“In a nutshell,” says Dr. Faye Miller to Don Draper during the fourth season of “Mad Men,” “it all comes down to what I want versus what’s expected of me.” But what if you are terrified of the things you want, and what if doing what’s expected of you does constant damage to those you love? This push-pull is the driving force of the new Prime Video/A24 comedy “Overcompensating,” created by and starring Benito Skinner as a college freshman caught between the closet and the rest of his life. And despite the occasional unevenness, it’s one of the most promising comedies to hit television in recent memory.
Benny (Skinner) appears to have it all. He was a homecoming king, star football player, valedictorian, adored endlessly by his parents, John (Kyle MacLachlan, having a blast) and Kathryn (Connie Britton). But the surface gloss of his life doesn’t match the turmoil inside; his older sister Grace (Mary Beth Barone) assesses him correctly, saying he’s never made a decision of his own. But she’s hardly one to judge, as she’s abandoned her goth ways to dress like a future senator’s wife, and views her entire existence through the lens of her relationship with toxic frat bro Peter (Adam DiMarco, wholly committed to the bit). Too terrified to act on his attraction to classmate Miles (Rish Shah), Benny instead spends all his time glued to Carmen (Wally Baram), a freshman from New Jersey struggling to find herself in the aftermath of a personal tragedy.
The series’s first four episodes rarely miss a beat. My own memories of college, where I majored in cinema studies, came flooding back, including and especially the scene in which a film bro aggressively interrogates Benny about the swear count in “Pulp Fiction.” The drunkenness, the desperation you can smell in the library before finals, the dining hall slop: all of it feels real, unforced. Top-notch editing, especially by Amelia Allwarden and Todd Downing, gives “Overcompensating” a zippy yet organic feel. There’s no shortage of belly laughs, and for anyone who went to a school rife with private clubs/Greek life/endless parties, the series will undoubtedly resurrect memories both cringey and joyful.
Perhaps the strongest, and most important, aspect of “Overcompensating” is its portrayal of what heteronormative strictures do to children. Peter, surrounded by frat bros who egg on his worst impulses, regularly abandons his mellow, sweet side to engage in exactly the sort of emotionally and verbally abusive behavior that lands you a job at an investment bank. Grace’s insecurity about being “alternative”—wearing black, listening to music not included in Billboard’s Top 100—leads her to a life she doesn’t really like, but assumes is the ticket to a comfortable, secure adulthood.
John and Kathryn seem like perfect parents, so Benny feels the pressure to make them proud, but only in the ways the world around them seems to support (e.g., majoring in business, joining an exclusive society in college, aiming for a career in finance). Plus, Benny isn’t always a good guy. Yes, he’s scared about coming out; yes, he’s anxious and anyone dealing with so much change would be, but his fear leads him to treat people badly, which further complicates the viewer’s feelings about his journey. Ultimately, no one is really bad or good all the time, “Overcompensating” seems to tell us—we are all operating out of fear, especially in college.
It’s possible the series wouldn’t be nearly as successful without the charisma of its cast. Skinner gives it his all, as does Holmes, who plays Carmen’s unhinged and utterly unapologetic roommate Hailee, whose every scene lands like a tornado of bizarro world feminism and mile-a-minute jokes. But she provides full-throated support to her girlfriends, regardless of whether they need or seek it.
“Overcompensating” could use more Owen Thiele, who plays George, a campus organizer of the LGBTQ student alliance, who wordlessly and elegantly sums up Benny within moments of meeting him. Of the main cast, Baram is the odd one out. In an ensemble where charm abounds, she is miscast and lacks the range of expressions necessary to capture the agitation of young adulthood. However, both she and Skinner are in their late 20s and early 30s, something even the best makeup artist cannot conceal.
It is sometimes difficult to tell when the series is set. Judging from the ubiquitous presence of a Facebook-like social media platform, and a soundtrack packed to the brim with Sleigh Bells, Lorde, and Charlie XCX (who serves as an executive producer and composed original music for the show), “Overcompensating” might be set in the 2010s, but some of the dialogue is more attuned to the way young people speak now. Let the guest stars distract you from this, however; Bowen Yang, Andrea Martin, and Megan Fox drop by for a few hilarious moments, adding color and chaos to the narrative.
The series does lose some of its pep in its back half. Its tone veers more into melodrama as time goes on, and Benny’s continued reluctance to face reality starts to create drag on the story’s pacing. But overall, this is the series “The Sex Lives of College Girls” wanted to be, but was not. There’s no fluff here; if you’re not laughing, you’re contemplating the world we’ve told young people is one they must exist in, instead of giving them the strength and resources to build a new one for themselves.
Full season screened for review. Currently streaming on Prime Video.
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