Review
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Review
Pop Culture Happy Hour
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LINDA HOLMES, HOST:
The fun new series "Colin From Accounts" is part raunchy comedy, part romantic comedy, part friendship story and part very cute dog.
GLEN WELDON, HOST:
It begins with two strangers having a terrible day that winds up tangling them together, no matter how hard they sometimes try to get untangled. I'm Glen Weldon.
HOLMES: And I'm Linda Holmes. And today we're talking about "Colin From Accounts" on POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR.
Here with me and Glen today is Margaret H. Willison, faculty with Not Sorry Productions. Welcome back Margaret.
MARGARET H WILLISON: Hi, you guys. I'm so excited to be here.
HOLMES: We are always excited to have you.
"Colin From Accounts" is an Australian comedy series created by and starring the real-life married couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall. They play Ashley and Gordon. She's about to turn 30 and is in medical school. He's a little older and runs a brewery. And one day, a chance meeting results in an injury to an adorable little dog, for whom they reluctantly decide to take joint responsibility. Their friends and family are around to be alternately intrigued and concerned about their strange bond. And their little dog is depending on them to keep it together. "Colin From Accounts" is streaming now on Paramount+. Glen, you were one of two friends of mine who told me within about a 24-hour period to watch this show, so I know that you enjoyed it. Tell me about why this hit for you.
WELDON: Yeah. It was odd 'cause it's a rom-com, and that's usually not my bag. But then I realized I wasn't watching it as a rom-com. I was watching it as a com (ph), as a hang...
HOLMES: Yeah.
WELDON: ...As a vibe. I don't, as a rule, concern myself with what heterosexuals get up to. It's none of my business. So you know they're going to get together, but I just wanted to hang out with these people. And it was also a bit unusual for me because usually in comedies, I like joke density. I like crisp, snappy dialogue. This isn't that. This is much shaggier. I was here for the way they just kind of react to each other, I guess. Because Brammall in particular does this thing where he starts saying one thing and then gets a look of fear on his face and then channels it into saying something else. I could watch that all day.
HOLMES: Also so handsome.
WELDON: Yeah, sure, sure. And as has been much discussed, Australian humor is earthier than American humor, I think. So the pilot alone has a poop bit, a pee bit and a fart bit. I could have had them Coco Chanel that a little bit. I could have had them remove one...
HOLMES: Yeah, yeah.
WILLISON: ...Scatological accessory before leaving for the day.
HOLMES: I get that.
WELDON: But I'm along for the ride. I'm looking forward to Season 2.
HOLMES: Yeah. And I will say, I think those bits become, after the - that first episode, a little less frequent.
WELDON: Right.
HOLMES: I don't think they keep it up at quite that pace, although there's certainly some of it. Margaret, what did you think about this one?
WILLISON: Oh, I enjoyed it so much. It really is in the tradition of, I would say, both "Catastrophe," which I adore...
HOLMES: Yes, yes.
WILLISON: ...And "You're The Worst."
WELDON: Sure.
HOLMES: Oh, good pull.
WILLISON: And those three things, together with my, to many, inexplicable antipathy to "Sleepless In Seattle," have made me realize that, like, I might like romantic comedies better when the romantic comedy knows its main characters are jerks, right? Like, not all of the time, not to everybody, on good principles, but, like, not always perfect people.
WELDON: Sure.
WILLISON: Like, I think if you make it a little hard to like the characters, coming to like them and then watching them like one another is so satisfying for me. And I think this show does that super, super, super well.
HOLMES: Right. Well, and I think that, like, when you set up a romantic story where the two people are, as you say, jerks - we could use other language; we won't - you also put them in a position where not everybody likes them. Do you know what I mean?
WILLISON: Yeah.
HOLMES: So you get the feeling that one of the ways in which they're well-matched is that neither one of these people is to everyone's taste for slightly different reasons. She's kind of - gosh, what do I even want to say? He's more of a mope at times, and she's more of a the opposite of a mope. She's kind of out there and, like, partying and all that stuff. And the other thing I really liked about this relationship is that I really liked how they handled the age difference.
WELDON: Yeah.
HOLMES: Now, in real life, she's 35 and he's 47, according to my internet research. And so, you know, they're - but they're playing her younger, and I would say they're playing him - all they say is 40s, I think, about him. But as in real life, it's not an age difference that would make you think, yuck, right? Like, that...
