[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”30885″ img_size=”800×450″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Living With Yourself premiered this weekend on Netflix. Consisting of only eight episodes that were approximately thirty minutes each, it was an incredibly easy show to binge-watch. This series stars Paul Rudd and well…Paul Rudd.
Slight Spoilers
Living With Yourself is about a man who is unhappy with his life. Through the recommendation from a friend, he attends a spa that is supposed to improve his life. What he doesn’t know is what they mean by this is that in order for this to happen, the people at the spa will clone him. Then“dispose” of the original him, so the clone can take his place. The clone has the same memories, same mannerisms, but is improved. More put together and more driven, the cloned version of Paul Rudd is both his wife and his job’s dream man.
The problem? Something goes wrong and the original version of Paul Rudd is still alive and kicking. This makes for two Paul Rudds, one who must deal with the fact that he was almost killed and buried away. The other must deal with the fact that he is just a clone and all his memories didn’t actually happen to him. Now the two must deal with the other and while this is a recipe for some seriously campy comedy, the show does get interesting. Especially when the original Paul Rudd uses his clone as many would – to go to his job instead and pretty much deal with any responsibility the original one may have. This works great, until the original Paul Rudd realizes that his wife and friends adore the clone and it’s not actually him receiving this praise.
So, what worked and what didn’t work with Living With Yourself? Let’s go through the negatives first.
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”30884″ img_size=”970×545″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]
The Cons
There was a slight issue with pacing in this series. Because we have two Paul Rudds, the show felt it necessary to backtrack every episode to show you the events of the previous episode, only through either the clone or the original Paul Rudd’s eyes. There were times where one episode left off on a cliffhanger and I really was desperate to know what happened, but then the next episode had to spend the whole time looking through the previous event through the other version’s lens. I didn’t always feel like this was necessary, especially when an entire episode would be spent on it. I suppose that is really my only complaint with the show, other than some of it appears a little, slightly low-budget.
The Pros
Paul Rudd is brilliant. If you didn’t know that before, well, you should. While Rudd is primarily known for his comedic talents and certainly plays on this in this show, he also has his dark moments. Moments that remind me that along with his role in Mute, Rudd is quite good at playing more serious, “darker” parts than he is given. I’ve heard that Living With Yourself is a person dealing with their own anxiety and I can see that. The way that the original Paul Rudd needs to deal with his downfalls and trying to overcome the failures in his life were really well down. Rudd wants to improve himself for both himself and his wife, but doesn’t know how. He slowly realizes that the road to self-growth is not via a magic process, but rather really dealing with the issues head-on. I really enjoyed that. I also enjoyed the storyline once the two Rudds started not seeing eye to eye and there were some pretty serious, dark moments that I did not expect.
Rating: 4/5
While Living With Yourself may seem a little campy, I assure you that it actually isn’t. This was almost a character study and I believe that only Rudd really could have pulled this off. It’s an incredibly easy and quick watch. If you have time then check out Living With Yourself on Netflix and let me know what you think!
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
