Bedtime. It’s the one part of the day when we get a chance to relax, recharge and refocus before a new day begins. For a longtime married couple who’ve been struggling with the daily problems of life during the day, bedtime may be the most stressful part of their daily lives.

Created, written and produced by Steve Serpas, executive produced by Mark B. Goff, and directed by Darin Anthony, the romantic comedy/drama (or “dramedy”) series BEFORE WE GO TO SLEEP debuted in January 2013, and is now streaming its eight episode first season on its official web site and Youtube page.

BEFORE WE GO TO SLEEP follows the story of Greta (Elizabeth Greer, RAY DONOVAN, THE SPHERE AND THE LABYRINTH) and Phil (Rob Nagle, NEW YEAR’S EVE, DAWSON’S CREEK, LIFE AS WE KNOW IT).

For 10 years, Greta and Phil have endured the many ups and downs of married life in California’s San Fernando Valley. Parents to their young 6 year old daughter Thea, they seemed to have a charmed life. Unfortunately, times for both have changed. Phil’s been laid off from his job, and feels a tremendous amount of uncertainty towards his future.

Meanwhile, Greta, a former sales exec, becomes increasingly reliant on sleeping pills as she tries desperately to keep her husband’s spirits up, as well as her own. For Greta and Phil, the challenge of keeping their marriage alive becomes more and more complicated as the show’s 8 episode first season progresses.

Filmed in two weekends in only two locations – a bedroom, of course, and then an outdoor location for a key fantasy sequence that occurs later in the series, Serpas’ goal for BEFORE WE GO TO SLEEP was to create a web series that’s geared toward fans of intimate, character based drama, while tailoring each episode towards viewers who are on the go and who may not have a lot of time to devote to a half hour or hour long series.

“(I) wanted to develop a web show that played into the hands of mobile users.  Something that was intimate and scalable to the single small-screen viewer. So the notion of a married couple working out their problems in bed each night was the starting point. Then, (I) planned a season arc and ending up writing 8 episodes that were very short glimpses into the characters’ lives.”

Serpas feels that the intimate atmosphere and compact storytelling approach found in every episode of BEFORE WE GO TO SLEEP is perhaps the biggest thing that makes it unique among other web series.

“…We always feel that what sets us apart is that the episodes are intentionally short. No episode is over 3 minutes. Each has a full story, but they’re all intended to be a glimpse…we didn’t run out of money or locations. The intimacy and the sort of claustrophobia is what we were going after.”

After working with Nagle and Greer to fine tune their performances and the scripts during pre-production, Serpas and his team, led by director Darin Anthony, began work on production. As he explains, though, it took some time to fully develop the show’s concept, and also to explore the potential and possibilities provided by it.

“We shot the whole show in two weekends. Yet, those weeks were six months apart, August and February. In the August shoot, we wanted to see how it all felt and if we had a show, to see if our concept held up. We were able to edit a few episodes from that first weekend, and then we did more rewrites and moving scenes around. We prepped the second shoot, and actually shot 5 of 6 episodes in February. When you’re working this fast preparation is key. We had such a great team, and we were able to shoot 3 episodes a day,” Serpas recalls.

Serpas and his talented cast hope to bring greater awareness of, and viewership to, BEFORE WE GO TO SLEEP, which also screened at last year’s 2013 L.A. WebFest and the 2013 New Media Film Festival.

Those festival screenings, as well as the funding needed to get the series there, were made possible due to the hard work of the show’s EP, Mark B. Goff. Yet, Serpas says, that’s not the only goal he and his team seek to achieve. “We have a season two planned, and are looking to expand the format a bit.”

Through its simple, yet highly personal approach to its storytelling, as well as the great performances of Nagle and Greer, BEFORE WE GO TO SLEEP is a series that shows viewers just how much married life, as well as life in general, can become even more complicated once the lights go out.

As Serpas describes it, that drama will hit close to home for many viewers. “The show plays with the idea of everything being discussed in our lives at night. Nocturnal emotional truths being played out at bed time. Our national anxiety unfolds and tests us right before we go to sleep. Who hasn’t had that experience?”

(Note: Regarding closed-captioning, Serpas says: “We are looking into closed-captioning it, and will hopefully have it done by January 2015.”)

ON THE WEB: www.beforewegotosleep.com (redirects to its Blip.tv page)

YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/Before2Sleep?feature=watch

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beforewegotosleep

Twitter: @Before2Sleep

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2411252/

Episode 1 of BEFORE WE GO TO SLEEP can be viewed below: