This brilliant, heart-filled Australian comedy returns one last time to remind us of the excellent clumsiness that comes of being in love.
We fell in love with Gordon (Patrick Brammall) and Ashley (Harriet Dyer) with their meet-cute in the opening minutes of season one of COLIN FROM ACCOUNTS. OK, so it involved some nudity, a disabled dog, and a fair chunk of the season for them to realise they were meant to be together, but we got there in the end and that in part is where we found joy in this quirky modern love story.
Across that first season and through the second we got really know their wider circle of friends and family, from Ash’s mum Lynelle (Helen Thompson) and her partner Lee (Darren Gilshenan), Gordon’s mates at his micro-brewery Brett (Michael Logo) and Chiara (Genevieve Hegney), his family including brother Heavy (Justin Rozniak) and sister-in-law Katie (Celeste Barber), and don’t forget Ash’s best friend Megan (Emma Harvie) and her new partner Rumi (Virginia Gay). Also, spinning in the background and making things far more complicated than they should be is Gordon’s former partner and Vet (Annie Maynard), and wannabe beer baron Jared (Broden Kelly). A delightful bunch of dysfunctionals if ever there was one.
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With the awkward pain of Gordon’s ill-fated proposal to Ash at Rumi & Meggle’s surprise wedding at his brewery rounding out season two, it left us all wondering how they all would come back from that.
Enter the third and (very sadly) final season of Colin from Accounts and… well, that attempted proposal has had quite the impact (which we can’t talk about yet, but you’ll see from the very first minutes of the first episode just how things have turned out). Naturally there’s the embarrassment of it, let alone family, friends and life dramas continuing to shape and draw our central couple in and out of everybody’s orbits.
Is Gordon and Ashley love bigger than just their collective love of Colin?
Joining the cast for this final tilt are Thomas Cocquerel (All Her Fault, Gilded Age), Nikki Shiels (The Last Anniversary, Prosper) and Mark Trevorrow (The Bob Downe Show, Kath & Kimderella), and they all land perfectly in this universe of broken dogs, shattered dreams and rebuilt hope.
The Logie, AACTA and Gotham Award-winning series returns for one last ‘walkies’ with creators/writers Brammall and Dyer continuing their diabolically fine form. The returning characters all offer a familiarity that even new viewers will relate to, and the new additions slide in seamlessly and offer new avenues for humour and heart to fill out and already overflowing roster. They also manage to thread the difficult needle that is writing comedic leads that they inhabit perfectly, all the while including and exaggerating parts of their own relationship in the mix. In lesser hands it would be a one-way ticket to relationship therapy, however it appears the success of Colin is in the pair airing their dirty laundry with empathy and love for us all to identify their truths in our own lives.
To add to the mix, it’s the depth of the cast supporting the brilliant writing that ices this multi-layered cake. The performers elevate what are already well-rounded, comedy-heavy scripts, allowing the team to deliver laugh aloud comedic moments deftly intertwined with genuine emotion. The reality of the variety of modern relationships are delivered and skewered in equal parts across the entire series with such gentle deftness one can only hope Brammall and Dyer–both individually in purple patches of performance excellence as their stars further rise in Hollywood–continue to write and perform together for their and our mutual benefit.
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As writers/performers, Brammall and Dyer stand on the shoulders of Australian comedic giants the likes of Working Dog, John Clarke and Bryan Dawe, and Jane Turner and Gina Riley, and in delivering this series have rightly added their names to this elite collection. In doing so they have set a new elevated bar for future writers/performers from which to leap, just as a rising tide raises all boats. This series reinforces that investment in Australian scripted drama and comedy is not only worthwhile, it’s vital for us to see and hear our stories reflected back at us.
As a series, Colin from Accounts is awkward, joy-filled, and hilarious. This final season should be savoured and appreciated in the same way you think of someone you love and realise how stupid you act around them sometimes.
COLIN FROM ACCOUNTS (season three/final – 8 eps) – premieres with a double episode Monday 27 July, weekly thereafter; exclusively on BINGE.
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