BY KATIE PECORA ’22
These past couple of years, Netflix has been coming out with many new and different original series that have shocked our culture, like “Stranger Things,” “Orange is the New Black” and “Dear White People.” This past October, Netflix released another new series called “Living With Yourself” written by Timothy Greenburg.
The series follows Miles Elliot (Paul Rudd), an aspiring writer who settles into a job at a marketing firm. Elliot has a wife named Kate (Aisling Bea), whom he loves very much.
Through the direction of his friend from work, he visits a spa called “Top Happy Spa” in hopes that the treatment will bring up his mood. Luckily it does, and Miles goes home with a new zest for life.
That same night, he gets woken up by, well, himself. This is when he discovers the spa had cloned him, changed his DNA to perfect his features and attitudes and tried to kill the old Miles. The rest of the series navigates how the two Miles can coexist, but of course there are conflicts.
When I first saw the trailer for this show, I was beyond excited. I’ve been a fan of Paul Rudd since seeing him in “Friends,” so having a show with twice the screentime for Rudd was intriguing. Once the show was released, I immediately stopped doing my homework and binged all eight episodes in one day.
The show was very different from what I expected.
The sci-fi element was extremely minimal, only barely touching upon the cloning process, which I personally liked. It felt like a “Black Mirror” episode, just extended over hours of content. The major theme of the show was the psychology of the situation, both in the old and new Miles’ minds. Old Miles had a hard time watching everyone love the better version of himself and the clone had to deal with having emotions and memories that he himself never created.
From a creative standpoint, the episodes were unlike anything I have ever seen. The show played with the usual character arc by going back and forth between the episodes; sometimes the two Miles hated each other, then appreciated each other, or sometimes only one would have issues with the other. This made the show extremely engaging and kept me on my toes for what was going to happen.
By the end of the first season, I still have no idea of the direction they could take with the next season. The acting from both Rudd and Bea is incredible work, especially with all of the deeply emotional scenes. I had never seen Rudd have so much depth and this show truly shows off his acting skills.
This is not a show that you can just put on in the background while you scroll through Instagram or do homework. I promise you’ll be staring at that screen until it’s over.