Overcompensating...an Amazon Prime Show

A personal review of Overcompensating, the new queer series on Amazon Prime, exploring its characters, themes, and LGBTQ+ representation.

I’m a sucker for shows where the main characters—or even all of the characters—are gay. I’ll suffer through bad movies just to give myself that type of story. For example, see “Make The Yuletide Gay” and “Another Gay Movie.” This goes back to when I was a kid in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when shows with a gay character were only gay by description. They never really dated or even kissed another guy.

I’ve loved—and even been a little jealous of—the current generation, who have been able to watch shows like Heartstopper, Love, Victor, or even Sex Lives of College Girls for the lesbian experience. So when I saw a preview of Amazon Prime’s Overcompensating, I knew I’d be checking it out.

Overcompensating is a show created by the gorgeous Benito Skinner. I’ve read that it’s semi-autobiographical, and Benito not only created and wrote most of the episodes but also stars as the male lead, Benny. While Benny and his friend Carmen (played by Wally Baram) are considered the leads, I feel this show is truly an ensemble and does a great job telling a few different stories.

Not all of the characters get fully fleshed out, like Milo, who is teased as a possible love interest for Benny most of the season, or Benny’s roommate Trey (played by Austin Lindsay). By the way, the most we learn about Trey is what his soft dick and ass look like, because that’s how we usually see him—completely naked.

Austin Lindsay as Trey. We seem him naked more than we see anything else from him..

Before I really get into the overall series, I want to highlight three characters who help make this show stand out. Grace (played by Mary Beth Barone) is Benny’s older sister. She actually starts to develop into a stronger character toward the end of the season, and I look forward to seeing where she goes. Peter (played by Adam DiMarco) is another character who actually ends up regressing. I know not everybody can grow in a series—you need those characters that cause the main characters turmoil—but it was disappointing to invest so much time into Peter and then just see him blow things up a bit. Maybe in season 2, if it happens, we’ll get a Peter that grows. The final character I consider part of the main cast is Hailee (played by Holmes). I thought Hailee would just be a one-trick pony, there only for a little comic relief, but I could be wrong. I feel like they’re going to give us something more with her in future seasons.

Ambiguity is a big theme in this series—not only with the way nobody knows where Yates University is located (which is sometimes typical of TV shows; for example, The Simpsons is famous for keeping Springfield’s location ambiguous), but also with the timeline. I found myself googling when some songs, television shows, or other pop culture references happened to try and pinpoint when the story was being told. Some references that made me wonder were Charli XCX, Glee, Twilight, Megan Fox, and many more. I think it’s set somewhere around 2012, but we’ll probably never be told—and it truly doesn’t matter. That just isn’t the point.

We’re all used to older actors playing high school or college-age students—think Beverly Hills 90210, or Ben Platt in Dear Evan Hansen. You definitely have to suspend disbelief when watching 31-year-old Benito Skinner play college freshman Benny. There were times early on when I just laughed at him trying to play this role, but it’s part of the charm, and you eventually just go with the flow. I know Benny is supposed to be inexperienced in sex, but his kissing scenes really do come across like they should be part of Love on the Spectrum.

I often say I’m past coming-out stories, but I always get drawn in when a character comes out to their parents—probably because I’ll never have that moment myself. So when Benny sits down with his mom in the awesome Thanksgiving episode, I thought we were going to get another moment like Jennifer Garner’s character gives Simon in the movie Love, Simon. But no such luck. Much like the rest of the series, Benny never actually says the words “I am gay.” A few characters figure it out; Carmen ends up outing Benny to a few people in the last few seconds of the first season, but Benny never really says it himself. The closest he comes is when Benny is talking to his high school friend Sammy (played by Lukas Gage) and says Carmen is his Fag Hag, and he can say it because she is a hag and he is a… I definitely hope when/if we get a season 2, Benny actually has some of those conversations where he says he is gay. But like it says in the title, Benny overcompensates to try and be that straight bro from high school.

Lukas Gage, photo snapped from Instagram

There’s a fabulous list of guests playing some great characters, but let me talk about Lukas Gage for a second. Ever since I first saw Lukas in that video that went around the internet—where he’s auditioning for a role during COVID times and the producer doesn’t know his mic is not muted, just completely talking shit about the space Lukas was in—I’ve found him extremely gorgeous, sexy, and charming, and I’ll watch anything he does. So getting him in a very small part in Overcompensating was a plus. Hopefully, we get more of him in season 2. He deserves to get bigger and better roles.

I’m not a critic, and this may not make perfect sense, but when it comes down to it, I highly recommend checking out Overcompensating on Amazon Prime. It’s an easy, bingeable show of eight episodes, all around 30 minutes long and full of queer characters. If you’re finding this article because you know what I do, I know you can appreciate queer characters. If you randomly found it with a web search, watch this show anyway. You won’t be disappointed.