WILLISON: Yeah.
HOLMES: She's old enough that you don't feel like the fact that he's significantly older introduces much in the way of power dynamics or anything like that.
WILLISON: Yeah.
HOLMES: But it does have this really interesting effect where, like, because she's turning 30, she's right in this place where she's kind of transitioning out of her 20s. And there is an episode on her 30th birthday that deals with the fact that, like, when you're in your 20s, you want to have a certain kind of night out that, by the time you're in your 40s - and obviously, these things are not universal. Plenty of people in their 20s are not partiers. Putting people in their 40s are partiers. For a lot of people, I think there is a kind of wild night out that, in your 20s, seems incredibly fun and in your 40s just seems exhausting. So they make the age difference not just the age difference itself even though they talk about it a little bit and her friends comment on it and his friends comment on it. But it's more like - it's how it changes what their interests are. You know?
WELDON: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I like that we're finally at a place where, when an older guy and a younger woman hook up, there's attention paid to the age gap instead of pretending it doesn't exist. We're no longer pretending it's the norm. It's weird, and it's difficult. And that episode you're talking about is maybe my favorite because it features some of her terrible friends, her, to be honest, to be fair...
WILLISON: So bad.
WELDON: ...Cartoonishly terrible friends.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "COLIN FROM ACCOUNTS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Do you guys have tapas?
PATRICK BRAMMALL: (As Gordon) Tapas?
ALEX MALONE: (As Scout) Oh, no, it's actually pronounced tapasht (ph).
BRAMMALL: (As Gordon) Is it? No. No, but I do have a menu of wonderful things that we've worked on. We can maybe...
ELOUISE EFTOS: (As Angel) Why don't we just get, like, food delivered in? Like...
HARRIET DYER: (As Ashley) Yeah.
EFTOS: (As Angel) Why don't we just do that? I mean...
BRAMMALL: (As Gordon) We can't do that, unfortunately.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Oh, rude.
WELDON: I was worried it was going to get a little millennials-with-their-avocado-toast-adjacent.
WILLISON: (Laughter).
WELDON: But I think because they're not really there as characters - and I'm glad we didn't get anything to humanize them because they're there to make Gordon, the character played by Brammell, profoundly uncomfortable. He's just so appealing when he is struggling. And that was my favorite part of the show.
WILLISON: I think my favorite episode was the one right before that. There are two birthday episodes for Ashley. The first birthday episode is she is going home to her terrible but ostensibly loving mother...
WELDON: Yep.
WILLISON: ...And her absolutely appalling stepfather.
WELDON: Yep.
WILLISON: And they are experiencing just, like, the grimmest family dinner of all time, and you're watching them try to cope with, like, wanting to get the best out of it but also being horrified by what's occurring.
HOLMES: Right. What I love about that episode - I'm so glad you mentioned that episode with her family, Margaret, because the thing about a romantic comedy, especially one that has some, as Glen mentioned, the - some poop humor and some...
WILLISON: Yeah.
HOLMES: ...Pee humor and things like that, you still have to ground it, for me, in something genuine...
WILLISON: Yes.
HOLMES: ...In something where you genuinely feel that there is some true affection developing between these people. And it has to be based on something more relatable than whatever the kind of wacky way that they meet is. And you really get a sense in that episode that he is becoming very kind of concerned for her feelings and also in that way that when you meet people's families, you understand them way better...
WILLISON: Yeah.
HOLMES: ...Which is - I think I find always true. And I think when he meets her family, it kind of makes her click into place for him a little bit. There's a lot of kindness in that episode that, to me, helps take a little bit of the edge off of how misanthropic the show sometimes is...
WILLISON: Yes.
HOLMES: ...About certain things and how many people on it are unpleasant. You know, his ex is unpleasant. Her ex is unpleasant.
WILLISON: (Laughter).
HOLMES: And I did really appreciate that that episode, I think, gave it some emotional heft.
WELDON: Yeah because he does stand up to her mother on her behalf. So, yeah, in one sense, I guess you could say he's white knighting.
WILLISON: But in such a gentle, believable way.
WELDON: Yeah.
WILLISON: Right.
WELDON: He's not...
WILLISON: Right.
