Overcompensating Season 1 Review

Overcompensating Season 1 is a raunchy, real, and unexpectedly heartfelt college comedy that actually makes you feel seen.

But instead of coasting on tired tropes, Overcompensating delivers a surprising gut-punch of heart, wrapped in pointed, filthy wit and anchored by a deeply authentic sense of vulnerability. It’s not just hilarious; it’s fearlessly raw and fiercely real in ways these stories almost never are.

Created by Skinner (aka Benny Drama), who rose to viral stardom with celebrity impressions of the Kardashians and quick-hit skits, this eight-episode half-hour series on Prime Video proves he’s got more than a few good gags up his sleeve. More than loosely based on Skinner’s university experience, Overcompensating centers on Benny, a closeted former football player and homecoming king, as he nervously navigates the confusing quads and anxiety-inducing parties of Yates University alongside Carmen (Wally Baram, a writer for TV’s What We Do In Shadows), a high school outsider grieving her older brother/best friend who is desperate to reinvent herself.

With guidance from Peter (Adam DiMarco, The White Lotus, S2), the campus-legend boyfriend of Benny’s eternally over-it older sister Grace (Mary Beth Barone, Ziwe), the duo stumbles through their freshman year. Together, they experience terrible hookups, pink eyes, broken hearts, flavored vodka experiments, and initiation rituals that carry more existential dread than peer pressure. It’s all in hopes of sitting at the cool kid’s table without anyone realizing who they truly are underneath it all. Their friendship is messy, authentic, and instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever felt like they didn’t belong and found a kindred spirit who knows their secret and loves them anyway. After all, don’t we all try too hard to fit in when we’re terrified of standing out?

For those of us who grew up on frat-house classics that were equal parts flatulence jokes and barely disguised homophobia, Overcompensating feels like the spiritual evolution of those passé tropes. Instead of shallow sorority antics (though there are some), it gives us genuine vulnerability wrapped in perfectly pitched, razor-sharp comedy. Skinner’s writing captures that sweet spot between cringe and catharsis, never turning someone’s weaknesses into a punchline. Sure, there’s graphic language, crazed tailgating, and enough full-frontal male nudity to make your guidance counselor blush. However, it’s always in service of telling the warts-and-all truth about how scary and hilarious it is to be young and searching for something you can’t quite name.

Skinner’s performance hits the perfect mix of swagger and self-loathing. You can feel the echoes of his Benny Drama persona, but here he’s mining his own life and pushing deeper, balancing a confident comedic bravado with empathy that endears you to him and doesn’t waver. Baram proves the perfect partner in crime as Carmen, wielding biting sarcasm while quietly craving meaningful connection. Their chemistry is so on target it’s practically impossible not to root for them, even when the narrative almost necessarily puts them at odds.

The supporting ensemble gets high marks as well, with Barone delivering the season’s most compelling journey as Benny’s sister. Trapped in a going-nowhere relationship with the toxically charming Peter, all while measuring her worth through what she can provide to others, her growth in eight episodes is something I would never have expected. Owen Thiele (also appearing in the similarly themed Adults on FX) shines as an out and proud student eager to welcome Benny into the safe LGBTQ+ spaces on campus but unwilling to retreat into closeted behavior for the sake of this new friendship. 

Even the celebrity cameos in Overcompensating are perfectly pitched, with Megan Fox hilariously voicing Benny’s horny conscience as she speaks to him through a dorm-room poster of herself, and Charli XCX lighting up a campus rave without ever stealing focus from the main storyline. However, the season’s undisputed MVP is Holmes as Carmen’s off-the-rails roommate, Hailee. She’s that chaotic friend you both love and fear, the one who’s always about to burn the house down but somehow can sweet talk even a flame to let her enjoy her fun. She lands every joke, reaction shot, and physical gag with perfect timing.

Directors Daniel Gray Longino and Desiree Akhavan split duties evenly, with Longino’s early tone-setting episodes leaning into the sweaty absurdity of dorm life while Akhavan gives the final half a more introspective, bittersweet edge. Charli XCX’s friendship with Skinner bloomed into executive and music production roles, delivering a synth-heavy soundtrack curated from the trendiest titles of what’s happening now in music, naturally including her own hits. Tracks like “claws” and the thumping “party 4 u” elevate every montage and meltdown, turning dorm hallways and crowded house parties into mini dance floors.

There are plenty of laughs; cringe comedy is used strategically but is rarely flippant. However, Overcompensating also hits you right in the gut. Benny’s painful struggle with his sexuality, Carmen’s desperate need to belong after only being seen as her popular brother’s sister and now as the one left behind, Grace’s slow realization that her relationship and, in turn, some of her identity is built on sand; these stories resonate in all of us because they’re rough and real. Speaking to the universal identity crisis of early adulthood, beneath the humor and the hookups, the emotional impact works because everyone recognizes these characters as themselves or someone they remember from this time in their lives. We’ve all attempted to erase aspects of our pre-college selves when starting fresh somewhere new, but when was the last time we asked ourselves ‘why’?

Maybe my reaction was so strong because, as someone who spent too many nights in college trying to be the life of the party to hide my fears, Overcompensating felt deeply personal. Watching these well-drawn characters fumble and fake it until they find a little bit more of the truth inside them felt like a homecoming of sorts. It’s that rare show that can make you laugh at the absolute ridiculousness of your younger self while also making you feel seen. Even the melodrama, the series’s only real weakness, which stems from characters lying to one another and could easily be avoided, is rooted in that universal fear of being exposed and having no explanation of why. The real magic here is how the cast works together, each actor taking their turn in the spotlight and then handing it off with grace.

By the time the final house party wraps and the credits roll over a thumping track, you’re left with the memories of more than just a vulgar teen comedy. It’s a warm, self-deprecating celebration of growing up and screwing up and of learning to own both. Overcompensating might have arrived on Prime Video with little promotion prior to Pride, but it deserves every rewatch it’s bound to get this June and throughout the rest of the summer. Critically, this has the grades to get a sophomore season, so let’s hope audiences binge it enough to convince Amazon not to expel the show after only one year. We need more comedies like this that swap formulaic banality with fearless honesty.

Season 1 of Overcompensating is now available to stream globally on Prime Video.