This week’s picks include the bittersweet final season of homegrown hit Colin From Accounts, plus Aaron Chen’s pickleball comedy The Dink, a sombre retelling of The Bombing of Pan Am and Keanu Reeves’ angelic turn in Good Fortune.
Colin from Accounts (Binge) ★★★★
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.
The Dink ★★ (Apple TV)
What’s going on with this onslaught of Hollywood comedies about past-their-prime sports pros? Starring Jake Johnson (New Girl) as an ex-tennis star who finds a new joy in pickleball, The Dink is the sixth one in that vein in the last year.
At least it’s centred on a fresh sport. Both Chad Powers and The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins tackle gridiron, while golf’s gone overdrive with Happy Gilmore 2, Stick and, just last week, Will Ferrell’s laugh-free Netflix series The Hawk.
Much like the gentle pickleball lob it’s named after, The Dink plods along lightly, pleasant enough but subdued. Johnson plays Dusty, an arrogant middle-aged tennis instructor who was briefly a star in his teens before a disastrous showdown with Andy Roddick. His ego is reliant on two sources: a constant belittling of any pickleball players, and his sycophantic, nerdy co-worker, played by Australian comedian Aaron Chen and The Dink’s most reliable source of laughs.
But when his doctor (producer Ben Stiller) recommends he take up pickleball as rehab after a wrist injury, Dusty takes to the small court and meets 70-something divorcee Candace (Mary Steenburgen), and an intriguing relationship blossoms. Their dynamic is by far The Dink’s most interesting element, but it’s all in the purpose of a big, whatever showdown with Roddick (as himself).
The Bombing of Pan Am 103 ★★ (Netflix)
On December 21, 1988, a plane exploded above the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people, including 11 residents. This six-part fictionalisation, led by Connor Swindells, recreates the UK’s deadliest terrorist attack to date, capturing the immense, awful scale of the flames, debris and destruction over the town. This is the second TV drama about Lockerbie in as many years, following the filing of fresh charges against a third suspect in 2020. While affecting, this sombre series lacks drama or tension. It has little to offer beyond recognition of pain and tragedy. Perhaps that’s enough.
The Devil’s Mouth ★★ (Amazon Prime Video)
Led by a trio of Gen Z stars – Lana Condor (To All The Boys trilogy), Gavin Casalegno (The Summer I Turned Pretty) and Kathryn Newton (Freaky) – this new sharksploitation traps its group of vacationing friends with a vicious shark in an underwater Thai cave. It’s a solid 40 minutes before waters turn red, as The Devil’s Mouth (named after the cave’s jagged, skin-scraping rock formations) sets up traumas and tensions. The devil’s in the details, which this bland horror largely lacks – especially in its muddy underwater scenes, ugly in all the wrong ways.
President Curtis ★★★ (HBO Max)
While Rick and Morty’s pop culture hold has waned since the 2010s, the animated sci-fi series is still remarkably popular – as the mere existence of this new spin-off about a minor character proves. Equally zany and gross-out, President Curtis swaps out cynical mad scientist Rick and his nervous grandson for a hot-headed action hero POTUS (voiced by Keith David) and his White House staff. Each episode tackles an intergalactic threat of the week, with a smaller scope than Rick and Morty, and a lot less of the edgelord nihilism that exhausted many.
Good Fortune ★★ (HBO Max)
Is Good Fortune a class-conscious comedy, or is writer, director and comedian Aziz Ansari just self-conscious of his wealth? Riffing on Wings of Desire, it sees an angel (Keanu Reeves) swap the lives of a poor LA gig worker (Ansari) and a multimillionaire (Seth Rogen). “I tried to show him that wealth wouldn’t solve his problems,” Reeves says. “It seems to have solved most of his problems.” Funniest when following Rogen and demoted-to-human Reeves adapt to normal life, Good Fortune’s social commentary is smug yet toothless, an off-putting combo.
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