Vladimir review Rachel Weisz is unswervingly brilliant in a TV show you'll admire for years to come

"Weisz's character has always known about John's affairs. They have always had, as she puts it, an arrangement – what kids today would call an open marriage, but without all the awful communication. Which is a line so great you may wish to set it aside as a treasure to be admired for years to come, for its infinite accrued wisdom and compression of an entire generational divide from the mouth of a character accustomed to privileging intellect over emotion."

"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. The screenwriter, Jeanie Bergen, who has obviously absorbed the book into her very bones, retains all of Jonas's wit, confidence and, crucially, her willingness to dwell in grey areas and luxuriate in the complexities that govern life in middle age."

Vladimir is an eight-part television adaptation of Julia May Jonas's 2022 debut novel that successfully translates the book's dark comedy, bleak insights, and moral ambiguity to screen. Screenwriter Jeanie Bergen retains Jonas's wit and willingness to explore the complexities of middle age. Rachel Weisz delivers an exceptional performance as an unnamed tenured English professor whose husband, John, has been suspended for affairs with students. The couple maintains an open arrangement, though without explicit communication. Weisz's character finds herself unprepared for unexpected desire when she develops feelings for Vladimir, a younger colleague. The narrative explores generational attitudes toward infidelity and the phrase "it was a different time" as a recurring defense mechanism among the faculty and peer group.

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