When first arriving at college, it is common for students to hear about how exciting the next four years of their lives are going to be. Every experience will be new, every person will be different, and it will finally be a time to change, grow and figure everything out independently. And sure, it can be exciting, but nobody talks about how odd it can be. The first season of “Overcompensating,” the A24-produced comedy series that premiered on Prime Video, captures that awkward ridiculousness of college and multiplies it times one hundred.
The series, which stars writer and creator Benito Skinner, is loosely based on Skinner’s own experience at Georgetown University. It follows Skinner as Benny navigating relationships, friendships and conformity as a closeted college freshman.
A former high school football star from small town Idaho, Benny pushes himself to keep up his stereotypical straight jock persona to an embarrassing degree, often creating issues that impact his view of himself as well as his relationships with other characters in the show, such as his best friend Carmen, played by Wally Baram, and sister Grace, played by Mary Beth Barone.
The show does an impressive job of creating accurate but over-exaggerated versions of people typically expected to be found at college. Though Benny, Carmen and Grace seem to be rooted in reality despite their quirks, characters like Peter, Grace’s arrogant frat-leader boyfriend played by Adam DiMarco, and Carmen’s flighty and outlandish roommate played by Holmes, contribute heavily to the show’s ridiculous but somehow relatable portrayal of the college experience.
However, what really sets “Overcompensating” apart in terms of its relatability to college students is its satirical take on the nuances of campus culture. From price gouging at the campus convenience store to the feeling that everyone is judging you for eating by yourself in the dining hall, it conveys the kind of universally silly experiences that college students are bound to find themselves in.
Through Benny and Carmen’s experience with a fictional fraternity, the Flesh and Gold Society, the show manages to use hazing and party culture as a vehicle to further its message on conformity and identity by overexaggerating and critiquing the excess that viewers know actually occurs in these spaces.
Despite its unspecified time frame that lets it hang within the liminal space of the millennial-age 2010s, the show maintains this relatability to modern college students and even features some guest stars to draw popular appeal. Charli xcx, who also happens to be the executive music producer for the series, appears in an episode to perform for an on-campus concert, and Megan Fox even makes a cameo as a poster of herself that Benny imagines himself speaking to.
Despite its flashiness, raunchiness and cringe-inducing scenarios, “Overcompensating” at its heart manages to remain a story about figuring out who you are and what matters to you. Through Benny’s journey with his sexuality and the development of characters like Grace and Carmen, the show has one major cliche message that it manages to tie up into an incredibly entertaining, relatable and heartfelt bow: It is okay to just be yourself, and it is okay if you still are not quite sure who that is yet. “Overcompensating” proves that nobody else does either.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Culture Pick .. ‘Overcompensating’ captures the absurdity of the college experience )
Also on site :