Exposure

Australia doesn’t dabble a lot in half-hour drama series (think Mr. Inbetween, The Surgeon, The End, Upright) which is a bit of a shame, given the opportunities for short, punchy storytelling.

Streaming platform Stan, which has found ongoing success with Bump, now brings us Exposure, a raw six part series set in Port Kembla (coincidentally 1987’s The Girl From Steel City was another 30 min series).

Make no mistake, it’s the most ‘arthouse’ thing Stan has offered locally since the controversial Nitram. The subject is heavy and introspective inspired by the ‘lived experience’ of writer and creator Lucy Coleman.

Jacs (Alice Englert) is a gifted young photographer who is into raves, binge drinking, drugs and random sex. Joining her for much of this Tune in, Turn off and Drop out behaviour is best friend Kel (Mia Artemis) who is also the subject of her latest exhibition winning photo. But it turns out the still photo of her eyes closed, peaceful friend, is also deceased.

When Jacs returns to Port Kembla family and friends are outraged at Jacs’ behaviour, including her mother Kathy (Essie Davis), confused, lost friend Angus (Thomas Weatherall), not to mention Kel’s mother Val (Victoria Haralabidou).

But Jacs can’t shake off her own feelings of guilt around her final days with Kel and the incidents that led to her death. Convinced that she was seeing a male who knows more, Jacs sets about following a trail of clues to Kel’s past. This entails a list of possible candidates, from a Bali holiday fling with Raffa (Sean Keenan), a local online journo Bronson (Thom Green), charismatic surfer Mick (George Mason) -and the party behind mysterious messages on Kel’s phone from someone called ‘Do Not Disturb.’

In between her feelings of remorse and snapping suspects with her tool of trade, Jacs wanders Port Kembla in a dreamy, angry state and becomes growing increasingly mistrustful of the men in her life. Who can blame her, most of them are fairly self-absorbed and adding little of substance….

It’s hard to find optimism in this tale but to be fair that also isn’t the proposition director Bonnie Moir is offering. Instead it is a character essay in shame, grief and love. This trades in loss and remorse but also in some grounded, raw performances from its cast.

Alice Englert completely underplays the role of Jacs with a brooding performance which springs to life alongside Essie Davis as her on-screen mother. These are amongst the strongest scenes in the series, and Englert could well elicit nominations for her performance.

Thomas Weatherall continues to show his range as the troubled Angus and Victoria Haralabidou achieves much with her select scenes.

Bonnie Moir brings a ‘indie’ feel to this series which is drained of colour, as if to match the industrial Port Kembla backdrop. The preview also had 4:3 screen ratio adding to its artistic feel, but it did confuse me as to what year it was set.

Fittingly this comes with a 1800RESPECT warning. It will be triggering for some, bleak for others, and authentically made for more still. Viewer discretion is advised. Watch it for Englert’s performance.

Exposure premieres Thursday June 20 on Stan.

Corrected.