Overcompensating

Benny is overcompensating so much that he’s denying who he truly is, and he’s not alone. And that’s the beauty of a series that reminds you of one of Oscar Wilde’s best sayings: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”

Hilarious and deeply authentic.

Over the course of eight episodes that go down like spiked punch, Overcompensating pulls out all the stops. The sex is sweaty, the abs are chiseled, the drama is dramatic, and the comedy is greased lightning. But there’s clearly a lot of heart—and pain—behind the mile-a-minute jokes and dangling dicks.

Despite the occasional unevenness, it’s one of the most promising comedies to hit television in recent memory.

“Overcompensating” gradually shifts from a straightforward sex comedy to something emotionally richer.

It’s a testament to Baram’s chops as an actor and comedian that she [Wally Baram as Carmen] holds her own against Skinner and Barone; by the end of the season, she emerges as a full co-protagonist. “Overcompensating” nicely captures the larval grabbiness of this stage of adulthood, and the specific ways Gen Z uses each other to craft a public image and a private identity.

Just don’t come to Overcompensating expecting wall-to-wall comedy; this is a thoroughly charming show with a very sensitive soul.

Like the good first-year comedies, it gets better as soon as it starts to relax and get to know the characters, as well as understanding the strengths of the actors playing them.

It never lets its outrageous humor and satire detract from its dramatic themes, and with a cast full of skilled comedic actors, Benito Skinner's long-form debut is the must-see comedy show of the summer.

It would have been easy for Overcompensating to tread too closely to cringeworthy or tired territory, working too hard to appeal to its Gen Z audience, and failing to say anything meaningful. Fortunately, my biggest complaint about Overcompensating is that it was over too quickly.

Overcompensating‘s first episode has a few funny moments, but tries to[o] hard in other spots. But the friendship between Benny and Carmen is worth following, as long as Benny starts making his way out of the closet quickly.

It doesn’t do anything you haven’t seen in Heartstopper or Love, Victor or The Sex Lives of College Girls or Grown-ish or Gen V (or Greek or Undeclared or Dear White People), but it quickly takes its place among the solid entries in the familiar genre.

All in all, it’s a nice place to visit, energetic and good-natured, with lots of funny business around the edges, even as it makes one glad to have put one’s own college days in the past.

All in all, it’s far from a remarkable comedy, but it’s certainly a sound one.