Australia’s best romcom comes to a bittersweet end

Colin from Accounts ★★★★

It’s bittersweet that Colin from Accounts’ third season is its last. The hit Australian romcom, created by and starring real-life couple Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, has captured hearts around the world for good reason.

A sharp balance of rom and com, it’s been distinct and charming right from its first moments – a meet-cute for chaotic Sydney doctor in training Ash (Dyer) and craft brewery owner Gordon (Brammall) involving a nipple flash, a car accident and a shared $12,000 vet bill for a stray border terrier.

As a relationship formed around their new wheel-assisted dog (the show’s namesake), Colin from Accounts had an ease to its punchlines and cringe comedy thanks to a lived-in chemistry, plus a delightful balance of sweetness and acidity. Any one of those qualities can be hard to come by in the streaming era’s take on comedy, which tends to lean either absurd or overtly dramatic. The only thing more rare is a show going out on its own terms, which is why it’s difficult to be too upset that Brammall and Dyer announced that “creatively, it feels like the right time” for the series to end.

So where to for Ash and Gordon? Season three picks up in the aftermath of Gordon’s impromptu drunken proposal at Ash’s friend’s wedding on a crowded dance floor. While I’m sworn to secrecy on specifics, it’s safe to say that the gesture wasn’t received well, and we reunite with the couple at a very different place and time in their lives.

Across the four of eight episodes offered for review, Ash and Gordon find themselves – separately and together – questioning what their magnetic hold on each other means. Is it a sign they’re meant to be? Or the result of two broken and bruised people seeing themselves in the other?

Don’t worry, comedy is still at the forefront. Neither Ash’s friend Megan (Emma Harvie) and her new-age partner Rumi (scene-stealer Virginia Gay) or Gordon’s brewery mates (Genevieve Hegney and Michael Logo) have any time for their moping. Other supporting characters remain as eccentric as ever, including Justin Rosniak as Gordon’s ocker brother, and Ash’s overbearing, manosphere-influencer mum (Helen Thomson).

New characters slot in well. Thomas Cocquerel (All Her Fault, The Gilded Age) plays a handsome golden retriever type who loves pickleball and forgets to shower after shifts at the fish market. “He doesn’t smell great,” says Rosniak’s character. “But at least he’s boring and licks his fingers a lot.

And yes, Colin is here, too – the same scraggly, scarred and quirky dog who captured Gordon and Ash’s hearts in the first place. Sounds familiar.

Colin from Accounts (season three) is streaming on Binge from July 27.

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