Something isn’t quite right in the world of Dinosaur. Season one was so firmly set in Glasgow at times it could have been a tourism video – well, maybe not the parts about wandering around dodgy parks hoping to stumble across a homicide. But season two opens with Nina (series creator Ashley Storrie) working and living a seven-hour drive (plus ferry trip) away on the Isle of Wight. We knew she had chosen career over everything else at the end of last season, but at what cost?
Fear not, fans of her flirty relationship with Lee (Lorn Macdonald) and her lifelong bond with sister Evie (Kat Ronney). While digging up a metazoic dung beetle and making friends with an American archaeologist named Clayton (Hyoie O'Grady) has its charms – and she’s good enough at her job for them to ask her to stick around another year – she decides it’s time to head home. Seems there’s some things in life she can’t do without.
One of them is Lee, only when they make plans to meet at the exact half-way mark between Glasgow and the Isle of Wight, things don’t quite go exactly as planned. Another thing she can’t live without is the tuna melt from the sandwich shop near the Natural History Museum of Glasgow, and they’ve stopped making them after the only woman who ordered them died (“that was me!” says Nina, “I didn’t die, I went to the Isle of Wight”).
For someone who doesn’t cope well with change, she has a lot of it to deal with on her return – her department has been relocated, Evie now walks to work a different way in the mornings, she’s become a workplace celebrity (she’s not happy about it) and they’ve even moved her desk. Sadly her boss Shane (Ben Rufus Green) is as awkward as ever, asking if her rapid departure from his presence is because she needs to take an “autism walk” (her reply: “Sure”).
“I don’t want special,” she says after one change too many, “I want normal”. The central joke at the heart of Dinosaur is that while Nina is neurodivergent, it’s all the “ordinary” people around her that are too extra; looked at through Nina’s eyes, it’s a wonder how they manage to cope at all.
While things are in flux for Nina, the characters in Dinosaur have settled in after the first season. The jokes are a little snappier, the comedy a little sharper, and while Nina is struggling to find her feet, the show overall is on solid ground. The comedy side of things is powering along (at one stage we learn that Nina wrote a book titled Romancing the Bone), and there’s still plenty of room to dig into her relationships – which are getting more complicated by the minute.
First and foremost there’s Nina and Evie, which is just as sweet and caring as ever, even with the addition of Evie’s new husband Ranesh (Danny Ashok). When Nina gets overwhelmed, Evie’s the one who turns herself into a human weighted blanket; when Nina stumbles in romance (and there’s a lot of bumpy ground ahead), Evie’s there with helpful comments… or just jokes about how the subject of her affection may have fallen under a train.
And there’s always their dodgy brother Bo (Daryl Carlyle) to gang up on; seems he’s been running in public, which is unusual as he has a really weird gait (it’s like a silent movie villain). Meanwhile, the firmly feminist Ranesh is fighting the good fight, making his own fruit leathers (don’t ask) and having absolutely no chance whatsoever with Taylor Swift.
There’s also Nina’s relationship with Glasgow itself, which here looks like the most amazingly scenic city in Europe. There’s tree-lined streets, gorgeous parks, classic architecture and cosy homes in just about every scene; even a family meet-up down the pub looks like it’s set in a church devoted to worshipping a decent pint.
As for actual romance, things get a little unsettled on that front when her work friend Clayton turns up in Glasgow (which he cannot pronounce properly), having scored a job at the Museum. He was more than a little flirty back at the dig, and he seems keen to follow that path wherever it might lead.
And while Lee didn’t seal the deal when he had the chance, that doesn’t mean he’s no longer interested. Looks like we just might have a love triangle developing – and Nina has a big decision in front of her. Will love find a way for these awkward, adorable people in a world where Nina’s neurodivergence makes her the most level-headed one of them all?
Dinosaur seasons 1-2 are now streaming at SBS On Demand.
