5 reasons Colin from Accounts is our rescue series

Real-life Australian couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall created, wrote and star in this comedy series about two single people – 29-year-old medical student Ashley (Harriet) and 40-something micro-brewery owner Gordon (Patrickl) – who’re brought together when Gordon runs over an adorable dog after Ashley flirtatiously flashes him at a road crossing. The two agreed to take care of the dog, Colin, together and they lose their hearts to one another, and to Colin.

While Colin From Accounts Season 1 cranked up the classic “will they or won’t they” romcom energy for this mismatched couple and their four-legged Cupid, Season 2 is going to delve into the two questioning their sanity, romance, and who they’ve really fallen in love with. But there’s one thing they can agree on first: they need Colin back. And so do Colin’s real-life celebrity fans, including Imelda Staunton (Downton Abbey), David Tennant (How to Train Your Dragon), romcom director-creator Richard Curtis (Bridget Jones’s Diary, Notting Hill) and Jason Isaacs (The White Lotus Season 3).

So here are our top five reasons for ignoring all the Hollywood purebreds, and “rescuing” the plucky Colin from Accounts from the Showmax shelter.

Binge Colin From Accounts Seasons 1-2 now

1. Do it for Colin

Listen up, (mostly) Zac and (occasionally) Buster Fedderson worked their furry tails off playing Colin the border terrier. Look into those glossy black boba eyes and tell them you won’t come back. But of course you will. You’re not a monster! 

Surrendering Colin to that weird family at the end of Season 1 made Ashley and Gordon realise that they’re too head over heels for each other, and for Colin, to ever let go. So as Season 2 begins, it’s time for operation dog rescue – but it won’t be easy, because they’re now not the only people who’re now obsessed with Colin.

The endearing Zac and Buster are trained by Kirsten Fedderson. Aside from hitting their mark and acting on cue, they had to learn to use Colin’s mobility aids, as they’re both able-bodied dogs. According to the cast, they were eerily good performers, to the point that Kirsten had to distract them with a treat now and then so that Colin didn’t just look computer animated. 

2. The post-romance romance

While a Hollywood romcom can handwave issues in age-gap romances in favour of wild chemistry and connection, Ashley and Gordon’s romance goes beyond banter and a cute dog matchmaker to ask whether they should pursue the relationship at all. 

The two broke up near the end of Season 1 after Gordon had an eye-opening and humiliating encounter with Ashley’s friends, and her jealous ex-boyfriend James (Tai Hara), during her birthday party at his brewery. The party scene, by the way, was inspired by Patrick’s memories of how cringe he found it when his mom went overboard preparing for his 16th birthday party. And while the two had a choked up and a tearful reunion when Gordon realised that he’d gotten his affection for Ashley and his affection for Colin tangled up, there are still plenty of reasons to slam on the brakes. 

The series has already highlighted Gordon’s insecurities about the age gap, which drove him to dress like a Love Island contestant in Season 1. Now Season 2 will highlight other major stumbling blocks on the road to romance, like family. It’s time for Ashley to meet Gordon’s clan, including his brother Alistair (Justin Rosniak), who blabs to Ashley about Gordon’s iffy (but consensual) sexual past and the fact that he has a collection of beer cans named after his exes. There’s also a surprise pregnancy announcement from one of Gordon’s exes to deal with. But surprise, surprise, we don’t get an endless, Friends-style “we were on a break” battle or secret families on the side. Instead the couple consider the long-term implications of what it’ll mean for them if Gordon actually turns out to be infertile.

3. Colin dreams big

In Season 2, Gordon signs Colin with the Take a Bow Wow Pets, who represent animal stars, especially on social media, where they think Colin would be a smash hit like all their other “crippled dogs, deaf cats, blind turtles and whatever”. In front of a worried Ashley, Gordon starts giving Colin mani-pedis, puts him on a special diet, and takes him to have his anal glands expressed. It might be the grief over his dead dad talking, but Gordon is convinced that young Colin’s superstardom could save the brewery, too.

To understand just how gifted Zac is as an animal performer, check out Colin’s audition and photoshoot, because he can’t even tilt his head on cue. Then think about how you’d train a dog to not respond to all the things it’s being asked to do. And speaking of big careers, Colin is named after a real-life dog that Harriet and Patrick fostered. The original name that Harriet suggested was “Colin from Accounts Payable Who’s Working On the Big Merger”. 

(Are two of these reasons just about Colin? Yes, and what of it? Three of them are about humans.) 

4. It’s so real!

Thirty-five-year-old Harriet and 48-year-old Patrick based Ashley and Gordon’s romance on their own lives and the conversations they’ve had – which means it gets every bit as weird as real life and real love does, bypassing the normal Hollywood romance tropes and just exaggerating the truth for laughs. So, for example, while Harriet’s mom isn’t actually a men’s rights activist like Ashley’s, Harriet has revealed that her mom’s birthday is on International Men’s Day, and mom is the tiniest bit worried about how the men are doing (not well).

Ashley’s medical war stories are inspired by a friend of Harriet’s who became renowned at her hospital for her expert stitching up of new moms who’d torn during delivery (and she’s shared a few stories from the general wards that’ll crop up in Season 2). Even the bizarre sleep-peeing incident in Season 1 really happened to one of Harriet’s friends. 

Has a Hollywood romantic comedy boyfriend ever calmly challenged the heroine’s self-proclaimed empath of a mother (Lynelle, played by Helen Thomson) by questioning why she never balances out her humiliating stories by saying something nice about her daughter – without raising his voice or staging a walk-out? Have we had a scene of one lover checking that the other one is fast asleep before relaxing and letting one rip? Live and love long enough, and you’ll get caught doing it, too. And have we seen the heroine fishing her number two out of her crush’s toilet, then throwing it out the window because she couldn’t flush? That was based on something that really happened to Harriet at work (she put the rogue number two in her plastic lunchbox and smuggled it outside to dispose of it in the outside bin). 

5. The quotable bits

The scripts are so well written that you’ll have a sneaking suspicion, no matter how bizarre the situation, that real people really have said and done the things we’re seeing on screen, or at least wished they did. For example…

In Season 2, when Gordon interrupts his doctor’s lunch break, he’s told, “I’d like to help you, Gordon, but my computer isn’t on.”

Asked whether the punching bag in his flat is supposed to be ornamental, Gordon ruefully admits, “It didn’t used to be.” And continuing the damage in that vein, Ashley spots his unicycle and asks, “How long have you been single?”

Gordon admits on leaving dinner with Ashley’s mother: “I’m really sorry about tonight. I really struggled with it as a veteran people pleaser.”

Ashley confesses to Gordon, “Concerned dads of sick kids are hot. Can I say that? And it’s a sliding scale, like, the sicker the kid, the hotter the dad!”

Ashley cackles on finding out Gordon’s surname and remarks, “You buried the lede on that one, didn’t ya?”

The subject line on the photo of Colin that Gordon sends to Ashley, “he misses you”, would be cute, but he took it in the bath, and something else got caught popping up to say hello. The best part? During the scene in which he’s frantically trying to explain, Ashley keeps laughing, and shows the pic to her friend’s dying grandmother.

Finally, we don’t want to spoil the surprise, but look out for the mega-cringe original songs at the Men’s Rights concert in Season 2, episode 7. Titles include A Woman Without a Man Is Just Whoa, Whoa.

Binge Colin From Accounts Season 1-2 now on Showmax.