The first thing I want to tell you about this show is that the titular Colin from Accounts is a dog. The second thing I want to tell you is that the dog’s owners both have queer best friends who are part of some fun gay subplots throughout the run of the show. Based on the title, and it being mainly about a straight cis couple, this show did not land on my radar until someone told me it was queer. But if I had known those two things, I would have jumped in a lot sooner, so I wanted to frontload this review with that information.
Back to the beginning. Colin From Accounts is an Australian comedy about two people thrust together by circumstance trying to make it through this wacky thing called life. Despite obvious differences (in age, personality, life goals, pretty much everything), Ashley (Harriet Dyer) and Gordon (Patrick Brammall) share one thing: the dog they accidentally injured then nursed back to health together, bonding them for better or worse. Colin (Zak Feddersen) is an adorable scruffy pup who looks dashing with his little back wheels. He is the chillest, most patient lil guy who has no idea his new owners are absolute fuckups.
Ash’s best friend, Megan (Emma Harvie), is queer, and when Gordon’s friend and coworker Chiara meets her for the first time, she is enthralled, despite being married with three kids. In season one, her attraction to Megan is so strong that she leaves her husband, explaining that they got married so young she never got the chance to explore the queer side of her more than some flings in college.
When we pick up in season two, Chiara and Megan have evolved to a sexting flirtationship. Gordon tries to make jokes about the situation, as he’s wont to do, but all his jokes are outdated, which Chiara is quick to call him out on. Their situation escalates and de-escalates quickly, and almost entirely off screen, but they have some cute moments in between, including one where they get high and over-process their feelings. Classic.
Eventually Meggles gets a new, terrible girlfriend who calls herself Rumi (Virginia Gay) and is a pathological liar. Megan should have broken up with Rumi when she said she feels “spiritually Indian” because of her last name. For context, Megan is Sri Lankan, and Rumi is white. It’s a major red flag that gives Megan only a moment of pause before she changes the subject. Rumi tells story after story of improbably wild “facts” about herself, barely stopping to take a breath, and she’s just all-around awful. But (spoiler alert) the second season finale may still take place at a big gay wedding.
While Megan is definitely part of the core cast, she exists as an ethereal being who only appears when Ash needs a sounding board or a reality check. The queer storylines in general are minimal and definitely secondary to the nonsense Ash and Gordon have going on at any given moment. They’re just props in the comedy, but so is everyone else in Ash and Gordon’s lives. Ash and Gordon have at least three queer women in their orbit, but they are still definitively in the center of it. They are two self-absorbed, chaotic people who keep coming into contact with even more absurd people and situations. I think you’re supposed to root for them to get their shit together and be in love, but frankly I think they’re toxic for each other and would make better roommates who co-parent a dog than actual romantic partners. But maybe I just have a lower tolerance for straight nonsense than others. Or straight cis white men in general. While I do think it leans a little too close to stereotypes for my liking every once in a while, it never quite crosses the boundary for me. Sure, Rumi is deeply unlikable, but so are a lot of other characters on this show, and we deserve to have deeply unlikable character representation, too. I also find both Chiara and Megan charming in different ways and am hoping if the show gets a season three, the unlikely pair finds their way back to each other again.
I feel like I say this about a lot of shows, but I do enjoy how everyone’s queerness is not a big deal. There wasn’t one Big Gay Episode and then it was never mentioned again. It was kind of a whole situation with Chiara, but that was just because she was married with kids and hadn’t told anyone she was bi, and Megan is a bit younger than her, so it was more newsworthy. It felt like any other subplot on the show, just as fun and silly and ridiculous with little heartfelt sprinkles on top.
Even though the queer representation isn’t something I’m about to run off and read fanfic about, I find the show hilarious. Not wanting Ash and Gordon to be together doesn’t take away from my enjoyment of watching them try. The show fits right in with the other wacky and absurdist Australian comedies I’ve seen, like Class of ’07, Deadloch, and Wellmania. I think it’s technically classified as a dramedy, but even the more serious moments are a bit unserious. Overall it’s a fun, quick, ridiculous time and I do recommend it — at the very least for Colin, the dog.
Both seasons of Colin from Accounts are now streaming on Paramount+.
