Yahoo Lifestyle Colin From Accounts Is the Funny, Lighthearted Rom-Com We All Need Right Now — Read Our Review
Romantic comedies are an endangered species these days. They’re practically extinct from movie theaters, and most TV rom-coms are either not all that funny or weighed down by metric tons of plot convolutions. But I have good news: Paramount+’s Australian charmer Colin From Accounts, returning for Season 2 this Thursday — I’ve seen all eight Season 2 episodes — is a shining example of romantic comedy at its very best, with lots of genuine laughs, pleasurably low stakes and winning performances from stars/co-creators Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer.
Now this is the part of the review where I’d normally tell you about the plot, but one of the great things about Colin From Accounts is there’s not much plot to speak of. There is a meet-cute, with microbrewery owner Gordon (Brammall) and doctor-in-training Ashley (Dyer) entering each other’s lives while caring for an injured dog they eventually decide to name Colin From Accounts. But thankfully, the show doesn’t try to force any manufactured dramatic complications and soapy twists onto the new couple. It just lets them hang out and get to know each other and enjoy each other’s company — and we get to enjoy watching them do that. (I should note for all dog lovers like myself: There is a small amount of mild dog peril in the pilot, but rest assured, Colin is just fine and becomes the glue in Gordon and Ashley’s relationship.)
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Brammall and Dyer both have a number of U.S. TV acting credits to their name — he was on Evil; she was on American Auto — but they wrote and created Colin From Accounts themselves, and they’re married in real life, too. That comes across on screen, with Gordon and Ashley sharing an easygoing chemistry and snappy back-and-forth banter. Now Gordon and Ashley are far from perfect people, and they face plenty of hurdles as a couple. (He’s a decade older than her, for one thing.) But they establish a warm, playful bond right away that makes it impossible not to root for them. Plus, they’re flanked by endearingly weird supporting characters like Ashley’s friend Megan (Emma Harvie), Gordon’s co-workers Chiara and Brett (Genevieve Hegney and Michael Logo) and Ashley’s ridiculously nosy mother Lynelle (Helen Thomson).
If you’re already a Colin From Accounts fan — good on ya! — I’m happy to report that Season 2 is more of the same, except even better, deepening the romance between Gordon and Ashley while adding a few more wrinkles for them to iron out. (The season premiere does throw a big twist at us, one that initially feels too big for this show. But Brammall and Dyer have earned our trust as storytellers by this point, and sure enough, they deal with it splendidly.) The show dips its toe in more emotional material in Season 2 as well, and Brammall and Dyer both rise to the occasion as actors, lending Gordon and Ashley’s relationship a poignant complexity.
A show like Colin From Accounts really is something to be treasured. It’s one of those small, lovely gems that almost feels too good to be true in today’s TV landscape. I keep waiting for it to get too sappy or to go off the rails, plot-wise, but Brammall and Dyer never play a false note. (As great as they are as actors, they may be even better as writers.) It might not be the type of show that’s built to last for ten seasons, but that’s just another reason to fully embrace it while it’s here. Some great romances may not last forever… but that makes the time we spend with them all the sweeter.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Colin From Accounts is a lovely, funny gem of a romantic comedy, with big laughs and charming performances.
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