Comedian Ashley Storrie calls herself “#neurofunky” in her Instagram bio; she is on the spectrum, but her differences can be subtle. Her character in Dinosaur, the series she co-created, is also autistic, and a lot of what makes the show funny is how the ways she interacts with her world are upended when her little sister impulsively gets engaged.
DINOSAUR: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A closeup of a woman arguing about justice and fairness. What she’s really arguing for is that she can make a cold drink her frequent-customer free coffee at the stand near her office.
The Gist: Nina MacArthur (Ashley Storrie) is a research assistant at the Natural History Museum of Glasgow, and paleontology is her passion. She’s also autistic, which tends to come out via her brutal honesty, love of routine, and a myriad of sensory issues. One of the routines she loves is hanging out with her younger sister Evie (Kat Ronney), especially on days like “Takeaway Tuesday”, where they eat takeout and watch reality shows.
But when Evie shows up at the museum, she has news: She’s getting engaged to her boyfriend Ranesh (Danny Ashok), who she only met six weeks ago. Nina, being the fountain of truth that she is, is horrified by the news, mainly because she thinks it’s too soon. But she’s also wondering about how it impacts her.
She thinks their parents aren’t going to approve, but their dad Ade (Greg Hemphill) and mom Diane (Sally Howitt) are ecstatic. Their brother Bo (David Carlyle) is happy for Evie but is preoccupied with his own girlfriend. He tries to tell Nina that she needs to accept it, but knows it’s tough for her because she won’t even eat Cheerios in the morning. “I don’t eat foods with holes, so the point is moot,” Nina tells him.
At work, Nina’s smarmy boss Shane (Ben Rufus Green), who doesn’t want feathers on the dinosaur models even though it’s accepted science because that’s not what people want to see, invites Nina to the office’s “team building bowling” outing. But Nina, who has to remind Shane that she’s autistic when he complains to her about being too much of a truthteller to the visitors, can’t stand wearing bowling shoes or putting her fingers in used bowling balls.
Evie wants Ranesh to join her and Nina for Takeaway Tuesday; Nina reluctantly agrees but becomes highly annoyed when Ranesh brings in food he made himself and is generally just too talkative. It prompts her to get up and go to the bowling alley, despite the noise and her abject refusal to rent shoes or stick fingers in strange balls.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The vibe of Dinosaur is similar to that of Starstruck, even though the main character here is negotiating a whole lot of changes in her life, not just romance.
Our Take: Storrie created Dinosaur with Matilda Curtis, based on a pilot they made for BBC Three in 2021. It’s definitely a character-driven show, with almost all of the humor coming from the way Nina interacts with her world and her family. It’s refreshing because Nina is one of the first characters we’ve seen who is on the spectrum, and is open about it.
But she’s also a character whose autism is subtle, likely fairly close to how Storrie is in real life. Nina has the ability to mask what she calls her weirdness, though as anyone with ASD can tell you, that masking can be exhausting. We see a lot of it in the second episode, where Nina has to play point when everyone in her family meets Ranesh’s strict dad Sachin (Sanjeev Kohli) for the first time. The more she has to be someone she’s not, the harder it gets for her.
We enjoyed the nuances of how Nina interacts with the world and where the comedy comes from in this series. Again, she’s a person who loves routines, so having Evie get engaged throws her for a huge loop. But there are other changes she’s going to have to navigate, like a promotion at work and a burgeoning relationship with Lee (Lorn MacDonald), the new barista at the coffee stand.
Because Storrie knows her neurodivergence so well, she knows that what makes Nina funny is not that she’s autistic, but that she owns how her brain works. Given that the rest of her family has its own quirks, it makes for a show that has plenty of chances to get big laughs out of character motivations as opposed to straight-up gags.
Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.
Parting Shot: Evie asks Nina to be her maid of honor. Nina pretends to celebrate, but soon a look of horror comes over her.
Sleeper Star: Sabrina Sandhu plays Amber, a friend of Evie’s who is in the wedding party. We see her in the second episode, and she does a good job of demonstrating why her character has the not-very-nice nickname “Mad Amber.”
Most Pilot-y Line: “It’s just a rustic peasant dish I picked up from my summer in Firenze,” says Ranesh about his pasta, trying to put an Italian spin on “Firenze.” We’d be annoyed at him there, too.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Dinosaur isn’t gut-busting funny, but its humor is purely character-driven, and it gives a view of autism that we’ve rarely seen on TV.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Dinosaur’ On Hulu, A Comedy About A Woman Whose World Is Upended When Her Sister Gets Engaged appeared first on Decider.
