Two Aussies help fill American comedy void

Let’s thank some Aussies for filling our comedy void.
The second season of “Colin From Accounts” (shown here) has arrived in one bunch at Paramount+, with eight episodes. A couple of them are merely OK, but the rest are moving (occasionally) and funny (often).
Americans used to be known for comedy. We gave the world Lucy and Cosby and Bunker and Seinfeld, “Friends” and “Frasier” and the “Big Bang” gang.
But lately? The big-four networks combine for 81 primetime hours; but if you exclude cartoons, it goes like this:
— When everything is in place, there will be four-and-a-half hours of sitcoms.
— Each week in September, there was only one hour – reruns of “Young Sheldon” and “Ghosts.”
— And the week of Sept. 30 has no (yes, zero) comedy episodes.
Filling the gap (a bit) are a husband and wife from Australia. They star in “Colin” and also write it.
“It’s really just the two of us,” Harriet Dyer told the Television Critics Association. “We don’t have any other writers.”
That takes delicate timing, Patrick Brammall said. “When our child is at day care, we plot the whole thing. We get ideas and snippets.”
Viewers already know them from American shows. She was one of the central characters in “American Auto”; they were both regulars in “No Activity” and he did lots of “Evil,” where terrible things happened to him. “It’s always good as an actor to bounce between drama and comedy,” he said.
At times, that complicated the “Colin” production. While he was being tormented in ‘Evil,’” Dyer said, “I was like doing the edit (and) solo-parenting a kid who was, like, eight months old.”
The idea for the show began with Dyer years ago, Brammall said. “She just wrote it basically as an exercise. And it slowly gathered steam.”
What evolved is merger of opposites. Ashley (Dyer) is a sixth-year medical student; Gordon (Brammall) has a bar and micro-brewery. She’s 30 and has given much of her time to studies and work; he’s 42 and has had wild times.
They have nothing in common … except that they rushed an injured dog to a veterinarian. They named him Colin From Accounts, fell in love with him, then fell in like with each other.
“We wanted to play with the idea that even though she is 12 years his junior, she is kind of more the adult,” said Dyer. (In real life, Brammall is 48 and Dyer turns 36 on Oct. 17).
Getting there requires some detours. This second season’s first two episodes are strong on humor; the next two – starting with a visit from his loud brother – descend into so-so adult humor. But the fifth is remarkable, starting when she simply never gets home from work.
The sixth has them visit his family. It seems to descend back to buffoonery, then takes a late shift that propels the rest of the season.
The result reflects a basic fact. “People are imperfect,” Dyer said. “Love is messy …. People are gross, they do bad things.” And, often, amusing things