Optics is a new comedy series from the ABC created by the team behind The Chaser. It’s set in the world of public relations where up and coming millennials Greta Goldman and the unfortunately named Nicole Kidman find their ambitions realised and they’re suddenly put in charge of the entire firm of Fritz and Randall.
Comedy duo Vic Zerbst and Jenna Owen, who play Goldman and Kidman respectively, have previously appeared together in the feature film Nugget is Dead: A Christmas Story and began working together during their days at the University of Sydney. They made a big splash during the covid pandemic as the Contact Tracys.
The rest of the cast is rounded out by Carles Firth playing the annoying Ian Randell, who thought he was in line to become the next CEO given his late father was one of the firm’s founders. He’s followed around by a sycophantic assistant Cody played by Bali Padda, while Belinda Giblin plays the firms long serving receptionist Merridith.
Standing at arms-length is owner of the firm Bobby Bahl, played by Claude Jabbour, and his bodyguard Dod, played by Aaron Collins. Amusingly Dod never ever leaves Booby’s side.
The real stars of this show though are the guest stars who get to play a wide range of characters in need of crisis management assistance. To save the succession of psychotic and clueless clients who need their help Greta and Nicole are going to need to come up with some very creative solutions.
Kate Walsh stars as a company CEO accused of bullying, Will McNeill is brilliant as clueless footballer Bundy Gribbons, Rhys Muldoon, Mandy McElhinney, Josh Helman, Nakkiah Lui, Stephen Hunter, Virginie
Laverdure And Nash Edgerton also make appearances in future epsiodes.
It takes a few episodes to get into the characters and relationships, but they grow on you, and it’s a cutting take down of the PR and marketing industry with all its jargon, smoke and mirrors.
Optics starts 8.30pm on Wednesday 29th January on ABCTV with the while series available iView.
‘An Update on Our Family’ will leave you scratching your head and questioning the effects of social media
Just arrived on Foxtel / Binge is the first episode of three-part series An Update from Our Family which delves into the world of families who document their lives for consumption on YouTube and other social media platforms.
We meet people who take their daily lives and those of their children and turn them into content. We meet the people who watch their daily videos to the point where they too feel like they are part of the family.
One vlogging family shares that they became obsessed with watching the metrics for each video, and it’s clear that the announcements of pregnancies and the births of children are the biggest draw card. If you get a big enough audience you can start to get promotional agreements with companies, and it’s an attractive way to earn a serious income for stay-at-home mums.
A decade ago, one of the most revered families in this space was Myka and James Stauffer. Myka began vlogging when she was a single mother, but then she marries James and they begin to grow their family. Soon the lives of their children Kova, Jaka and Radley are part of their content too.
Then suddenly they were gone from the internet, cancelled. What caused the couple to abandon their online lives is the focus of this series, and it’s an act that leaves you asking so many questions.
The couple adopted a two-year-old boy from China, they named him Huxley Stauffer. Soon after they had another biological child, bringing their brood to five. It raises the question – do you need to keep having more children to keep up the viewership numbers.
After a few years viewers noticed that Huxley was no longer appearing family photos on Instagram, or popping up in the family’s almost daily videos. They began to ask, what happened to Huxley Stauffer?
Responding to their audience’s queries Myka and James explained what happened. They’d found Huxley’s needs to be too much, so they’d “re-homed him”.
Frustratingly the first episode is all set up, we only get to part about the disappearance of Huxley in the final moment of the hour-long deep dive into family vlogging. But the journey into this world is captivating, raising so many questions about the way social media effects our lives and decisions, and what constitutes a family.
The Australian version of Ghosts will be filmed in Perth
The UK version of the comedy Ghosts ran for five seasons, a total of 34 episodes including annual Christmas specials, before coming to an end in 2023. The US version of the show launched in 2021 and so far, it’s had four seasons and logged 59 episodes.
Both the UK and US version have featured some queer characters, some more closeted than others.
Last year they announced an Australian version of the show in the works, and now we know it’s going to film here in Perth and premiere on Network 10 and Paramount+ later in the year. The Australian version’s first series order is for just 8 episodes.
The show follows a married couple who inherit a huge manor house from a previously unheard-of distance relative. While they could sell the property off from cash, they opt to renovate it and open a hotel. The only challenge is the house is not as empty as the first believed, it’s filled with lots of ghosts from different periods of history.
Screenwest CEO Rikki Lea Bestall is enthused about the show filming on the west coast.
“Ghosts has entertained audiences all around the world, and we’re so pleased to welcome Network 10, Paramount+ and BBC Studios Productions Australia to Western Australia for the Australian series. The production will kick off what is set to be an exciting year for the WA screen sector, creating a slew of opportunities for Western Australians.” she said.
Australia’s not alone if getting a local version of the story, there’s also a German version in the works too.
BBC shares first look at upcoming series ‘Riot Girls’
Writer Sally Wainwright has been behind some impressive series including Gentleman Jack, Happy Valley, and Last Tango in Halifax. Her next offering is a series about a group of women who decide to form a punk rock band.
There’s a lot of familiar faces in the cast including Joanna Scanlan (The Larkins, No Offence, The Thick of It) as Beth, Rosalie Craig (Moonflower Murders, Serpent Queen) as Kitty, Tamsin Greig (Black Books, Sexy Beast, The Completely Made Up Adventures of Dick Turpin) as Holly, Lorraine Ashbourne (Sherwood, Alma’s Not Normal) as Jess.
Plus Amelia Bullmore (Scott & Bailey, The Larkins) as Yvonne, with Taj Atwal (Line of Duty), Chandeep Uppal (Holby City), and Macy-Jacob Seelochan (Shadow and Bone) as Nisha, Kam and Miranda, the band’s riotous backing singers.
Plus the cast also has Anne Reid (The Sixth Commandment), Sue Johnston (The Royle Family), and Peter Davison (Doctor Who, All Creatures Great and Small).
