australian television information archive

Alice Englert as Jacs

Jacs Gould, 27, is a witty, intelligent young woman with a burgeoning career in art photography, specialising in portraiture. Raised in Port Kembla, Jacs’ acerbic humour and veracity naturally draws people in.

However Jacs’ youthful existence came crashing down five years ago on a trip with her best friend Kel to Bali when she was a victim of a violent assault at the hands of a man. Since then, Jacs’ relationship with men has become more than a little complicated.

While still charismatic and compelling to men, the closer she gets to them the more Jacs feels a need to ascertain control in an attempt to claim back her power. Frustratingly Jacs’ rage and anger at men is met with a desperate want to be loved by them.

We meet Jacs in the thick of another personal disaster - the sudden death of her best friend Kel from suicide. Jacs refuses to sit in the pain of the tragedy. Instead, Jacs drinks to escape the sorrow, jokes rather than cries, and journeys down a rabbit hole to find out exactly who was behind her friend’s demise.

Thomas Weatherall as Angus

Angus is a warm-hearted tradie keen on a practical and grounded life. He’s stayed in Port Kembla and has started an electrician apprenticeship with his Dad’s business. He formed close friendships with Jacs and Kel in highschool. Drawn to their offbeat humour, their creative wild sides. Softer in nature Angus felt more comfortable in the company of women. Angus however struggles with his capacity to communicate. With a tendency to shut down and remove himself when tensions get tricky. Added to that he has a complicated dating history with the two girls that has scarred his current relationship with Jacs. Angus and Kel having dated in their early-20’s, during which Angus and Jacs hooked up and had a brief affair. Never having addressed this wound until now, as secrets from the past rise to the top, Jacs and Angus try to navigate a fraught love both have always harbored for each other.

Mia Artemis as Kel

Kel, 27, is a creative, intelligent young woman raised on the NSW coast by her single Mum, Val. Diagnosed with clinical depression as a teenager, Kel hates the idea of burdening other people with her problems and has always been averse to therapy. She has coped by turning inwards. Becoming a vivacious reader, developing a dark sense of humor, and spending time alone with her hobbies.

Kel’s guarded with other people, only holding very few close to her. Jacs is at the center of that. Their friendship, however, was never perfect. Tainted by secrets and scars of the past. Kel was the naturally attractive friend out of the pair. Men are innately drawn to her, with a sense that she was ‘a challenge’ but Kel rarely let them in. Only having recently connected to the first man she’s ever let peel away her layers.

Sean Keenan as Raffa

Raffa is a secondary school history teacher. He’s newly married and has built a comfortable life for himself. But his history as a young man is checked. He grew up a boys-boy in a masculine coastal town. With anger issues he never processed. He violently assaulted Jacs after she refused him sex in a hostel in Bali five years ago and returned home to Australia burying in his past, an incident that he left behind in Bali. But Raffa is about to meet his reckoning.

George Mason as Mick

Mick looks like just another coastal-town hottie. But Mick’s an avid traveler, intelligent artist, successful freelance architect; who’s built a name and reputation for himself for his distinct sense of masculine style and design. He’s cultured, quick witted and extremely self-assured. An unapologetic alpha male. A “boys-will-be-boys” type attitude sees Mick view women as conquests and challenges. Harboring a darker side in what has been a history of violence against his previous partner. Coupled with his trouble with the drink, Mick is a dangerous suspect that Jacs is drawn increasingly close to.

Thom Green as Bronson

Bronson is a curious news reporter. He loves a provocative podcast and an opinion piece. He purports to be progressive modern man that votes Greens and believes in pay equality, but emotionally Bronson feels threatened by women and is finding it hard to find his place in contemporary culture. He mansplains, believes to be the most insightful voice in the room and his unconscious bias makes him a confused men’s rights activist more than anything else. Bronson engages Jacs for an interview when he finds out he took a photo of her dead best friend, Kel, a woman Bronson knew. The two could not be more opposing in their ideals.

Essie Davis as Kathy

A respected nurse, Kathy raised Jacs, in Port Kembla separating from her husband, Jacs’ father, when Jacs had finished highschool. A hard-worker, Kathy now, eight years on, has finally managed to relax and enjoy the fruits of her labor. Financially stable, with her child independent, Kathy’s youthful side is peaking back out. A woman with a good humor and appetite for life, Kathy is back out dating and enjoying herself.

We meet Kathy when Jacs returns home after the death of her best friend. A deep wound for Kathy that Jacs has put such a guard up with her and has become such an angry and defensive young woman that Kathy can’t seem to access or get close too. Jacs ardently rejects what she perceives to be Kathy’s controlling nature. The two come head to head as Jacs’ tensions rise.

Victoria Haralabidou as Val

Val is a kind, gentle, slightly anxious woman. A single Mum, Val’s husband died of cancer when Kel was two. Val has a big heart. A hobby poet, an avid reader, Val’s creative and open-minded. Her greatest worry in life has been her daughter Kel, who was diagnosed with clinical depression as a teenager. We meet Val when Kel has just taken her own life and is attempting to “cope”, but truthfully she’s in denial of the true grief she feels.

Ling Cooper Tang as Suzanna

Suzanna is an esteemed photographer. Someone who has lived deeply and boldly and translated it into her art. Not afraid to upset people with her provocative lens she’d rather speak to a truth, a paradox, an untold story no matter what controversy it meets. She sees incredible potential in Jacs when Jacs wins the Force photography award and Suzanna takes this as an opportunity to mentor the young artist to truly explore the depths of her creativity. What lies beneath shallow preconceived ideas. The deeper story to be told no matter how terrifying it is to tell it. What it truly means to be an artist.

Ewen Leslie as Jim / Do Not Message

Jim is a creative director of a small advertising firm. A failed writer. Jim’s wife and kids moved back to Port Kembla from Sydney three years ago, to be closer to Fay’s family and for a better cost of living. Jim has a keen eye and interest in fine arts, he struggles with the demands and rigidity of family life. Morning the loss of his curious and exploratory youth. When he meets Kel at a Port Kembla pub, they strike up a special connection.