Equal parts raunchy and touching, hilarious and tender, weird and familiar, this Aussie series deserves a spot high above your to-watch list.
Proceed with caution! Light spoilers ahead!
Allow me to start this review with a bold statement: Colin from Accounts is the best romantic-comedy series in recent memory that no one is watching. At least none that I know of here in the Philippines.
Despite being a hit in many parts of the English-speaking world, the Australian production hasn’t made much of a noise in our neck of the woods, mainly because it’s not carried by any of the more popular streaming sites like Netflix, Disney+, Max, or even Amazon Prime and Apple TV. I only knew about it when I was doing research for a story on the BAFTAs. While going over the list of nominations, I saw a rather unfamiliar yet interesting title under the nominees for best international series, alongside eventual winner Shogūn (Disney+, Hulu) and fellow nominee True Detective: Night Country (Max). I remember asking myself, ‘What the hell is Colin from Accounts about?’
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Looked it up, and I saw the most adorable crippled dog on the poster and I knew I had to watch it. The unbelievably cute pooch in question is the titular Colin. Why the title has “from accounts” in it, well, I’ll leave for you to discover.
Colin, a border terrier of unknown age, is responsible for bringing together our two human leads: 29-year-old, sixth-year medicine student Ashley and 40-something microbrewer and businessman Gordon, played with sparkling chemistry by real-life husband-and-wife Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall, who are also the show’s creators and executive producers.
The two cross paths in the most unusual boy-meet-girl kind of way: boy drives his car, girl crosses the street, boy stops to let her cross, girl flashes her b*ob (not the party t*t—well, you’d know what this means once you watch!), boy gets distracted, steps on the brake, and hits our poor canine hero.
The impact permanently damages Colin’s wee little spine, rendering his lower half paralyzed and dooming him to a lifetime in a dog wheelchair. This also dooms Ashley and Gordon to a AUD12,000 vet bill, which is about P432k. The two eventually decide to co-pawrent Colin and split the bill as well, with Gordon initially asking Ashley to pay the whole amount, insisting her momentary urge to be an exhibitionist was to blame for their predicament. Well, he’s not entirely wrong.
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And as all love stories go, the two fall in love, while also falling in love with Colin (who wouldn’t?!). While the circumstances surrounding their chance encounter is quite unique as far as romcoms go, it’s the moments they share getting to know each other and the people around them that make this series stand out.
The characters are relatable. Ashley and Gordon—and the ones around them, too— are everyday people trying to figure out how to get through life while also figuring themselves out. Unlike couples who start off trying to impress each other, the main couple’s progression from grudging housemates and pawrents to two people in love feels organic. Far from being soulmates, Ashley and Gordon have very distinct, at times clashing, personalities, not to mention their substantial age gap. Despite their differences, they try to make it work. They fight, make up, fight and make up again like normal couples do.
The secondary characters are also brimming with life and are not relegated to being mere plot drivers. Each of them makes the series more fun to watch: from Ashley’s weird mom Lynelle and even creepier boyfriend Lee, hipster BFF Megan, and hot ex James, to Gordon’s ex and Colin’s vet Yvette (the running joke ‘a vet, Yvette’ never gets tired), microbrewery buddies Chiara and Brett, and even his elderly oncologist are each interesting characters in themselves.
This is not to say that the series is profound or life altering. It’s not and it’s not trying to be. And this is what makes Colin from Accounts a joy to watch. It’s not pretentious. It’s a series about ordinary people, leading ordinary lives. Its relatability is its strongest suit. It makes viewers feel they are part of the show, and the characters their friends.
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Each episode of Colin from Accounts is also a compulsive watch. It helps that each one is bite sized at only about 25 minutes long. I finished both seasons in one weekend, a season each for Saturday and Sunday, with the sophomore installment being that rare breed that turns out to be even better than the first. Both seasons have also scored an impressive 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I’m now hoping that Dyer and Brammall get the green light for a third season. I also hope Netflix, Max, or Disney+ would pick it up so that more people from the region would be able to watch it.
My feelings for the series can be best summed up by what Gordon said to Ashley in the last scene of the final episode of the first season: “I think I accidentally opened my heart to a crippled dog. And then you slipped through the opening at the same time.”
I chanced upon this show online, having no idea it existed. It opened my heart to the cutest crippled dog and with it the quirky humans around him and their imperfect stories also slipping their way to my heart.
If you have a VPN subscription, Colin from Accounts is showing on BBC iPlayer.
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