The television drama Jessica directed by Anthony Buckley and produced by Peter Andrikidis

Gender is a major issue in Jessica’s life that constantly needs to be overcome, and is conveyed through the characters created. According to most of the men and, strangely, women in the town, females are objects designed to cook, clean, obey and adore. When Jessica goes to get a job at Riverview, the town’s most established estate, she is asked “where? In the house?” This shows that women are simply expected to work in the house, not the farm. She and her father persevere and get her a job despite the fact that “shearing’s not girl’s work.” When she goes to thank her boss, Mr Thomas, he scolds her and tells her that she can only “speak when...spoken to and never to [him]” he also adds that “she won't get the same wages as a boy....she’s a girl for cry sake.” Jessica works hard in the shearing shed, and at lunchtime a bell is rung to notify the “gentlemen.” Jessica isn’t even acknowledged as she isn’t seen as important to anyone other than the men she serves lunch to. Later on, she is assaulted as the men don’t want her there. She gets tar spread throughout her hair and when she cuts it off, her mother gets angry. “A woman’s hair is the gift from the Lord!” she informs Jessica, believing that she can't be a woman if she doesn’t have long hair. Meg later comments on the War, saying she believes it to be romantic. Jessica is appalled and Meg replies “I think that if our boys have to fight then why not ride to War looking handsome so we can be proud of them.” She doesn’t seem to understand that War is about death and conflict, as all she seems to worry about is whether the men look handsome or not. Meg later tries to bed Jack, telling him there is “little else in the world [she] can give him,” and accuses him of hating her, just to make him feel guilty and sleep with her. This gives the idea that women cannot offer men much, other than sex and their bodies, and that they're prepared to do anything for them. Meg ends up succeeding in her pursuit for Jack, and when she becomes overwhelmed with guilt and fear, Hester orders Meg to “honour, love and obey.” During the time that “honour [and] love” are being said, a shot of Meg’s face is shown because they are things she expected to be present in a marriage. As “obey” is uttered, the camera goes to a close-up shot of Hester’s face and negative music is played. Meg and Hester then look at each other meaningfully as she learns obedience is important in a marriage. Through the characters Hester and Meg, the viewers understand how hard it must have been for Jessica in the early 20th century to both get a job and live happily with such high standards being presented for women.    

Billy, one of Jessica’s friends, gets severely disabled after getting kicked in the head by a horse, and is immediately rejected by the townspeople through lack of acceptance. The way he is shot by the camera and the actions of the townspeople towards him demonstrate this. Early on in the series, Jessica gets abused by a group of boys at the shearing shed where she works. They run off into the barn, and Billy stands up for her, running after them. As he walks into the barn, light is shining behind him, and the boys are hidden in shadows to show that Billy is the good figure in the fight and the boys are the bad figures. A shot of a horse is featured, inferring an event will occur containing it. Dramatic music accompanies this shot and throughout the atrocity. Slow motion and close-up shots are used to create a feeling of suspense and keep the viewers captivated and interested in the fight. Billy is thrown into the horse’s stall, and seconds before he gets kicked in the head, a separate shot of Jessica and Jack running into the barn and an extreme close-up of the horse’s eye is shown. The camera then zooms to the horse’s hoof and Billy’s eye, opening in fear before a long shot of him lying still on the floor, light shining on his body. After he is released from hospital the shots he features in are mainly of him cowering, sitting, lying or leaning on someone or something, conveying the idea that he isn’t as confident or highly viewed as before the accident. When Billy tries to get a job at the Thomas’, Jack’s family objects and claims they “don’t want that bloody lunatic working” at their house. In the end, they agree, though only through persuasion from Jack, and he has to ask that Billy gets “fair treatment” as he knows they won't. Obviously, they treat him awfully, as he later murders Mrs Thomas and her two daughters. Mrs Thomas “hated him...made him move big rocks...and afterwards he had no skin on his hands and he was crying.” During his trial, Jessica gets asked whether “he was well-liked,” and she answers “yeh, everyone liked Billy” and after the accident, he had just Jessica and Jack. Without Jessica and Jack’s support, Billy’s life would’ve been even harder than necessary through his awful treatment. The townspeople’s changing view and bad treatment of Billy is shown through the characters and camera.  

The idea that television drama is a powerful medium for presenting human experiences like the importance of sex in a relationship, gender expectations and discrimination, is conveyed throughout the drama series Jessica. Jessica is produced by Anthony Blakely and Peter Andrikidis, and they manipulate camera, sound effects and characters to portray the above experiences.