I always want to just write “watch this” or “don’t watch this” every single time I sit down to write a review. I don’t know how to convince you to do anything. Honestly, I’m not here to convince you of anything. I am just here because, personally, I like to talk about things, good or bad, and I like having discussions. With that being said, Netflix’s Living With Yourself starring Paul Rudd (Parks and Rec, Ant-Man, Endgame)… watch this.
Alright, the real pitch, remember all those really dark times where you just wish you could be split into two or more to live out all of your dreams, goals, and fantasies because there is more than just one of you? Well, throw Paul Rudd into the mix and throw the words “accidentally involuntarily” in there and you got yourself a show that I will urgently say, “watch this.” I will go over a brief overview of season 1, my thoughts about season 1, and where season two could go in the future.
Spoilers for Living With Yourself season one from here on out
Like the relatable question above suggests, this show is about Miles Elliot (Rudd) dealing with extreme depression and a falling apart marriage all seemingly caused by Miles’ fear that he may not be fertile. Miles is afraid to get tested for fertility and allows 1837 days (I scrolled through each episode until I found the exact number, though my original guess of 1835 wasn’t very off whatsoever) to roll by causing a rift between him and his wife Kate Elliot played by Aisling Bea (actress, comedian, producer). This leads Miles to undergo a “spa treatment” recommended by a colleague of his who was depressed for his own reasons and was recommended the spa himself. It is only when Miles wakes up in a grave and goes home to find that he had been cloned and was attempted to be murdered and disposed. The spa in question is actually a front for a secret, independently run cloning site run by two (maybe more) asians who recruit depressed husbands primarily in an attempt to 1) get their money, and 2) apply their cloning research that has been proven unethical and illegal, hence why these two are doing it in secret by cloning the client by boosting the better qualities and getting rid of the bad ones like depressions, fear, etc. and killing the original body without anyone’s knowledge, therefore, the clone believes he is just himself but feeling better after hours at a $50k spa (yup). Old and New Miles (as they are referred to by both Miles and Kate) throughout the season must learn to deal with, well, living with yourself! It is no longer a “living with your twin” situation… it is quite literally living with your second copy… whilst also living with your wife… while you’re the original and incredibly depressed and your clone is you but literally better in almost every way. The season ends with Old and New Miles reconciling with each other because neither can bring themselves to kill the other with Kate coming in saying she’s pregnant, however, because she had an affair with New Miles (remember, Old Miles is the depresso one who does learn throughout the season and New Miles is the clone), while also having slept with Old Miles, so, it is almost impossible to say who is the father… or is it…? The final line of the season is Old Miles accepting the new status quo and New Miles into his marriage (I queso? [guess so]) by saying, “We’re having a baby!” to both New Miles and Kate with the three of them hugging it out.
Obviously, the spa is supposed to have a bigger hand within the series as a whole, I would imagine, as we don’t know at all how any of this works, why it works, and what the long-term repercussions are. After all, cigarettes were advertised as harmless” and “healthy” way back when they came out because of no long-term testing, so, I would love to see what the long-term effects are on the clones. Surely, this isn’t foolproof. The spa took out certain qualities in New Miles that made him seem almost not-human. It was sometimes jarring to see New Miles lack that like missing 2% that it requires to be human. It was like dipping so far into the uncanny valley that… it almost seemed fine, but it didn’t, which is the point. New Miles is supposed to be better in every way, yes, but eventually, he just lacks the faults that make a human, well, a human. He lacks understanding, empathy, and care for others other than himself. He is doing these things because it makes him feel good, therefore, it should make others feel good, right? Wrong. Those “others” eventually start to be harmed by New Miles’ way of living and it begins to frighten everyone, including Kate. However, the dynamic that New Miles and Kate had was SACRY electric. During the day, New Miles is doing the heavy lifting doing damage control over the last 1840+ days at his job, with his wife and friends, while Old Miles is at home writing his play and taking over in the bedroom at night. To see that realization on New Miles face that 1) he is definitely in love with Kate (how could he not? He’s a clone of Old Miles and has all the same feelings and memories) and 2) New Miles is doing all the work and getting no pleasure or reward. As you can see, this show brings up issues that you wouldn’t think about in a “living with yourself (your clone)” situation, such as when New Miles confronts Old Miles about wanting to spend a night with Kate because he only has the memories.. but never had the experience, technically; or question “who is the real father and how can we tell?” This show gives you more scenarios, but I rather not give them all here so you can still go watch this show now. I genuinely thought this show was well-done. It could have been better in certain areas, sure, but these weird, conceptual shows like this usually are weird enough to excuse whatever thing that may be concerned “bad” normally, whereas, in these Netflix conceptual sitcoms, it is well-done.
