If you enjoy swearing and pee jokes, this TV romcom is a genuine treat

Colin From Accounts ★★★★

Written by husband-and-wife team Harriet Dyer (Love Child, The InBetween) and Patrick Brammall (Glitch, Offspring), who are also both executive producers, Colin From Accounts stars the pair as two flawed people who may never have met in ordinary circumstances, but find each other through a random accident. Yes, that’s right: it’s a romcom. But Australian romcom offerings, particularly on television, are something of a rarity, so to see one executed well, and with particular emphasis on the “com”, is a genuine treat.

Harriet Dyer as Ashley in Colin From Accounts.Credit: Tony Mott/Binge

Gordon (Brammall) is driving to work when Ashley (Dyer), who, we can ascertain in the first minutes of the series, is pining for her ex after a break-up, walks in front of his car. A wordless “no, after you” back and forth ensues between the two, and when Ashley finally crosses the road in front of Gordon’s car, she impulsively flashes her breast at him by way of a thank-you. Understandably distracted, Gordon accelerates straight into a small terrier that has wandered onto the road.

Yes, it’s something of a “meet-cute” – the term given to the plot device of quirky first encounters between two characters destined to fall in love, and a phrase, I know, that won’t do anything to persuade romcom doubters to watch – but Colin From Accounts is a romance that is neither predictable nor saccharine.

Gordon’s ex-girlfriend (Annie Maynard) is a vet, so the pair take the wounded dog to be treated at her practice. But the dog is critically injured – the bill will be $12,000 and he’ll now be “high needs”. Suddenly, reluctantly, Gordon and Ashley find themselves bound together by the dog and the debt. But mostly the debt. And when Ashley is chucked out of her sharehouse by her landlord for showing up with a dog, she winds up at Gordon’s house as a temporary measure.

And while it’s obvious where this will lead our protagonists, the bumpy journey there is sharply written, delightfully delivered, and, importantly for the romcom-averse, has more in common with the Rob Delaney-Sharon Horgan series Catastrophe than it does with Bridget Jones.

Patrick Brammall as Gordon and Harriet Dyer as Ashley in Colin From Accounts.Credit: Lisa Tomasetti/Binge

While Gordon and Ashley aren’t complete opposites – she’s a trainee doctor and he runs a hipster microbrewery – there’s an age difference, which is played for laughs (although is presumably only about 10 years), and they (and their mates) are sceptical that anything good could come of a potential relationship.

Gordon’s co-workers Chiara (Doctor Doctor’s Genevieve Hegney) and Brett (Michael Logo) worry she’s taking advantage of him (although Brett is impressed with the boob flash), and Ashley’s best mate Megan (Emma Harvie) thinks she’d be better off concentrating on her studies.

But after Gordon comes home from a disastrous Tinder date, from which Ashley helps him extricate himself, it’s obvious to both they have more than a wounded dog in common.

Created by Brammall and Dyer (and co-written by their long-time collaborator, director and writer Trent O’Donnell), the pair’s snarky chemistry is a delight, and the snappy banter is genuinely funny. The eight-part series’ supporting actors are all terrific, as well, particularly Helen Thomson (Rake) as Ashley’s mother and Darren Gilshenan (who starred with Brammall and Dyer in No Activity) as her stepfather, who are both deliciously horrible.

This is for those who like their romance peppered with relatable cynicism, swearing and pee jokes.

Colin From Accounts is on Binge from December 1.

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