Where Did 'Overcompensating' Come From and Why Is It So Good?

Look, I’m a television critic. I watch a lot of TV and film, I don’t have three hours a day to spend on TikTok or Reels following influencers, content creators, and comics, let alone listen to all their podcast appearances. So, until today, I had no idea who the hell Benito Skinner was, nor his podcast partner, Mary Beth Barone. I also didn’t know who Wally Baram was, even though she’s been a writer on Shrinking, What We Do in the Shadows, and Betty.

I didn’t know who Benito Skinner was, so I had no context for why people I do know — Connie Britton, Kyle MacLachlan, Megan Fox, Lukas Haas, Bowen Yang, Matt Rogers, James Van Der Beek, and freaking Charli XCX — were making (glorious) appearances on this comedy I’d never heard of. I thought I’d sample it, but I ended up bingeing the whole thing in one sitting. My ignorance makes me feel very old, but thankfully, Overcompensating — where a bunch of attractive, funny, and very clever thirty-something actor/writers play college students — is a hysterical and sweet reminder of what it feels like to be young, insecure, and trying to find your people while pretending to be someone you’re not.

Overcompensating is very fucking good. I’m not entirely sure how to describe its brand of comedy. It feels like it was created by people who grew up on social media, like English Teacher crossed with Sex Lives of College Girls but it also has that same sweet/funny blend as The Other Two. At the same time, it’s joke-dense, like Tina Fey if she were two decades younger, gay, and, actually, nothing like Tina Fey. The point is: I love it, and if you give it one episode, you’ll love it too.

The premise is this: It’s about a very alpha, high-school jock who’s deep in the closet. As he struggles to find himself, he, well, overcompensates — trying way too hard to be a bro, join the secret society, and sleep with college girls when all he really wants is to hang out with his new best friend, Carmen, and make out with dudes.

Carmen (Wally Baram) is the other half of the equation. She’s a freshman who was kind of a nobody in high school, living in the shadow of her now-dead brother, whose parents can’t stop grieving long enough to acknowledge her. After a disastrous attempt to hook up on their first night at college, Benny and Carmen become inseparable, except that both of them keep so much of themselves locked away.

And that’s the real driving force behind Overcompensating (and what makes it almost impossible to stop watching): watching Carmen, Benny, and Benny’s older sister, Grace (Mary Beth Barone), reveal little pieces of themselves to each other as they stumble through self-discovery.

It’s almost hard to believe that a series about a closeted gay college student would still feel fresh in 2025 (he’s from Idaho), but it does, because Benny is hiding more than just his sexuality (and the real life Skinner, also from Idaho, didn’t come out until he was a senior in college). He’s perfected the image of a classically straight, athletic, business-major frat boy, while the real Benny is suffocating underneath. Meanwhile, Carmen’s sex life is basically dictated by her insecurities, and both she and Benny are occasionally terrible friends to each other because of it.

But let’s not forget: Overcompensating is a comedy, first and foremost: A clever, sometimes absurd, often very over-the-top borderline campy not quite. It’s also a comedy featuring a lot of actor/writers. Skinner and Barone are both writers, and while Baram isn’t credited as one, almost all of her past work is behind the scenes. There’s also writer and stand-up comic Holmes, who plays Carmen’s Paris-Hilton-type roommate (some may remember her from Welcome to Flatch), and Adam DiMarco, almost unrecognizable here from his role in White Lotus.

All of which is to say: Overcompensating is a great goddamn comedy — funny, sweet, sex-filled, and really addictive. And for reasons that will become obvious when you watch, there better be a second season.

All eight episodes of Overcompensating are now streaming on Prime Video.