Netflix's sexy 'Vladimir' is the good kind of cringe – review

Kelly Lawler, USA TODAYTue, March 3, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC

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"Vladimir" is designed to unmoor you.

If you're the type who needs to avert their eyes from cringe or appalling actions by messed-up people, Netflix's new erotic thriller and dark comedy "Vladimir" is not for you. It's a deeply uncomfortable and indecent story, packaged in such a discomfiting way to make you squirm in your seat and dive behind the couch from second-hand embarrassment (and other feelings). But if you can stomach the series's many moments of awkwardness and deliberate ignorance of social norms, you'll be rewarded with one of the more gripping, addictive and thoughtful meditations on our politically correct society, plus a bombshell Rachel Weisz performance. What else can you expect from the hot TV show of the week?

Rachel Weisz as The Protagonist and Leo Woodall as Vladimir in "Vladimir.

"Vladimir" (now streaming, ★★★ out of four) is juicy, seductive, compelling and off-putting, and that's all a positive. Set at a modern-day university amid the fraught social politics of the post-Me Too era, "Vladimir" is the best of a recent string of stories set in such circumstances (including Julia Roberts' 2025 film "After the Hunt" and Netflix's own Sandra Oh-starring series "The Chair"). Perhaps the reason the series is so apt is that it doesn't try to provide any answers to the big questions facing our society, workplaces and college campuses. Rather, it happily lampoons the parties involved and uses the uncertainty of the community as an ideally chaotic backdrop for bad characters to do bad things. And it's so irresistibly delicious to watch them be so very bad.

Rachel Weisz as The Protagonist and John Slattery as John in "Vladimir."

Weisz is the series' unparalleled star, and her fourth-wall-breaking nameless protagonist is enigmatic and intriguing. A writer and English professor at a small provincial college, her own career and identity has been superseded by that of her husband John (John Slattery), the department's chair currently suspended pending an investigation into his sexual relationships with multiple students. Weisz's character is unbothered − they have an open marriage and she personally sees no impropriety in teacher/student relations. What she is bothered by — well, hot and bothered—is a new professor at the school, an up-and-coming young author named Vladimir (Leo Woodall, "The White Lotus").

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The protagonist's infatuation with Vladimir and her husband's professional peril grow in tandem over the slow burn season, which takes place over six weeks leading up to a very dramatic event teased in the opening episode. The themes of obsession, betrayal and power are ever present, as are apt literary references to novels like "Lolita" and "Rebecca." Only this time, the gaze is distinctly female.

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Using the magnetism that has served her throughout her career, Weisz is the perfect center around which the show revolves. She's disgusting and alluring in equal measure, a train wreck and a gorgeous luxury car. Her performance is big and loud and lewd, as her character demands. Woodall gives back in equal measure, not quite the innocent, happily-married man he appears to be at the series' start. Boundaries are crossed, but that's only the start of the twist-happy story.

Rachel Weisz as The Protagonist in "Vladimir."

"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 CGI explosions or daring deeds. The tension that keeps you on the edge of your seat are workplace conversations that go just a little too far, spouses who shouldn't be out without their partners, people on the edge of blowing up their entire lives. There is risk built into every conversation and interaction. It could all fall apart at any moment, and the audience can't wait to find out who will fall next.

So don't look away. Stay for the ride.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Vladimir' on Netflix is the good kind of cringe (also sexy) – review

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