Ready for another eight-episode autobiographical comedy about the young adult years of a queer comedian? Ok, let's look at Overcompensating (2025), on Amazon Prime. Episode 1, "Lucky"
Prelude: The preteen Benny pauses and gawks at Brendan Fraser's underwear scene in George of the Jungle (1997, but he's watching a DVD later). His sleepover friends don't like it, so he pretends that he doesn't either, and switches to Britney Spears singing "Lucky." A hot lady! They're all thrilled!
Scene 1: The college freshman Benny, who looks way too old for 18, awakens to athletic trophies and his Mom calling him "My perfect boy." She means heterosexual, har har. He climbs out of bed (nice beefcake), announces "I'm Benny, and I love pussy," does push-ups. Benito Skinner was born in 1993, so this must be around 2011.
Flashback: football game, prom king, and kissing his boyfriend (Lukas Gage, left who played gay guys in Companion, Dead Boy Detectives, Love Victor, Euphoria, and...well, everything)
Dad (Kyle McLachlan, who played a gay guy in Girls) bursts in wanting to toss a football around.
Scene 2: Establishing shot of Yates College, no doubt a combination of Yale and Bates, but actually filmed at the University of Toronto. The show is inspired by Benito's years at Georgetown University.
Mom and Dad drop Benny off at the same moment that Carmen's parents drop her off. (Carmen is played by queer comedian, Wally Baram). Her boyfriend texts: "Sorry about last night. Fell asleep." She meets giggly, vivacious blond Roommate, who enlists a random hot dad to help them carry their new vanity up to their room. Flirting with men to get what you want? Carmen is shocked!
Scene 3: Still saying goodbye. Benny's sister Grace appears with her boyfriend Peter (Adam DiMarco), who does that annoying faux-punch greeting and brags about his summer internship at Hawksworth Financial. Big deal, I was an intern at Concordia Publishing House. Grace is upset that Benny will be at the same college, and majoring in business. He has absolutely no interest in business (secret: no one does. You major in it to make money.)
"Dad forced me!"
"Only because you never make a choice of your own!"
Cut to Mom in Bennny's dorm room, complaining that she didn't meet his roommate. "He rows crew, so he has crazy hours." Um...the semester hasn't started yet.
Hug, hug, whimper, out. My parents just dropped me off on the curb and said "Bye! See you at Thanksgiving! Or maybe Christmas. Or...well, we'll call you."
The moment she leaves, Benny grabs his backpack and hustles out of there!
He passes the table for the LGBT student organization, and stares longingly at the swishy leader (Owen Thiele), but is drawn away by the football of the jock Gabe (Corteon Moore, left, Ellis on From).
Gabe and his buds note that they are on the football team, and therefore excused from attending all classes permanently.
A girl asks him to take a photo, and the guys howl and congratulate him. "A hot chick has agreed to have s*x with you!" Dude, why are you still closeted? You're at an Ivy League college in 2011! They have a gay group! When I was in college, you would be expelled if they found out you were gay.
He continues to stare longingly at the gay group. The guys smile and wave, and offer him a free condom. The jocks say that it's ok to take a condom from the gays, since he'll need it for s*x with the hot chick tonight.
Head Gay Owen gives him directions to Freshman Orientation. Darn, I thought he bolted out for some interesting reason, like that wasn't really his dorm room. He didn't get the housing deposit in on time, so he'll have to sleep in the library...nope, he was just late.
Scene 4: Benny arrives at Freshman Orientation, ten people cross-legged on the ground, and sits next to Carmen from Scene 2. Others include Chris (Elias Azimi) and Dean (Charlie Henry Larsen), with the goofy Kevin (Tommy Do) as moderator, almog with the bubbly Courtney and the dour Michelle.
Whoa, here comes the Boy of His Dreams, walking in slow motion across the quad. Dream Boy Miles is played by Rish Shah, who played a gay guy in "Torch Song Trilogy" but a straight guy in "Ms. Marvel".
"In college you can be whoever you want to be, so everybody tell the person next to you who you want to be."
Instead, Benny and Carmen give their back stories. "I'm from Idaho."
"Idaho? Does anyone actually live in Idaho?" Bigot. "Do they have, like, movie theaters? How many of your cousins have you hooked up with?" That's Kentucky.
But she invites him to a pregame in her dorm room: "A night we won't remember with friends we won't. forgive."
More after the break
Scene 5: Benny bribes his sister to buy vodka for him. Her boyfriend asks "How are the freshman girls treating you? Any hotties?" He mentions the pregame, and Boyfriend gets all excited. I hate it how heterosexual guys congratulate you for any interaction wtih a girl, like it's a major triumph. She's a girl. I spoke to her. So what?
He tells Benny to bring his Hot Chick to the Beta House party tonight, and he'll facilitate the sex.
"Tonight sets the tone for your whole college experience. Either you're a dude who f*cks girls, or you're that other kind." He doesn't mean gay -- once the gays are out of sight, you forget that they exist -- he means a lame loser who is forced to into a capella choir and improv.
Hey, on the way out, they do that thing where the guy is with his girlfriend but cruises someone else. Grace suggests that they have a three-way with her; it might help his impotence problem. Dude can't get it up, which is apparently humiliating. I don't know why. If you can't get it up, just give the guy a blow job, or invite him to top you.
