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In the pandemic, Benito Skinner became internet famous for his camply unhinged impressions of celebrities, reality stars and LA types: his roster includes a devil-worshipping Kris Jenner, Billie Eilish at the beach and a twitching, gurgling Timothée Chalamet. By then, the comedian had been uploading videos for years. A clip from 2019 titled Live Footage of Me in the Closet sees Skinner comb his fringe forward, don an Abercrombie tee and travel back to the late 00s to resurrect his teenage self, a boy denying his love for Gossip Girl while repeatedly insisting he’s “not gay” until the screen erupts into a manic collage of Lady Gaga dance routines, Google results for “daniel radcliffe equus naked” and the iTunes page for Glee: The Music, Volume 1.
Six years on, Skinner is reprising the role. Overcompensating, an eight-part Prime Video comedy drama, begins with a similarly unconvincing claim. “Hey, what’s up everybody. I’m Benny, I love pussy,” our hero tells his reflection, an assertion undermined by flashbacks of furtive childhood rewinds of George of the Jungle, plus more recent footage of him leaning back in disgust from his beautiful prom date. The show goes on to fictionalise Skinner’s first year at university, a time spent desperately trying to convince himself and others that he was totally not gay.
There is, however, one big difference between Skinner’s social media oeuvre and his first proper TV project. Online, the 31-year-old is the sole comedic engine: trussed-up, gurning, a master of mischievous parody. Here, however, he plays it almost entirely straight – in both senses. Benny was a popular football player in high school, plus homecoming king and valedictorian, as his new bestie, the unconventionally cool Carmen (Wally Baram), guesses. He is wholesome, absurdly handsome and incredibly nice; an instant campus heart-throb. His secret desires mean he is also meticulously repressed: the only glimpse of the madcap streak that sent Skinner viral comes during a cringeworthy dorm party scene. Faced with a trio of dudes singing along to Like a G6, a drunken Benny decides to showcase his own rapping talents with an energetic rendition of Nicki Minaj’s Super Bass (Overcompensating is not a period piece – Instagram Stories exists – but the music choices are very nostalgic).
Luckily, there are others able to take up the comic mantle. The first is Carmen’s breathlessly problematic but strangely lovable roomie Hailee, a walking TMI who mimes sex acts between bouts of hysteria. She is played flawlessly by the actor who goes mononymously by Holmes (best known for playing the Daisy May Cooper character in the US adaptation of This Country). Then there’s Peter, the high-status boyfriend of Benny’s sister and fellow student Grace (Mary Beth Barone), who is determined to take “Bento” under his wing. The White Lotus’s Adam DiMarco does an exceptional job of infusing this heinous wannabe alpha with humanity while squeezing every drop of hilarity from his ludicrous vernacular of “yee”s and “nah”s. At one point, Peter and his pals get so high off their own virility that they explode into an orgy of roaring, chest-thumping and shirt-ripping – a pastiche of frat bro masculinity that is quite exquisite.
Overcompensating is also expert at the incidental joke: Benny’s perennially nude roommate sleeping soundly in his bed while pre-drinks rage around him, the pal of Peter’s who announces that he needs the toilet seconds into any social encounter, the film class where everyone loves The Godfather. Less entertaining is the subplot involving a pre-Brat Charli xcx concert (she and Skinner are close friends; the pop star’s music also plays throughout).
Yet despite such japes, the show’s dominant tone ends up being one of heartfelt sincerity. Benny’s attempts at personal growth – ditching the laddy social life of his youth, trying to wriggle out of the business degree his dad (Kyle MacLachlan) pushed him into and meeting new friends – are spiked with knockabout humour, but at its core this is a very earnest and, at points, schmaltzily American show about embracing your true self. The combination of Benny’s sexuality-based struggles and Carmen’s attempts to grapple with grief (her elder brother died the year before) means the ratio of laughs to sentimental musings occasionally feel out of whack – but there is still much to enjoy. Just don’t come to Overcompensating expecting wall-to-wall comedy; this is a thoroughly charming show with a very sensitive soul.
