A brilliantly hilarious made-up relationship comedy from a brilliantly hilarious real-life couple.
Ashley (Harriet Dyer) is struggling with life as a medical student who has just been dumped by a hot doctor (Tai Hara) and doesn’t know what or where her life is going. Gordon (Patrick Brammall) runs a micro-brewery and has always been unlucky in love. The couple are thrust together after they have to take responsibility for a dog they injured with Gordon’s car (“boy meets girl, girl flashes boy, love story (maybe)”).
Can two single(ish), complex humans be vulnerable enough with each other to find real love despite their absurdist, awkward, abrasive, hilarious lives?
Welcome to Colin from Accounts.
There’s a big heart at the centre of this series that is clearly borne out of Brammall/Dyer’s relationship, and their willingness to share it with the audience is what turns Colin From Accounts into a special kind of romantic comedy. One that involves talk of wee, poo, and farts.
The couple’s writing is sharp, deeply funny, and overwhelmingly entertaining, and includes the kind of dialogue/delivery that only comes from an intimate familiarity between the two and the viewer benefits from their generosity to share it on-screen. Colin From Accounts isn’t afraid to wander all over the comedic map in a way that reflects the natural comedy in all our lives, and yet distills each moment to a specific and very relatable premise that encourages the viewer to lean and recognise themselves (or their mates) in everything from horror blind dates, to excruciating dinners with parents, to genuinely seeking to develop a connection with someone without looking like a dick.
Dyer and Brammall bring a gentle-yet-deft hand to many of the more crazy moments that drive laughs within a sphere of believability that generates real affection for Ashley and Gordon. We want to see them succeed (and hook up) because we know their feelings, relate to their situations, and resonate with the trouble they individually and together find themselves in. Surrounding themselves with some of the best comedic and acting talent in Australia lifts the entire production and reminds us just how deep the talent pool in this country is.
Stupid funny, awkward funny, absurd funny, toilet funny, sharp funny, self-deprecating funny, silly funny. It’s all there on the screen in myriad ways, mixed generously with hope-and-heart-filled moments that remind us that no matter how bad it gets there are people who care for us and are willing to stand by us (and they might even have a dig in the process).
Bluntly, Colin From Accounts is just plain funny (also, the dog is very cute).
Dyer and Brammall star, write and produce the comedy series, backed by a fabulous Australian cast, including Helen Thomson (Rake, Elvis), Genevieve Hegney (Young Rock, Doctor Doctor), Michael Logo (Love Me, Daryl in Why Are you Like This), Darren Gilshenan (Dark City, A Moody Christmas), Yvonne Rae (Lambs of God, Total Control), Alex Malone (Wanted, The Heights), and Laura Lakshmi (Home and Away). Trent O’Donnell (No Activity and The Letdown), Matt Moore (The Great and Diary of an Uber Driver) and Madeleine Dyer direct. Colin From Accounts is a BINGE original, with Rob Gibson and Ian Collie producing for Easy Tiger, in partnership with CBS Studios.
Colin From Accounts sets a very high bar for the rest of Australia’s scripted comedy scene, and signals a renaissance that should welcome more of the same top-quality, gut-bustingly hilarious content.
