Expanding the watchlist of any lover of LGBTQ+ comedies, “Overcompensating” has it all from closets to Charli xcx.
Benito Skinner, the show’s creator, plays Benny, a closeted college freshman and central character. While navigating self identity, romantic pressures and newfound independence, Benny is catapulted out of the golden boy image he once held in his Idaho hometown, and into the collegiate world of mediocrity.
Benny attempts to mask his sexual orientation by chasing after secret societies and hiding behind a douchey personality which lives up to the show’s promotional slogan, “College. Come as you aren’t.”
Reminiscent of the 2012 cult-classic, “Pitch Perfect,” Benny stumbles around campus surrounded by a cappella groups and LGBTQ+ clubs when he meets Carmen, played by Wally Baram. Carmen and Benny are subjected to the cringe of college orientation through existential icebreakers and ill-fitted interactions.
The show slowly introduces other primary characters: Benny’s sister Grace, played by Mary Beth Barone, and her on-screen boyfriend Peter, played by Adam DiMarco. Peter and Grace share little in common except a desire for companionship, a theme that carries through the show as the secret society keeper and his first lady navigate their relationship.
Peter is the epitome of a heterosexual man who peaked after realizing he was conventionally attractive, while Grace shields both the audience and the other characters from understanding her past. Both characters serve to exaggerate and lampoon Greek Life through their progressing dysfunctional relationship.
While every incoming freshman in the show scrambles around campus to find their first group of friends, Carmen meets her roommate, Hailee, who is played by Chelsea Elizabeth Holmes, professionally known as Holmes. Hailee shares a similar archetype to Samanth Jones from “Sex and the City,” consistently delivering hilarious and sexual one-liners.
Insistent that Carmen break away from her high school relationships, Hailee encourages her to explore the novel world of college boys, starting with Benny. What Carmen doesn’t know is her potential party favor has been fighting his sexuality for years.
“Overcompensating” depicts the first day of class experience with lingering eye contact, painful silence and desperate attempts at a good first impression. Here, Benny finds himself in a film class where each of his male counterparts declares “The Godfather” is the best film — not movie — ever made.
Although Benny has been spending more and more time with Carmen, he’s had a secret campus crush since orientation. Benny recognizes this crush in his film class and conveniently sits next to him. Later that afternoon, they coincidentally cross paths at a cafe, where Benny is introduced to Miles, his English heartthrob, played by Rish Shah.
As Benny navigates his romantic feelings for Miles and his platonic feelings for Carmen, he divides his time between the two while rushing the fictional secret society “Flesh and Gold.” The frat-esque secret society aids Benny’s desperate attempt to further hide himself as he grows closer to Peter, lost in the placebo of heterosexuality by proximity.
Between comedians Caleb Hearon and Bowen Yang, as well as Megan Fox, “Overcompensating” is riddled with familiar faces for any chronically online Gen Zer. Charli xcx even plays herself in the show’s fourth episode titled “Boom Clap.” Additionally, Charli xcx scored the show and included many of her own songs, dropping the needle on her 2020 track “party 4 u” during one of the show’s climaxes.
While “Overcompensating” is an unserious and campy adaptation of closeted college life, it still provides sentimental monologues, pulling on viewers’ heartstrings. Skinner originally wrote the show as a parody of his own lived college experience, organically bringing the satirical LGBTQ+ comedy to life.
All eight episodes are now streaming on Prime Video.
