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Vladimir Arrives on Netflix With Rachel Weisz in an Author-Led Reimagining

Critics highlight an altered finale as the show’s defining choice.

Overview

  • The eight-episode limited series, now streaming on Netflix, adapts Julia May Jonas’ 2022 novel with episodes running around 30 minutes.
  • Rachel Weisz leads as an unnamed English professor opposite Leo Woodall, with John Slattery, Jessica Henwick and Ellen Robertson in key supporting roles.
  • Jonas created and wrote the series based on her book, with Kate Robin serving as showrunner.
  • The story tracks a midlife academic’s fixation on a younger colleague alongside a campus misconduct scandal involving her husband, set at a small liberal-arts college.
  • Stylistically, the show leans on a tightly subjective point of view with frequent fourth-wall breaks, and early reviews praise Weisz’s performance and the provocative tone while noting the finale departs from the novel.