Scene 6: Benny gets dressed, holds up the condom, and says "Tonight, you f*ck." Flashback to six months ago, when Benny broke the condom so he wouldn't have to screw his girl: "Shall we watch music videos instead?"
Wait -- you're not really going to do it, are you? Dude, do you think you're straight? I thought you were just gay and closeted -- you had a boyfriend in high school, remember?
I thought I was straight through high school -- I figured it out while watching the opening song of "Grease" -- "We start believin' now, we got to be who we are." But I never considered doing s*x stuff with a girl. The thought never crossed my mind.
Scene 7: Benny arrives at the pregame dorm room party with his vodka. About eight girls and three guys. Chris from Freshman Orientation tries to tap the roommate by claiming to be a DJ. Just send her a dick pic. Or send me one. Dean ineptly flirts with Carmen, but Benny steals her away with an invitation to her brother's party. Isn't a pregame party followed by a game?
While she's in the bathroom, Dean reveals that he, too, has been told that he must f*k a girl on his first night, or he'll become one of those... I thought Benny would invite him to f*k, but he lets him wander off for more inept flirting.
Scene 7: On the way across campus, Carmen's boyfriend calls with a selfie of a girl he's screwed, so she takes a selfie with Benny to imply that she's getting laid, too.
They arrived at the Beta House party -- whoops, all of the roommates have followed them, so now the ratio is six chicas to one rata. If they were guys, there'd be no problem -- you can easily go down on a dozen guys a night. Or so I've heard. But how many times can guys get it up?
Sister is upset that her boyfriend is arranging to screw so many girls, so she tries to distract him into playing beer pong with Benny. They get drink, and when Boyfriend tries to high-five Benny, he misunderstands and hugs him instead. Everyone stares and says "What the f*ck!" Wait -- these guys have been hugging each other all night.
Scene 8: The party continues. Roommate fakes an orgasm on Lap Dance Guy's lap. I'm going to skip over Benny and Carmen trying ineptly to make out.
Scene 9: They decide to go back to his place, but the last shuttle across campus has left, so they steal a golf cart. Benny sees the Man of His Dreams again, but he can't stop and talk to him when he's with Carmen.
The Pitch Perfects, led by Grayson (Luke Avoledo) are practicing -- outside, in the middle of the night. Won't that wake everyone trying to sleep? I thought the golf cart was going to scatter them, but it just drives by. I can write better gags than this show.
I'm fast-forwarding past Benny taking Carmen to his room, feeling her breasts, taking his clothes off, but he can't get hard. He rushes to a bathroom stall to try to get it up, with Carmen cheering him on: "Come on, Benny, I believe in you -- get hard!" He fails. This means he's one of those other kind of guys! Wait -- he fantasizes about the Man of His Dreams as George of the Jungle, and gets hard!
He rushes down the hall to get it into Carmen before it goes soft again. She starts giving him a blow job -- right in front of the door, which his roommate (Austin Lindsay) opens at the wrong moment. He introduces himself nonchalantly, then grabs his gear and leaves.
They have a heart to hear about boring shit and fall asleep cuddling.
Groan. How long does this thing last? I'm bored -- I actually fell asleep -- and annoyed by all the straightness.
Scene 10: Sister and Boyfriend in bed, chatting: "I thought it would be more...more...it was kinda too long." My thoughts exactly, guys!
Back in Benny's dorm room, Carmen gets up and accidentally smashes his very important photo. It's ok, he forgives her. They go to breakfast together.
Out on the quad, all of the guys, even ones he doesn't now, signal their congratulations. He got laid! Well, only for about ten seconds. He is a success, not that...other kind of guy.
So, what's your first class? "Creative writing." "Economics." Business, ugh!
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He runs into Dean from last night, who didn't get laid and therefore must go over to the That Kind of Guy Side -- Improv group try-outs. What's wrong with improv?
Scene 11: Economics class. The professor begins with a dictionary definition of the term. Idiotic, lady!
Whoa, the Man of His Dreams just walked in! Could he be a boring, heteronormative business major, too? Nope, he's looking for the queer-coded Intro to Film Studies, next door. Drop econ and register for something that will enrich your life -- and get you laid for real.. The professor tells him the same thing.
He rushes next door to the film class, full of hot artsy gay guys, including Declan Cooper, CJ Byrd-Vasseil, and Liam Marshall. The end.
Beefcake: A lot of random chests, Benny's butt. Various cute guys.
Other Sights: The campus is scenic.
Gay Characters: Benny, probably.
Heterosexism: The main goal of everyone is to have heterosexual sex to prove that they are valuable human beings and not losers. This premise is not challenged during the episode.
Plot Twists: None. Not even the obvious ones. And no a capella group gets scattered by a golf cart.
Will I Keep Watching: Nope.
See also: Big Boys: A Gay University Freshman tries to make friends,get laid, and find his tribe.
The Seminarian: Gay Evangelical with an enormous d*ck looks for love, annoys his friends
Dead Boy Detectives: Ghost buddies, one gay, one bi, solve afterlife mysteries
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