Prime Video: “Overcompensating”

My guilty pleasure of the week was binge-watching “Overcompensating,” (Prime Video), a genial comedy drama about college students pretending they’re something that they’re not.

Comedian-actor-content creator Benito Skinner plays Benny, the handsome Idaho HS scholar-athlete who just happens to be gay—and closeted. He arrives freshman year at fancy-pants Yates College, where he is so determined to prove he’s 100 percent straight that he overcompensates—that is, he apes the deplorable machismo behavior of his male peers.

Fortunately, during the first week of school he also meets Carmen (Wally Baram), a young Hispanic woman from New Jersey, who also feels like a duck out of water, among her catty, bottle-blonde female classmates.

Benny makes a move on Carmen, but at the moment of truth finds he really isn’t turned on by her. They settle into a fun, platonic relatinship. Whom he does have the hots for is Miles (Rish Shah), a sexy freshman from London who could be either gay—or just European.

Benny’s crabby older sister Grace (Mary Beth Barone) also attends Yates. She is dating Pete (Adam di Marco from “White Lotus,” S2), a senior who is a chauvinistic frat boy from hell. Despite being lousy at numbers (he actually has Grace do his homework for him), Pete hopes to be hired at a prestigious NY bank upon graduating.

The cast is packed with breakout performances from familiar faces, such as Kyle MacLachlan and Connie Britton as Benny’s adoring but clueless parents. It also includes newcomers like Holmes who plays Hailey Carmen’s Valley-Girlish, chatterbox roommate.

All right, I admit it. I’ve been out of college for 50 years so my familiarity with the wild collegiate rituals portrayed in this series is a bit lacking. But what I do see is that the cultural references in this show are fairly current. So why the big deal about Benny admitting he’s gay? This is 2025, not 1975. Kind of a disconnect for me.

Nevertheless I did enjoy “Overcompensating.” My biggest regret is that Season 1 ended so abruptly. Which is the biggest excuse for producing Season 2. Benny Skinner, we’re counting on you.

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