WELDON: He doesn't tell her about it afterwards. So he's not trading on it in any way, which I guess is the bar, I guess.
HOLMES: Yeah, yeah. And I think he does it in a way where he genuinely comes across when he is defending her - and this is when she's not there - right...
WILLISON: Right.
HOLMES: ...When he is defending her to her mother. He does it in a way where you really get the feeling that what he would like to see happen is for her mother to understand what he's saying. It's not just a matter of...
WILLISON: Yes.
HOLMES: ...Like, I want to tell off her mother...
WELDON: Right.
HOLMES: ...And, like, make a big show of it. He genuinely is trying to explain to her mother what is wrong with the way her mother approaches her.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "COLIN FROM ACCOUNTS")
BRAMMALL: (As Gordon) I completely understand showing me the embarrassing home videos and making jokes about how hard labor was. And, you know, I get all that completely. But you don't - you never balanced it out at all. I mean, apart from what you said privately to me in the kitchen, I haven't heard a single positive thing about Ashley or to Ashley the entire night.
HOLMES: And I think that is easier for me to take than if it had just been he gets up and just insults the mother. And even though there's part of you that kind of wants that at that moment...
WILLISON: Right.
HOLMES: ...My sense is he would really like the mother to get the point he's trying to make.
WELDON: Yeah.
WILLISON: That moment with Gordon is one of my favorite Gordon moments. And I think the moment when I really got on board with them as a potential couple is in one of the early episodes, maybe, I think, Episode 2, when Gordon is, like, bringing home a date back to the house where, like, Ashley has kind of moved in. But he doesn't like the date, and there's good reason. She's pretty terrible. But she won't leave. And they just start a long improv bit together as brother and sister where they are trying to create a circumstance where their bond is going to be so weird to this woman that she will finally leave.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "COLIN FROM ACCOUNTS")
CHRISTIE WHELAN BROWNE: (As Belinda) So where'd you guys grow up?
BRAMMALL: (As Gordon) Adelaide.
DYER: (As Ashley) Melbourne, then Adelaide.
BRAMMALL: (As Gordon) Melbourne first, then Adelaide...
DYER: (As Ashley) Yeah.
BRAMMALL: (As Gordon) ...Because - but we had to move around a lot of kids. We had to because of dad's...
DYER: (As Ashley) Ankles.
(LAUGHTER)
BRAMMALL: (As Gordon) They called him Fat Ankle Joe, and they laughed him out of the Navy, so...
WILLISON: And watching how much fun they are clearly having with each other in that process and watching how much fun they're having sort of, like, setting a slightly challenging thing to incorporate for the other person, and then having the other person do it is really, really fun. And you're like, oh, I'm into these two.
WELDON: That's when they overcame something that, in the first episode, kind of distanced me from it. And maybe, Margaret, to your point, it kind of speaks to why I thought maybe they're jerks sometimes.
WILLISON: (Laughter).
WELDON: I mean, in the premise of this show, there is something that didn't track for me, which is that she should not pay a dime...
WILLISON: (Laughter).
WELDON: ...And there should be no discussion about whether or not she pays a dime.
HOLMES: Glen's talking about for what happens to the dog.
WELDON: Right. So what happens to the dog - she flashed him her boob. He ran over the dog. Now, if that boob was a car crash, if he was rubbernecking, the car crash would not be liable in any way. Now, I understand it's believable that she would feel partly responsible emotionally, but not fiscally. And that's what - I couldn't figure out why this was even a discussion. They do address that eventually, much to my relief. But, man, that was like, am I reading this wrong?
WILLISON: The other thing is, she's the one who can't bring herself to put the dog down.
WELDON: Yeah.
WILLISON: Like, he's willing to be like, we don't have $12,000. The dog has to die.
HOLMES: I think that's how it was justifiable to me...
WILLISON: Yeah.
HOLMES: ...Is that she's the one who says we cannot have the dog euthanized. Although, I agree with you, Glen. Other than the fact that, like, it is not super smart to distract someone who is driving a car on purpose, you are right. It is really his fault. I was very impressed with how they navigated out of the very grim beginning of this show because my other friend besides you, Glen, who told me to watch this, said, like, I have to tell you, there's a dog who gets hit by a car in the first episode. And you should know that before you watch it. That's a very tough thing to overcome.
