What happens to a friendship when two people are alcoholics but one of them decides to get sober?
That is one of the themes that new comedy series Iggy & Ace will examine when it lands on SBS On Demand on Thursday 9 September.
Told over the course of six 10 minute episodes, Iggy & Ace looks at friendship, addiction and recovery through a queer lens as it follows the changing friendship between two alcoholics when Ace makes the decision to pursue sobriety.
Played by Sara West and Josh Virgona, Iggy and Ace are two young, gay best friends who live, work and play together, inseparable in every way. But when Ace starts to suffer debilitating panic attacks when hungover, he winds up at a gay chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous determined to get sober.
Iggy is horrified, convinced that her friend has been indoctrinated into a religious cult, and views his rejection of their shared lifestyle as a rejection of her. Stung, Iggy does everything she can to disrupt his recovery and keep her best friend close, begging the question: Can Ace’s sobriety and his friendship with Iggy co-exist?
Roz Hammond, Joanna Tu, Dalip Sondhi, Liam Graham and Aiden Hawke also star in this fresh new series, which was written by AB Morrison and commissioned as part of SBS’s Digital Originals — which helps emerging screen creators.
The Digitial Originals initiative aims to support practitioners and projects that reflect gender equity and/or the diversity of people and experiences from around Australia, including those who identify as First Nations Australians; are from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds; those who are living with a disability; are female or trans/gender diverse; identify as LGBTQIA+; and those who are located in regional and remote areas.
In a press statement, the show’s producer Hannah Ngo said: “We are so delighted to finally be airing Iggy & Ace on SBS On Demand! Partnering with SBS, Screenwest and Screen Australia to produce this show has been such a wonderful experience and the hard work everyone has put in through a challenging year has definitely been rewarded.
“We are very proud of the project and through this story, we have highlighted a serious issue with comedy and heart that we look forward to getting in front of an audience.”
All 10 episodes of the series will land on SBS On Demand on Thursday 9 September and will be subtitled in five different languages including Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Traditional Chinese and Korean.
Read more stories from The Latch and subscribe to our email newsletter.