Colin From Accounts (Thursday on Fox Showcase/Binge) is a great way to end the TV year, as the legendary Patrick Brammall and real-life wife Harriet Dyer nail it with a winning Aussie comedy.
The couple, who starred together in the hugely underrated Aussie movie Reuben Guthrie (Stan), and also wrote and starred in one of the best episodes of Summer Love (iview), begin this show with a dog being hit by a car.
Above: Patrick Brammall, Top: Harriet Dyer, Patrick Bramall and Colin
It’s OK – the dog lives, but after some keenly observed scenes set in and around a vet’s office, Colin From Accounts quickly turns into a keeper. Two thumbs up.
The Flatshare (Thursday on Paramount+, Friday on 10) also involves two strangers who are thrown together in an unusual set-up. Two cash-starved strangers share a flat and bed (ewwww) but they never cross paths, because she works daytime and he does night shifts.
Tiffany (Jessica Brown Findlay) is struggling from a break-up (as is Harriet Dyer’s character from Colin From Accounts) and she only communicates to flatmate Leon (Anthony Welsh) through post-it notes. Jessica Brown Findlay is so neurotic, you might not recognise her as Downton Abbey’s Lady Sybil (because I sure didn’t).
Wednesday (Netflix) is the latest version of The Addams Family, but through the lens of Tim Burton. Gomez (Luis Guzman) is now a much dirtier old man, and Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is more narky thanks to a fractured relationship with teen daughter Wednesday (Jenna Ortega).
Wednesday. (L to R) Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Adams, Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams, Luis Guzma?n as Gomez Addams, Issac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams in Wednesday
While it’s nice to see Christina Ricci (who played Wednesday in the movies) now playing a teacher, the show’s Nevermore Academy school is straight out of Harry Potter, but with added vampire and werewolf students. In a world where a disembodied hand called Thing is a thing, it now seems that everyone has supernatural powers.
Home and Away (Monday on Seven) ends another top-rating year with a wedding cliffhanger that is a bit underwhelming. Without giving it away, because there is nothing to give away, we should be spending all summer wondering about who will live or die, rather than a suggestion that something might or might not happen.
Home and Away will celebrate its 35th anniversary next year, a milestone that the UK’s Channel 5 is already celebrating by screening classic episodes during its Christmas break. Given Neighbour’s recent real-life plot twist in coming back from the dead, an actual plot twist in Summer Bay would be very welcome.