However Vladimir it rarely returns to it. Instead, as the series progresses, the character’s sides stray from professorial monologues to nervous, mid-range conversations about his conversations with Vladimir. Here, i Fleabag the parallels are strong, and the light tone is oddly irritating against the show’s more intense subject matter.

Vladimir fighting both sex and property.

Rachel Weisz and Leo Woodall in “Vladimir.”
Credit: Netflix

While the difficulty of VladimirFocusing on his character’s serious involvement with his colleagues, the series will also deal with the background of a college sex scandal. Since the show is so focused on his point of view (and since he fails to see the problem with the stories), there is little examination of the victims themselves.

Looking at all aspects of shame is not true Vladimir‘s project, yet this is on the one hand another example of the worst trend of how film and TV present stories of twisted power and the politics of sexuality on college campuses. As in 2025 After the hunt, Vladimir it mainly focuses on how the people close to the accused are affected and how they must learn to adjust their expectations because they came from a “different time.” Even the new HBO comedy Roosterand starting this week, it flirts with this power because of the student relationship it oversees. (It escapes a few letters because the professor has never taught this particular student.) It is troubling to see these stories being used over and over again as lessons for people who are not willing to read. In VladimirOf course, it’s very frustrating to see them packaged with a bunch of fourth wall blinkers and girlboss needle drops.

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A heavy subject aside, like studying a woman’s desire, Vladimir he is strangely asexual. The game finds humor in its lead obsession. The lingering shots of Vladimir’s neck and arms are accompanied by the sound of squinting and heavy breathing, while his panic over the meaning of an emoji transforms him from a professor to a middle school student in an instant. Yet his dreams play out in a strange way: unusual sexual encounters, delivered quickly, in a sequence of vivid dreams.

It’s still hard not to get swept up in Weisz and Woodall’s cat-and-mouse game, especially as the professor makes a series of moves that will get you involved in the life you love. But as a sensual pleasure and a picture of the terrible consequences of alleged sexual misconduct, Vladimir it’s just like the main character’s worst nightmare: It fails to impress.

Vladimir now streaming on Netflix.