For the first ever #WebSeriesWednesday I viewed Mermates, a show about a man who gets kicked out by his girlfriend (for watching a season ahead of her in Breaking Bad – big time no no) and ends up moving in with an everted Mermaid (mer-man?)  – human on the outside, fish on the inside.

This six part series is about as fresh as today’s catch at the ocean side fish market. The production absorbs you in its all encompassing seafaring theme – from the olde timey music (Featuring Shirley Temple and Sherman & Nash) to the constant fishy references.  Outside of my initial comparison to the 80’s Tom Hanks film ‘Splash’ this web series swam at me with tons of originality. I think that is the real allure of web based productions – a show like this is unlike anything you will see on tv.

The really clever aspects of the show relate to its ability to look at common human issues through the gills of a mermaid. From relationships, to eating, to traveling, to communicating, or even just breathing – the life of a mermaid is just different. These moments create a lot of the plot lines of the show and lead to a surprising amount of clever jokes.

The banter is the real allure here. I never realized just how much sea themed innuendo was possible – likely because I never even thought to think about it. I am thinking this realization must have been what led to the creation of this series. When the mermaid’s ‘gilfriend’ calls the Roomate a ‘Jacques Cousteau’ – a man who is ‘interested’ in fish – and then a handful of other playful nicknames, I realized the shows’ creators were mining an ocean of untapped seafaring puns.

Cruising in at about 25 minutes over 6 episodes the show lets the joke play about as long as it should. It never drags on too long and it does not get the chance to go stale. From my perspective ‘Mermates’ is about as good of a web series as anyone’s. You can check the show out over on http://mermatestheseries.com/ and I’ve embedded the first episode below.