Is MERRIme the best show not on television?
The very cool new Internet comedy MERRIme starts off with a conclusion. In its opening scene, the eponymous main character Merri laments the end of a relationship by tearing into Krispy Kreme and replaying the last voice mail her ex-boyfriend left her over and over again. Twisting the knife that much further, you can hear another woman’s voice at the end of the call.
So what’s a romantically challenged 25-year old rich girl on the verge of an eating disorder to do? Listen to her stepmom’s rabid offer to drink Master Cleanse cocktails? Frown at the maid for taking away her bag of crullers? Or is it to take seriously her father’s bizarre ultimatum that she either get married or find a job, or the trust fund goes bye bye.
The dating comedy web series has inked an exclusive distribution deal with women’s pop culture and dating site TheFrisky.com, owned by Turner Broadcasting. You have to follow them on Twitter. Very cool.
MERRIme.com has penned an exclusive distribution deal with women’s pop culture and dating site TheFrisky.com, a site that we are totally crazy about.
Created by actor-producer Kaily Smith along with David Weidoff, the indie web series was one of the higher caliber originals to be produced independently that we’ve seen lately. Shooting on the RED One camera, Smith teamed up with producer Shelley Stevens and director Sherwin Shilati to pull together the 20-episode series.
The deal with The Frisky was locked after the creators pitched them the completed series, which will be the first original web series on the site. The Turner-owned site does an impressive 1.2M, largely female, global monthly visitors, according to Quantcast, and has been growing steadily since its launch in early 2008.
Kaily is Merrideth Weisman and Tom Arnold is her dad, Mr. Weisman. Although we are not talking about the most original source material and concept for sit-com stuff, what we are seeing here is very good writing and very good performances. And best of all, it leaves television out of the equation as our source. We salute another Internet triumph.
Anyway, plot-wise, Merri takes her father’s demand to heart and posts her profile on every online dating site she can find, hoping that it will land her a boyfriend, thereby fiancé, thereby husband, thereby excuse to get trust fund. It’s a dubious plan of questionable moral value which is why the story works so well in L.A. It also says too much about our slow economy that a girl sees it as easier to use the computer to find a Los Angeles boyfriend than a job. Okay, so it’s perfect for L.A.
