Optics

Couldn't wait to watch this one after seeing Jenna and Vic in the Stan Christmas movie, Nugget is Dead". This is the latest instalment in what I hope is going to be a long career for these two girls. For those who haven't seen their "ContactTracies" sketch, you don't know what you have missed.

It's been a long time since I've had such a good laugh and simply couldn't stop moving onto the next episode. We had the whole family come over just to watch this series.

Jenna, Vic and Charles are just perfect for their respective roles. The interplay between Jenna and Vic is just incredible to watch with the way they bounce of each other (if they are like this in real life it must be crazy to be around them).

Couldn't make it through the first episode .... Broad set up was fine 👍 PR firm - different staff, clients, situations, generations 👍 So off we go but immediately we run into big trouble! A script that is desperately over written and way too dense & wordy. So called "Funny" bits that are made, then made again & then let's hammer that point one more time. Just too obvious, lacked any subtlety or nuance and most depressingly for a comedy - not funny. Felt like it was made in the 1990s on a limited budget (they just added in social media to make it contemporary & razor sharp - not!!) Had read good reviews so that I'd try - but absolutely a resounding "no thanks" from this viewer!

Expect some reviewers to be as blind to the world of Nicole and Greta as Ian is. Ian doesn't realise the world has moved on. But - and this makes this series loveable -it doesn't rely on boring tropes. Nicole and Greta soon learn that they need to call on Ian's experience when they find themselves out of their depth. Over time they form a grudging respect for each other.

Nicole and Greta are perfect, their dialogue, their fashion, their relationship. So good. Their faces when Meredith has forgotten her wallet and phone and they ask how she got coffee on the way to work 🤣

Love the references to the captains lounge, prayer rooms, and other Aussie political hot potatoes.

There's also a gradual realisation of the difference between the two generations. One is so tolerant of corruption that it's just business and usual. The other is constantly blindsided by it, and has to find a way to navigate the moral dilemmas. Can't wait for the second series.

The writing and acting of Optics is as incompetent as the character Ian in the show.

It is a good concept. And the PR industry provides plenty of opportunities for comedy; clearly the farcical issues, people and business the PR industry deal with is ripe for a satirical comedy show. And the difference between traditional PR approaches compared to PR in the new social media world provides plenty of comedic tension that could be exploited.

But unfortunately it is very badly executed and a missed opportunity. The comedy and jokes are clumsy and mostly the set-ups are stupid and boring. The actors playing the main characters have no comic timing or rapport and are just bad.

It is a pity this wasn't done by working dog team who would have taken the opportunity this provides and created something g actually funny.

There are some comedies so bad that you feel sorry for the people involved. No private investment would have come within a 100 miles of this shocker. The industry in Australia is so small that the writers and performers could rely on their friends giving it good reviews in the expected places but - like a children's eisteddfod - the only people watching will be the cast and their families. I think they are aiming for farce but its hard to tell. Charles Firth is just appalling but its not his fault. Did the director actually give any direction? Or just say "go" and "cut". If production standards were lower it could have succeeded as car-crash entertainment - Plan 9 From Outer-space style. But it even fails at that.

This is 'comedy' made by po-faced public servants that have studied comedy as one would the distant history of a foreign culture.