Modern romance, doggy-style

There is a screenwriting technique referred to as "Saving the Cat." This suggests that a hero, before plunging into the story, perform a small act of pure goodness that instantly makes the viewer root for them, no matter how flawed or foolish they later become.

- RAJA SEN

There is a screenwriting technique referred to as "Saving the Cat." This suggests that a hero, before plunging into the story, perform a small act of pure goodness that instantly makes the viewer root for them, no matter how flawed or foolish they later become. This is narrative seduction at its shiniest and most basic: think of Aladdin giving his stolen bread to starving children, or Ripley tenderly (and literally) saving Jonesy the cat amid the carnage of Alien. In short, it's the cinematic equivalent of buying the first round before the bar brawl breaks out.

The delightful Australian romantic-comedy series Colin from Accounts (with both its seasons finally streaming in India on JioCinema) goes in a diametrically opposite direction. The show does naturally involve an odd-couple and a meet-cute—as mandated by the genre—but far from saving a cat, the show's two protagonists first bump heads when one of them runs a car over a small dog (the titular Colin) after being distracted by the other's nipple. Woof. Consider this both trigger-warning as well as prophecy: love begins by accident.

Created by real-life husband and wife Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer—who play brewery owner Gordon and medical student Ashley—