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
