The Buzz: 'Living With Yourself' Lives Up To Expectations
Sometimes, the “best you you can be” is not the best for you. Netflix’s comedic drama, Living With Yourself, developed by Timothy Greenburg, answers the question of what would you do if you had a clone. Evidently, the answer is to suffer. Released in October 2019, the series features Marvel actor, Paul Rudd, as both the characters of Miles Elliot and his clone, simply referred to as “New Miles”. Living With Yourself also stars the comedian Aisling Bea as Miles’ wife, Kate, and former Arrested Development actress, Alia Shawkat, as Miles’ half-sister, Maia.
The concept of cloning is not new to mass media, and yet, Living With Yourself, handles the trope with an alarming freshness. The plotline doesn’t feel cliché or bogged down, possibly in part due to the normalcy of the main character Miles. Miles is best described as underwhelming. He’s nearing – if not already – in the autumn years of his life and feels unfulfilled in near every aspect of his life. At work, he’s the dead weight; as a husband, he’s unromantic and distant, and his struggles with Kate to become parents play a pivotal role throughout the series. At the recommendation of coworker, Miles visits a spa, Top Happy Spa, which “makes you feel like a new man”. The spa costs him thousands of dollars and, after being sedated, he wakes up buried alive in the forest. When he stumbles his way back home, he finds an identical clone of himself waiting at his house. Well, nearly identical. New Miles, his clone, is better at him in everything. Personality, outlook on life, ability to please his wife and work, etc. The only physical difference is in how they style their hair as well as a scar from a previous surgery that New Miles is missing.
One of the most thrilling parts of the series is in the absence of action. Miles is a man from the suburbs; there will not be a lot of excitement in his life and the show is aware of this. Instead, there is the constant undertone or threat of danger between Miles and New Miles. As the series progresses, the foreshadowing of some climatic event – be it murder or kidnapping – becomes much more tangible.
Living With Yourself opens in confusion with Miles crawls out of the ground in a diaper. This is appropriate given how Miles’ default state tends to be confused or surprised at the events of his life. Repetition is a common motif of the series. Each episode switches in perspective between Miles and New Miles, once even Kate, and allows for the viewers to see the same events through the eyes of different characters. From there, the direct aftermath of the repetitive action is seen. For example, what happens after New Miles disappears for a week is shown in two episodes, one featuring Miles struggling with his work, and the other focusing on New Miles’ relationship with Kate. Oddly enough, this doesn’t hurt the narrative at all. On the contrary, it helps flesh out characters and show their motivations instead of simply tell, a wonderful example of “show not tell”.
As with most Netflix shows, the soundtrack is pleasantly enjoyable. The music is often used to heighten tension or juxtapose Miles with New Miles. Its duration is often interrupted by a sudden silence or another overpowering noise that then helps further the plot along. Each episode, apart from the finale, is under thirty minutes. It’s a quick paced show, but enjoyable. The banality of suburban life and expectation is comedically captured.
There are a few plot holes that are left ambiguously open, most notably, Top Happy Spa. The process of cloning is never fully explained and it’s implied that one of the workers has a personal motive in it as well. Initially the spa feels like a racial stereotype, but it’s later revealed that the workers are intentionally catering to their Caucasian customer expectations. Whether this discovery is enough to subvert the original stereotype is up to the viewer to decide. As for other loose ends, there is still the issue of the dead bodies in the forest. Miles woke up buried alive because there was a complication during his cloning, but the others weren’t so lucky. Already, one character has witnessed the forest graveyard, but nothing came out of it. It will be interesting to see what comes of this and disappointing if it ends up nowhere. Whether these will be handled in future seasons will be determined.
Living With Yourself balances between comedy and drama with relative ease. It’s never outright stated, but Miles is implied to have depression and more overtly, self-esteem issues. This brings him into conflict with New Miles who appears to have it all. While not as raunchy or dramatic as other Netflix originals, Living With Yourself is definitely on its way to be