Colin From Accounts is one of those shows that sounds totally unremarkable on paper: a romantic comedy featuring two characters who connect via a meet-cute involving a cute dog (and a car, and a nipple). This triggers the old \u201cwill they or won\u2019t they?\u201d, to which the answer too often is: well, who cares? As it turns out, quite a few of us did care once we started spending time with medical student Ashley (Harriet Dyer), brewery owner Gordon (Patrick Brammall) and, of course, their delightfully taciturn border terrier, Colin, whose full name is indeed \u201cColin from Accounts\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dare I say it: the pooch is in no way essential to, well, anything; that\u2019s kind of the joke. Given Dyer and Brammall are a real-life couple<\/a>, it perhaps stands to reason that they\u2019d share such effortless on-screen chemistry \u2013 but then again Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were married while making Gigli and generated about as much electricity as a couple of filing cabinets.<\/p>\n It also helps that Dyer and Brammall are the show\u2019s writers and co-creators, allowing them to play to their strengths, tailoring each exchange to their dramatic and comic instincts. They bring to the dialogue an easy flow and a surprising ability to pogo between comedy and drama: the show can be laugh-out-loud funny one moment, sad and dramatic the next.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The third and final season begins by recapping the scene that concluded the second series, which was awkward \u2013 very awkward \u2013 with Gordon on one knee, in front of a soiree full of people, asking Ashley to marry him. She responds, \u201cWe can talk about this later\u201d, which of course means \u201cno\u201d.<\/p>\n The timeline jumps ahead three years, the pair unexpectedly meeting again when Gordon goes to get a medical, Ashley now a practising doctor. We learn they haven\u2019t seen each other over those years and Gordon, who sold his brewery, has made some poor investment choices. \u201cTurns out axe throwing and drinking don\u2019t mix,\u201d he says \u2013 one of many examples of a funny line delivered in a scene that lands emotionally. You feel the tension between them; the distance between them; the stiff, stilted cadence of two people who once knew each other intimately.<\/p>\n From a narrative perspective, this reset takes us back to the beginning, to that classic foundational question: \u201cWill they or won\u2019t they?\u201d And because we\u2019re emotionally invested, viewers will barely notice how formulaic the underlying structure of this show is: meet-cute \u2192 courtship \u2192 separation \u2192 reconciliation.<\/p>\n \u2018Dyer and Brammall\u2019s writing maintains the high standard set by the previous two seasons.\u2019 Photograph: John Platt<\/p>\n Both Gordon and Ashley have new partners, though in a romantic comedy that\u2019s barely an inconvenience; other lovers are merely placeholders, keeping the proverbial seat warm. In a sense, Dyer and Brammall take the easy way out, presenting Ashley and Gordon\u2019s partners as largely unlikeable personalities. Ashley\u2019s new beau, David (Thomas Cocquerel), is \u2013 gasp! \u2013 allergic to dogs, which alone pretty much consigns him to the dustbin, and Gordon\u2019s girlfriend, Chelsea (Nikki Shiels), is rather \u2026 full on, though she rejects this particular terminology \u201cYou haven\u2019t even seen full on, Gordon,\u201d Chelsea scowls in episode three. \u201cI have done a lot of therapy to stop you seeing full on.\u201d<\/p>\n But again, these Johnny-and-Jane-come-latelys are just cannon fodder, and we don\u2019t care if we never see them again. We care more about the established supporting characters, including Gordon\u2019s friends and colleagues at the brewery, Chiara (Genevieve Hegney) and Brett (Michael Logo), who have been working with him for so long they\u2019re like family. Ashley\u2019s actual family, much to her chagrin, includes her mother, Lynelle (Helen Thomson), and her husband, Lee (Darren Gilshenan), who are still both swept up in the men\u2019s rights movement, leading the group Women Against Women Against Men (WAWAM for short).<\/p>\n This season\u2019s co-directors, Trent O\u2019Donnell and Madeleine Dyer, continue the show\u2019s seemingly effortless rhythms, buoyed by Dyer and Brammall\u2019s writing, which maintains the high standard set by the previous two<\/a> seasons<\/a>. Only the first four episodes of eight were made available to the press, so I can only hope that the team sticks the landing. There\u2019s no reason to think they won\u2019t: Colin From Accounts continues to be one of the most charming romcoms currently on television.<\/p>\n The first two episodes of Colin From Accounts season 3 will air in Australia on Foxtel at 8.30pm on 27 July and immediately available to stream on Binge, with new episodes streaming weekly. UK and US airdates are yet to be announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colin From Accounts is one of those shows that sounds totally unremarkable on paper: a romantic comedy featuring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-825394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}