Oh, by the way… the show – AS PER CLASSIC NETFLIX – introduces – seriously, Santa Clarita Diet, Sick Note, this show, they ALL have them – FDA agents hunting down clones and cloning sites because these agents believe in cloning, but everyone else doesn’t and they want to be validated and take down the operations. It was a little left field, in all legitimacy (they almost always are, when they are revealed to the story… I understand why. Like this isn’t supposed to feel globalized. These stories are supposed to feel and be centralized and specific, therefore, focusing on a giant organization bent on razing hell or the opposite, may not be the direction to go in, but the way these characters get out sometimes is a bit on the nose for me). Side note over.
Finally, will there be a season two of Living With Yourself? Maybe? Netflix has said nothing about whether or not they will renew the show for a second season. It debuted in 2019, as did Dollface and other shows, and like Dollface and many other shows, production froze as the Pandemic hit and everything had to be shut down. Currently, IMDB, Wikipedia pages, articles, and other sites that are home for entertainment information all have Living With Yourself as “2019-current,” so if that’s not a tiny ray of hope, I don’t know what is. Nonetheless, we can still theorize and have a good time in our own headcanons!
So, where will the show go from here? Well, the season ended, as aforementioned, with Kate telling both Miles that she is “pregananant” and there might be no way to tell who the father is. Au contraire mon ami! You see, the cloning spa people only took out and/or lessened the traits in Miles that were negative to his present way of living. These traits, I’m guessing, will also be missing in the Elliot baby, if the baby is New Miles. If the baby is Old Miles, these traits will not exist. Yeah, but these are just traits. Without getting too sciency, traits are also part of the DNA – simplistic answer; not cuz technicalities and tiny details – SCIENCE! Let’s move on… the way to test is to go back to the cloning site where they can see exactly which DNA is present, and so on. I think the spa could then help determine whose baby it is. It is up to the writers to determine where to go. It’s scary because we just dealt with Old and New Miles not getting along or not being able to share properly. Kate even tells New Miles that he is simply not Miles – he’s a copy and, well, kind of a different person entirely; she’s chosen Old Miles, yet, the dilemma is whose child is she carrying? In the scenario that the baby is New Miles’ that would recreate the exact conflict from the first season. “How do you share something that technically belongs to yourself… both?” That would be boring as sequels and second seasons typically relive the exact same conflict in a not-new-enough way. Second acts should never repeat the same conflict as from the first act. You revisit that in the Dark Knight of the Soul, perhaps. Even then, you don’t want to repeat the same conflicts again because you’re telling the same story, i.e. A New Hope vs the Force Awakens, Iron Man vs Iron Man 2, Venom vs Venom: Let There Be Carnage. So, my vote is the baby by Od Miles baby. We already know that Old Miles has nothing wrong with him, so their not being able to have a baby suddenly flipped the whole story on its head showing that Kate was the one to cause all this by making Miles feel bad for not going to get tested; it could’ve been her. Turns out, nope. It was just bad luck. Or was it…? Honestly, I have no idea There are a lot of ways this show could go, but, personally, I would like the baby to be Miles’ baby, but with a twist that I don’t know. I just know that they could use the spa (who are gone, by the way, I think? Anyone correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t remember very well, presently) to determine whose baby it is, and maybe the FDA people are now after the baby, as well.
Created by Timothy Greenberg and starring Paul Rudd and Aisling Bea, Living With Yourself is a brilliant ride with a lot of thought-provoking questions it brings to its audience. Hopefully, we will hear good news of a second season coming soon to Netflix. For now, you can watch Living With Yourself on Netflix. Living With Yourself gets an 8.5/10 for me.
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