Vic Zerbst and Jenna Owen have commenced filming on another collaboration with Easy Tiger, this time teaming up with The Chaser’s Charles Firth for six-part ABC comedy Optics.
After working with the production company on Stan Original Christmas feature Nugget Is Dead: A Christmas Story, the pair’s new series has them star as two whip-smart 20-something women who are unexpectedly promoted to run crisis management PR firm Fritz & Randell, after the death of office patriarch Frank Fritz.
As they battle weekly public relations crises from celebrities, sports stars, and corporate titans, and power challenges from veteran PR flack Ian Randell (Firth), they slowly come to realise that their firm might have a scandal brewing of its own, and start to wonder: have they been set up to fail?
Zerbst, Owen, and Firth penned the Easy Tiger and Chaser Digital production, while also executive producing alongside Rob Gibson and Ian Collie. Max Miller is on board as director and Paige Wharehinga is the series producer.
The series, currently filming in Sydney, has major production investment from Screen Australia and the ABC, and is financed with support from Screen NSW. It is produced in association with and distributed by ITV Studios.
In a statement, Owen, Zerbst, and Firth said they had no shortage of subject matter to draw from.
“When we started, we were worried that there weren’t enough PR crises in Australia to sustain 30 minutes of television each week,” he said.
“As it turns out, there’s enough material for about 30 years of television each week.”
ABC head of scripted Rachel Okine described the series as “fast-paced and bitingly funny”.
“As well as being dazzled by their sharp comic minds, we know audiences will also be gobsmacked to learn what goes on behind the scenes in the often murky world of PR,” she said.
Gibson and Collie added they couldn’t wait for Australia to see Owen, Zerbst, and Firth “practising the dark arts of PR in the halls of Fritz and Randell”.
“Jenna and Vic are among our brightest new comedy talents, and their intergenerational sparring with the always-hilarious Charles Firth – the middle-aged man’s middle-aged man – is comedy gold,” they said.
Optics will premiere on ABC TV and ABC iview in 2025.