The Case For: Paramount+’s ‘Colin from Accounts’

One of the things I love best about my job with Awards Daily and following the Emmy race is that it brings attention to television shows I literally would never have heard of otherwise.  Such as when a publicist asked if I was interested in talking to people involved with Colin from Accounts, an Australian show that received two Gotham nominations.  Having now watched it, I think it deserves to be nominated for Best Comedy Series at this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards.

Gordon (Patrick Brammall) is driving to his microbrewery when he sees Ashley (Harriet Dyer) walking to her job as a doctor in training, and they have a bit of a cute back-and-forth about who should go first at an intersection. After she gets to go, she flashes her nipple at him. Then, as she passes, he hits a dog, paralyzing it. They rush the dog to a vet (who is also Gordon’s ex) and they feel too guilty to put the dog down, but both are too busy to care for it full time.  Ashley cannot keep it at her place due to a no pets policy and gets kicked out. But because Colin freaks out when she leaves Gordon’s place she basically moves in.  From this weird meet cute they are stuck together by a crippled dog (the titular Colin from Accounts).

They are originally stuck together because of Colin, but it is obvious from the start that they are into each other, even when they fight. They have incredible chemistry, and the fact they are married in real life and wrote the show as well probably helped a lot.  The subtleties in their interactions add new dimensions. They fall for each other quickly, but that does not mean that everything is now happily ever after. Gordon is older than Ashley, and worries that the age difference could be a problem. He is already very settled into his job and routine, both in good and bad ways. He is easy going to the point that he can be pushed around, and he avoids conflict which then can bubble up.  Ashley is in training to be a doctor but is not settled in her career. She parties at times like a college student but hasn’t gotten over her ex, who she also works with, and she has a lot of self-doubts that get her down.

This makes it sound dark but these issues are used both to give them character but also for humor. When Gordon tells a passerby that Ashley flashed him, she suggests saying that she distracted him by her looking like a celebrity to not make her look bad. He later says she looked like Lindsay Lohan, which also doesn’t make her happy.  In its sixth episode, the cringiest family dinner ever takes place when Ashley’s mother, Lynelle, keeps bringing up the worst parts of Ashley’s life, and Lynelle’s boyfriend is so creepy. We end the episode with Gordon showing an unexpected caring side after Ashley reveals a deep pain. It just makes you want to say, “Awww!”

The show does an excellent job of getting into the world of these characters and their dynamics. When Gordon explains why he is late to his business partner, Chiara (Genevieve Hegney), after hitting the dog, you know immediately these two have been friends for years and she has put up with a lot and will not take any BS from him. Yet we see that Gordon can zing her back just from knowing her so well. We also know from one scene there is no romantic chemistry for setting them up, and we get all we need. His employee, Brett (Michael Logo), is more of a bro that he hangs out with, but there is less intense history in their laid back interactions.

The same is true with Lynelle when she uses an app on her phone to find Ashley at Gordon’s house. She says she feels empathy toward a friend of Ashley’s but really just wants to check out what kind of man her daughter has found.  Then, seeing what kind of house Gordon has to decide if he is a keeper for Ashley, Lynelle says she “pretended to like Italian cars to land my ex.”  Ashley responds, “Can you stop calling him your ex? He’s my dad.”  Lynelle then decides she can’t marry him because his last name is Crapp. We get a lot about her quickly and we know generally who she is and her relationship to her daughter.

All of these dynamics are great but on top of it all the show is incredibly funny! The back and forth between the entire cast is fantastic, with one liners and biting comebacks. We have  jokes that build over an entire episode in ways that you do not expect. A broken toilet, a dick pic, and sleep walking all have a great deal of creativity in the way that it seems like well-known comedy set ups are done but these have different punchlines.  It made the show an absolute joy to watch even when an episode was dealing with darker subject matter.  It still would at least get a smile out of you along the way.

Where we end things leaves some stuff up in the air with more issues between Gordon and Ashley that imply they will not just be a fairy-tale, but, as miserable as they can be with each other at times, they are even more miserable apart. Or they just really love Colin. Either way this show made me laugh out loud in a way that I actually really needed at the moment.  With its recent Gotham TV Award win and a second season out now, I hope the added attention gives this show the nomination in Comedy Series it richly deserves.

Colin from Accounts streams exclusively on Paramount+.