Marianne Bayard and Jonathan Kaplan are the titular figures in the web series Mares & Kaps. Mares (Marianne Bayard) is a grief counselor at a funeral home. When tending to the loss of a recently deceased actor’s parents, Mares is inspired to pursue her childhood dream of fame and fortune as an actor in the star-studded town of Glitzburg.
Knowing she can’t make it on her own, she accosts her friend Kaps (Jonathan Kaplan) at his work cubicle and convinces him to quit his job and move to Glitzburg with Mares for moral support. You know what that means… road trip!
“…to pursue her childhood dream of fame and fortune as an actor in the star-studded town of Glitzburg.”
Mares & Kaps is meant to be the pilot episode of a web series. Running for almost eight minutes, it does an excellent job of quickly defining Mares and Kaps’ characters. Mares is a narcissist—everything is about her. Kaps is her endearing and ever-loyal companion. Bayard and Kaplan have insightful command of their roles and how they relate to one another. It shouldn’t surprise you that these two have been producing comedy sketches together for quite some time now as they clearly have chemistry.
The short pilot episode will induce smiles and a few laughs, but honestly, the story goes by too quickly to judge it fairly. The titular characters in Mares & Kaps are silly people living in a very serious world in the same way The Three Stooges related to their surroundings. I’m definitely in for a few more episodes to see where the duo’s journey is headed.
"…silly people living in a very serious world in the same way The Three Stooges related to their surroundings."
