See how the hilarious Colin from Accounts hits the Save the Cat! story beats.
Created and Written by and Starring: Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer (a married couple in real life, how cute is that?)
S1 E1: “The Flash”
The World: Sydney, Australia
Franchise Type: Buddy Love
Pilot Episode Genre: Dude (and Dudette) with a Problem
The 3 elements of a DUDE WITH A PROBLEM story are:
- An innocent hero who is dragged into a mess without asking for it—or even aware of how he got involved.
- A sudden event that thrusts our innocent(s) into the world of hurt—and it comes without warning.
- A life or death battle is at stake—and the continued existence of an individual, family, group, or society is in question.
Platform: Binge (Australia)/Paramount + (U.S.)
TV Genre: Half-hour comedy
Story DNA:
Hero(es): Ashley Mulden, a medical student who knows she’s too smart to be pining for her douchy ex-boyfriend but just can’t seem to stop, and Gordon “Flash” Crapp, who knows he’s too old to be as irresponsible as he is but just can’t seem to adult properly
Goal: To find a soulmate
Obstacle: Their age difference (she’s in her 20s, he’s in his 40s) and their broken compasses
Stakes: The pain (their own) and shame (courtesy of everyone in their lives) of yet another failed relationship
Opening Image/Sequence: The “Opening Pitch” of Colin from Accounts is a teaser trailer appropriately set to the song “Chain Reaction” by John Farnham; we witness the bare calves of a delivery man as he drops a package on a porch and carelessly leaves the gate open, allowing a cute and curious dog (later known as “Colin”) to escape, setting off a domino effect series of mishaps.
Theme Stated: The lyrics of “Chain Reaction” musically inform us what this series is about: “I’ve been living on the edge of a knife, but I don’t intend to let you down, I’m gonna give you love before I hit the ground.” Ashley (Harriet Dyer) and Gordon (Patrick Brammall) are flawed, funny people who will strive to emotionally connect despite their considerable shortcomings.
Set-Up: We meet Ashley and Gordon in bed (separately, for now) and are quickly given clues about their thesis world: Ashley weepily tries to send a casual text to someone we assume is her ex since he’s labeled “James Fuckface” with a broken heart emoji, and Gordon blearily reacts with embarrassment to the porn he’d been watching the night before, still there on his open laptop in the gruesome light of day. As Gordon forces himself to exercise with the most hangdog facial expression imaginable, Ashley takes a considerable swig from an open bottle of tequila before leaving her home to go to work at the hospital. This is a legit stasis=death couple who need each other to find life again.
Catalyst: Ashley nearly steps into the path of Gordon’s car and they do a brief, amused dance of “who goes first?” while also taking note of each other’s attractiveness; as she passes, a tipsy Ashley spontaneously flashes her boob at Gordon, who is so startled he drives away without looking and accidentally hits Colin.
Debate: After this rather dark “meet-cute,” Ashley and Gordon are utterly flummoxed—now what? Whose dog is this and how much responsibility do they bear, individually or collectively? A passing biddy scolds Gordon for texting while driving and he points at Ashley, “This woman flashed her tit at me!” Ashley tries to convince Gordon not to share this part of the story as they drive Colin to the animal hospital to meet Yvette the vet (who just so happens to be Gordon’s disgruntled ex), but he’s not enthused about being labeled a perpetrator of animal abuse.
The blame-shifting and obligation-wriggling grow more intense as we find out that Colin’s spine is damaged and he’ll be a “high-needs” animal, requiring a wheelchair and manual expression of his bladder and bowels. Since Ashley and Gordon can barely take care of themselves much less a dog that needs to be squeezed to pee, they decide that putting him down is the best choice.
Break into Two: But just as Yvette is about to inject Colin, Ashley cries, “Stop it!”
Fun and Games: With an entrance fee of $12,000 in vet costs, Gordon and Ashley reluctantly stumble into the antithesis world of dog co-ownership. We see them in their respective professions, where co-workers and friends just shake their heads in a “this is so you” way and Gordon and Ashley crumple in embarrassed agreement. But still, these two have a spark—of humor, of life, of attraction—and we get to see it in their charming Save the Cat! banter over the coincidence of a vet named Yvette. Broken and neurotic as Gordon and Ashley are, there’s an innocence and joy to their spirits that draws us in and makes us want to root for them. And their disabled dog-child.
B Story: As this is a Buddy Love comedy, there are a host of B Story ex-lovers trailing after our central couple. In the pilot episode we meet Yvette the vet and James Fuckface, but more romantic ghosts will haunt Gordon and Ashley, with the added joy of C Story characters to further guilt them out (Ashley’s mother and Gordon’s business partner/pseudo-mother).
Midpoint: Gordon and Ashley wait for news of Colin in a coffee shop and the barista takes a phone call: their pup has died. Is this a false defeat or a false victory? Kinda both, since they feel all the feels, guilty, relieved, sad, happy, and possibly a little bummed that they won’t be spending any more time together.
Bad Guys Close in: Oops! Wrong dog. Colin is alive and (not) well, so now they have to figure out what the hell to do with him. Ashley tries to take Colin home, but her letting agent says absolutely not, her apartment has a strict no-pets policy. She shows up at Gordon’s door, promising she’ll figure out another place to live but can she just stay for the afternoon? Yes, but said afternoon takes another dark turn as he’s forgotten to tell her that the water’s been turned off, which Ashley finds out when she makes a large deposit in Gordon’s toilet and is then forced to cast her offering out the window in an attempt to hide the sin. Could her life be any more humiliating?
All Is Lost: Ashley hasn’t been able to find a new place to live and she tells Gordon she’s leaving Colin with him.
Dark Night of the Soul: They argue and Ashley finally breaks down and says she’s got nowhere else to go; she has irresponsible friends, a mom who sucks, she’s heartbroken about her recent breakup, and she’s only on Day 3 of a 30-Day Sexless vow. And Gordon just can’t deny his soft spot for a sob story, no matter how many times it’s screwed him before.
Break into Three: Ashley pulls that bottle of tequila out of her purse and offers a boozy truce.
Finale: The team has been gathered and the half-assed plan is in process of being executed. Ashley and Gordon have no idea what the future holds, but hey, they can at least give their wheelie fur-orphan a name, right? They banter over possible monikers and come up with Colin, as in Colin from Accounts Payable Who’s Working on the Big Merger.
Their shared sense of humor highlights a moment (more like a second) of synthesis and then Ashley’s out of there, ready to escape in an Uber. But Colin starts barking madly and Gordon can’t handle it, so back inside Ashley goes, to spend the night. And possibly the rest of her life…
Final Image: In a sly nod to the Opening Image of our delivery man’s calves, Gordon comes out in the middle of the night in his own shorts, in the pouring rain, to allow Colin from Accounts to do his Business that is not a Merger, unless you count Gordon mistaking Ashley’s poop for Colin’s. Not exactly a whiff of change, but close enough, right?
