New Paul Rudd Netflix Show Turns a 'Rick and Morty' Episode Into a Series

If you’ve ever wanted to get rid of the worst parts of yourself, Netflix has a new TV show for you. Living With Yourself stars America’s sweetheart Paul Rudd as Miles, a man who encounters a spa treatment center that promises to make him a better person. The good news? It works. Immediately after treatment, Miles is noticeably happier. He’s better at his job. He treats his significant other (played by Aisling Bea) with the love and respect she deserves. There’s only one problem, or two problems if we’re speaking technically.

Thanks to whatever happened during that spa treatment there are now two Miles. One is the chipper, upbeat guy who walked out of the spa treatment center. The other is a grouchy, melancholic jerk who crawled out of a shallow grave shortly after the treatment. It seems the folks at the spa managed to somehow separate Miles into two people, one embodying the best in him and the other the worst. It’s a great premise for a series. But it was also a great premise for an episode of Rick and Morty back in 2017.

In the Season 3 episode “Rest and Ricklaxation,” the protagonists encounter a conundrum that more or less predicted the plot Living With Yourself. While decompressing from their constant adventuring at an alien spa, Rick and Morty encounter a machine that alleges it can remove all of the toxicity from a person’s body. Much like Miles, they give it a shot only to find that it created doubles of each of them.

With his toxic anxiety gone, Morty thrives and lives out a Wolf of Wall Street scenario. Meanwhile, detoxed Rick is a total wet blanket. Things really go to hell when the toxic versions of the two characters escape out of the container where they were being held at that alien spa and pursue their better halves, which seems to be where the plot of Living With Yourself begins.

While evil twin narratives are far from a new innovation, it’s still a little hard to not notice the parallels between the two stories. What’s going to be interesting is seeing if Living With Yourself can adequately stretch a premise a cartoon has already handled in under half an hour into an eight-episode television series. At the very least, the cast has two more Paul Rudds going for it than Rick and Morty ever did.

Living With Yourself premieres October 18th on Netflix.