‘Colin from Accounts’ Final Season Is for the F*ck-Ups

The Australian romantic-comedy series returns with a third and final season that sees its central couple summoning the courage to decide what's right for them, even if it looks wrong to everyone else.

When Gordon Crapp (Patrick Brammall) and Ashley Molden (Harriet Dyer) first see each other in “Colin from Accounts” Season 3, it’s a train wreck — or, more accurately, a car crash.

It’s been three years since Gordo’s spontaneous, ill-fated proposal and, at first, it seems like the once-happy couple has recaptured their mojo. Ash is now a doctor at a small practice. Gordon’s brewery is thriving, even though he had to sell it. He beams while taking pictures of their dog, Colin. She glances at her phone and smiles. It’s all part of a peppy little montage to kick off the final season, so when Gordon strolls into Ash’s office and takes a seat in the waiting area, it’s implied he knows what he’s walking into: He’s there to drop off the dog or take Ash to lunch or give his girlfriend a smooch.

But when Ash walks out and reads aloud the name of her next patient, she’s shocked. Hearing her voice, he’s shocked, too. They weren’t planning to see each other because they haven’t seen each other in months. They’re not seeing each other at all. Not anymore. He’s only there to get a physical for work, sent by an oblivious insurance company to the next available doctor.

It’s an accident, and whether it’s a happy one or the standard, more devastating kind is a question explicitly invited by what else happens when Ash and Gordon lock eyes. Right outside, at the intersection in front of Ash’s office, a yellow convertible slams into a black sedan, spinning to a halt in a cloud of smoke. The crash happens at the exact same second our main couple locks eyes, right over Gordon’s shoulder, plainly shown through the floor-to-ceiling window. But the power of the moment doesn’t come from the clever scripting or vivid shot; it comes from the fact that neither Ash or Gordon breaks their gaze.

Everyone else just witnessed a frightful car wreck. But for these two, all they see is each other.

If their connection is good or bad — fate or infatuation, a blessing or a curse — becomes the key quandary as co-creators Brammall and Dyer bring their “will they or won’t they” romantic-comedy to its promised conclusion. Like the genre itself, the final season’s lingering dilemmas aren’t unheard of, but the way they’re explored is unique, creative, and insightful. Season 3 sees Gordon and Ashley once again reexamining their relationship, now with the wearied caution of a couple who’ve hurt each other — and the reckless affection that can’t be repressed without losing a crucial part of your soul.

After breaking up between seasons, Gordon went to a dark place. He grew a long, scraggly beard and cried all the time. He gambled away the inheritance left by his father, which forced him to sell the brewery to a private equity firm. Ash, meanwhile, retreated into work: She graduated from school and got her medical license. She left town for a residency program and returned to friends with kids and a mother with a man-baby. (Lee’s men’s rights “charity” is, and it pains me to say this, going strong.)

They’ve both facing an unknown future, and they’ve both found new partners — partners who fill a void more than they sweep either of them off their feet. Compared to Gordon, Ash’s boyfriend David (Thomas Cocquerel) is young and fit. He’s also dumb as a box of rocks, and when Ash asks Megan if she thinks David is funny, she replies, “Not intentionally” — a clear dealbreaker. Gordon’s girlfriend Chelsea (Nikki Shiels) is also age-appropriate, as well as hyper-organized and humorless. Her incompatibility is expertly and efficiently illustrated in an immediate fallout with Gordon’s brash but lovable brother, Heavy (Justin Rosniak), who Ash gets along with swimmingly.

To us, Gordon and Ashley’s new partners are obviously wrong for them. But to everyone else, they’re better off. After their inadvertent reintroduction, Gordon and Ashley’s friends beg them not to get back together. Brett (Michael Logo) slaps Gordon the face as soon as he mentions seeing Ash, fulfilling a promise Gordon swore him to years earlier. Chiara (Genevieve Hegney) is exasperated, imagining another relationship rollercoaster that imperils her business partner (and thus, her business). Ashley’s mom, Lynelle (Helen Thomson), suggests it’s “inappropriate” for them to even hang out, and as the season goes on, there’s a growing discouragement toward long-term commitments of any kind.

The thing is, they’re not wrong to preach caution. Love is a tricky thing to pin down, especially from the outside looking in. Striking the right balance between practicality and passion is a nearly impossible task. What looks like a terrible pairing to most people could turn out to be a perfect partnership, so long as it clicks for the people involved.

Thankfully, “Colin from Accounts” doesn’t turn its central romance into an “us against the world” epic. Instead, it takes the opposite tack by filling the world with people like Gordon and Ashley — two ordinary screw-ups in a sea of ordinary screw-ups, whose jagged edges may happen to fit together.

Just look at these messy misfits, down to the titular pup who kicked off the series by running in front of a car. Megan married a big-hatted narcissist before abandoning her education to become a mommy influencer. Chiara bailed on her family on a whim, only to go back to the husband she claimed to hate. Brett may or may not be dating a bot, Heavy lies to his wife, and Lynelle married Lee (Darren Gilshenan), the only cast member whose eccentric choices cross the line into outright villainy.

To many, these people may look like disasters. But to viewers, they’re among the most lovable figures on TV. Part of the credit goes to an affable ensemble of dialed-in performers. Part of it goes to scripts that give them room to develop in surprising directions. And part of it goes to a deeper ethos, where there’s no one route to a happiness. It’s trial and error. It’s faith and experience. It’s knowing you’ll have to decide for yourself what’s an acceptable mistake and what’s irreparable damage.

That’s how it goes in matters of the heart, and “Colin From Accounts” sees individuals who are flawed and celebrates the ones who are still trying to figure it out, with Gordon and Ashley leading the way. To their exes and enemies, they’re fuck-ups and fuckheads. But to each other, they fit. Gordon and Ashley laugh together. They relax together. They’re better together, and as long as they can see that, it doesn’t matter what it looks like to outsiders, and it doesn’t matter what kind of crash is looming over their shoulder.

They can see a path forward — two fuck-ups, facing a fucked-up world, together.

Grade: B+

“Colin from Accounts” Season 3 premieres Thursday, September 10 on Paramount+. All eight episodes will be released at once.