I Willingly Went Back To College For Benito Skinner’s Prime Video Comedy & I’d Do It Again For Season 2

After years of enjoying Benny Drama, his on-line personality, Benito Skinner proves now not most effective that he could make the transfer to long-form comedy, however he too can excel in it. Overcompensating
, Skinner’s new TV display takes dangers, however prospers due to an intimate working out of its target market. The school-set sitcom is a style that only a few comedy collection haven’t begun to crack. At the heels of cancellations and screw ups of in a similar fashion younger, pop-culture-soaked collection, Overcompensating is not premiering in a TV panorama in a position to just accept it. Alternatively, I, for one, had a blast looking at the too-few episodes of the debut season.
Skinner is joined by way of a robust ensemble of comedians, web personalities, and veteran actors, all of whom are greater than prepared to make fools of themselves in Overcompensating. His persona, Benny, a fictionalized model of the comedian, is a closeted highschool golden boy seeking to care for his highest personality, and stumbles upon Carmen (Wally Baram), every other freshman as misplaced and lonely as he’s. Overcompensating may’ve made Baram the instantly guy to Skinner’s Benny, however the collection by no means containers its characters into those archetypes, allowing them to all have the danger to polish.
Overcompensating temporarily wins you over, due to Skinner and Baram, who’ve a very easy chemistry and are likable sufficient to stay us rooting for them, even if their movements let us know to not. It is a collection that facilities on friendship with out sacrificing romance and the various various kinds of relationships that come in combination to make an individual who they’re. Although Overcompensating intersperses some components of magical realism to intensify our revel in and tie it to Benny’s intense feelings, it is remarkably grounded for a sitcom.
Fallacious But Likable Characters Stay Us Invested In Overcompensating
We Need To See Our Heroes Win Even When They are Erring
Although it is sharply humorous and related with out immediately courting itself, Overcompensating does not have the widest audience base. It appeals to audience who already find out about Skinner’s web presence and can be excited to listen to the various Charli XCX needle drops prominently positioned all through the display. Alternatively, this mustn’t deter audiences who’re dipping their ft into this facet of TV, as Overcompensating does not use its web sensibilities as a crutch. It is a instrument to make the sector really feel actual, however the jokes are mined from the scenarios and characters, now not simply references.
Carmen and Benny are extra than just improper. They have got myopic worldviews and are prepared to act selfishly to get what they would like and care for the established order they have got clawed their method towards attaining. This seems like a dig, however it is what makes the collection attractive. Benny and Carmen, like Grace (Mary Beth Barone) and Peter (Adam DiMarco), are by no means something, even if the sector tries to lead them to are compatible into predetermined molds. Overcompensating performs with the concept that faculty markets itself because the position the place you’ll be able to be any person you need, and that this promise isn’t delivered on.
It is simple to speak about peaking in highschool, however Overcompensating recognizes that many see faculty as their golden years. The display excels at taking its throwaway moments and jokes and the usage of those to construct the emotional nuances the tale has in spades. It is a comedy before everything, however Skinner and the writing staff do not use this as an excuse to let the characters undergo or lose the thread of the overarching tale. Overcompensating is ready finding out to be relaxed for your personal pores and skin, and each and every persona has a rocky trail to get there.
Although a laugh and contemporary from starting to finish, Overcompensating is not immune to a couple last-minute struggles.
Although a laugh and contemporary from starting to finish, Overcompensating is not immune to a couple last-minute struggles. The second one-to-last episode used to be a little bit of a misstep. In spite of its candy tale and essential persona moments, it successfully stalled out the entire stress construction to the season finale. The general episode used to be probably the most unfocused, dragging us again into the thick of items with a last-minute twist. Episode 5 is the most powerful installment of the season, completely balancing the truth that frequently the most efficient and worst evening of school can also be one and the similar.
This intended that the overall 3 episodes of the season felt repetitive as Carmen and Benny rehashed recognizable conflicts and errors. Alternatively, I have no idea if this pacing factor within the again part of the season is completely the fault of Overcompensating‘s writers and construction. In large part, the pacing used to be robust, with each and every episode seamlessly flowing into the following, and conserving us at the fringe of our seats for Benny and Carmen’s subsequent sticky scenario. It is but every other TV display that has me wishing the season had been longer, giving Skinner and the staff extra space to respire and discover.
Overcompensating Merits A Complete-Order Of Episodes, However I’m going to Settle For Season 2
There is Nonetheless Lots Of Tale To Inform In Overcompensating
Protecting simply the primary semester of freshman yr, Overcompensating has no scarcity of possible avenues to practice in a 2nd season the collection unquestionably merits. The primary few months of school could be when the identification disaster units in, however as Grace and Peter exhibit, the adventure to discovering your self lasts proper up thru commencement, and sadly, for much longer than that. Alternatively, even if Overcompensating enters emotional territory, it does not lose its humorousness and the precise tone that units it excluding the everyday sitcom.
Although it is an ensemble effort and could not paintings with out each member of its forged, it is Skinner who stands proud from the primary moments of the display. That is to be anticipated, as Benny is our protagonist and the collection is Skinner’s brainchild, however he is not just humorous, he is additionally a in reality excellent actor. We by no means combat to know Benny and what he is going thru as a result of he lays all of it out for us with out telegraphing Benny’s inside existence, even if he is monologuing to Megan Fox.
Overcompensating is filled with cameos like those, however that is not why it is value looking at. The actors and writers obviously had a blast developing the collection, and it is difficult to not really feel the similar method when there may be such a lot pleasure pouring out of the undertaking. It will were simple for Overcompensating to tread too carefully to cringeworthy or drained territory, running too laborious to attraction to its Gen Z target market, and failing to mention anything else significant. Thankfully, my largest grievance about Overcompensating is that it used to be over too temporarily.
All episodes of Overcompensating season 1 can be to be had to circulation on High Video on Might 15.

Overcompensating
- Unencumber Date
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Might 15, 2025
- Community
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High Video
- Writers
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Scott King, Mitra Jouhari
- The jokes & routine gags by no means combat to land.
- Skinner & Baram have a very easy chemistry that buoys the display.
- The secondary storylines are as compelling as Benny & Carmen’s arcs.
- The conflicts between Benny & Carmen are repetitive.
- The season finale loses steam & lacks stress.
- Overcompensating wishes further episodes to totally in finding its voice.