WILLISON: (Laughter).
WELDON: Yep.
HOLMES: I think I also respected the fact that there are for sure moments in this - and I think you mentioned Margaret, "Catastrophe" and "You're The Worst" - I think this was true of these shows too. You do have moments during this where you're like I am not 100% sure that this relationship is a good idea.
WILLISON: (Laughter).
HOLMES: And that is a daring thing to do in something that is foundationally a romantic comedy because, typically, what you want to push for is the feeling that, like, these people are going to be happy. They're made for each other, blah, blah, blah. I just think it's so funny that they keep these people so off balance because there is - it's not like in this relationship there's one normal person and one weird person. They're just both very odd in different ways.
WILLISON: I liked, earlier, how difficult it was for you to sort of express the weirdness of the character of Ashley because I think that speaks to the fact that it is a lot more specific and complicated.
HOLMES: She's not a type.
WELDON: Right.
WILLISON: Yeah, she's not a type. And there's this one scene that I really think illustrates that so beautifully and gives you this, like, quick insight into her character. They are running a trivia night at Gordon's brewery. And she's a medical student. They're like, oh, well, like, what's a medical fact? Like, give us a piece of trivia.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "COLIN FROM ACCOUNTS")
DYER: (As Ashley) What's that?
MICHAEL LOGO: (As Brett) The cerebral cortex, maybe I could add in a question.
DYER: (As Ashley) Oh, well, it's all folded up to maximize surface area, but I mean, if you did unfold it, it's like a 20-inch pizza.
LOGO: (As Brett) So a large.
DYER: (As Ashley) No, it's like an extra-large. I think Pizza Hut only goes to like 14 inches.
WILLISON: And what I loved about that is that it sort of shows like both poles, right? It shows that she does have this, like, deep store of medical knowledge. She is actually good at what she's in school for...
HOLMES: Right. She's smart.
WILLISON: ...But she also has sort of, like, trash knowledge. And there isn't necessarily a good, like, filtering system for them. They're all just kind of swimming around in there together.
HOLMES: Right.
WILLISON: And it gives you just a very specific sense of her as a real person and a character that I, like, loved.
HOLMES: Yeah. I also want to mention a couple of other people in the cast who I very much enjoyed. Her best friend Megan is played by Emma Harvie, and I think that character is, again, not a type.
WILLISON: Totally.
WELDON: You can't imagine her ever saying go to him...
HOLMES: No.
WILLISON: (Laughter).
WELDON: ...And I like that about her.
HOLMES: And I also want to shout out Michael Logo, who plays Brett, who is one of the guys at the brewery who, to me, is just one of those - you know, I've said before in action movies that sometimes the guy I like the most is the guy who stays in the van.
WILLISON: (Laughter).
HOLMES: Michael Logo as Brett here is basically playing the comedy series equivalent of the guy who stays in the van. I don't know how to explain that, but if you see it, you'll know what I mean. He's just, like, strange. And he says really funny, odd things, and the delivery is just mwah (ph). It is sublime. But he's just like such an odd duck. I love him.
WELDON: And Genevieve Hegney who plays Chiara, who is their partner in the bar, you needed her in there. Just because she gets into her own stuff but also, she is the only reason this bar exists because...
HOLMES: Right. Exactly.
WELDON: ...These people would go under in a heartbeat.
HOLMES: Yeah. I think if you liked "Catastrophe," if you liked "You're The Worst," you know, if you liked some of the romantic comedy elements of these other kind of offbeat shows that have been coming out over the last 10 or 15 years, definitely give it a shot. Again, it's on Paramount+. It comes from Australia, so you can hear charming, charming Australians do a lot of very good comedic work. And please, if you watch it, let us know what you think about "Colin From Accounts." By the way, you will find out why it's called "Colin From Accounts," even though neither of these people is named Colin. But we want to know what you think about "Colin From Accounts." Find us at facebook.com/pchh. That brings us to the end of our show. Margaret Willison, Glen Weldon, thank you so much for being here.
WELDON: Thank you.
WILLISON: Thank you for having me.
HOLMES: This episode was produced by Rommel Wood and edited by Mike Katzif. Our supervising producer is Jessica Reedy. Hello Come In provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR. I'm Linda Holmes, and we'll see you all tomorrow.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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