Prime Video's "Overcompensating" is one of the best series this year

Reel Perspectives

May 20, 2025

Fans can't get enough of Overcompensating and are already clamoring for a second season! This fresh coming of age series, created by and starring Benito Skinner, premiered exclusively on Prime Video on May 15, featuring all eight episodes of its first season. Fans took to social media, buzzing about the storylines, its characters, and hilarious comedy.

The series, produced by A24 and Amazon MGM Studios, with showrunner Scott King and directors Desiree Akhavan and Daniel Gray Longino, follows Benny (Skinner), a closeted former football player, valedictorian, and homecoming king at Yates University, who becomes fast friends with Carmen (Wally Baram), a high school outsider on a mission to fit in at all costs. Benny is determined to use Carmen as his girlfriend to hide the fact that he's gay, feeling overwhelmed by the societal and familial pressures of coming out. With guidance from Benny's older sister (Mary Beth Barone) and her campus-legend boyfriend (Adam DiMarco), Benny and Carmen juggle "horrible hookups, flavored vodka, and fake IDs." What could possibly go wrong?

Overcompensating is stacked with a rich ensemble cast, making the series so much fun to watch. In addition to the aforementioned, the series stars:

• Adam DiMarco as Peter

• Rish Shah as Miles

• Chelsea Holmes as Hailee

• Corteon Moore as Gabe

• Owen Thiele as George

• Nell Verlaque as Emily

• Elias Azimi as Chris

• Tomaso Sanelli as Trent

• Alexandra Beaton as Bridget

• Kaia Gerber as Esther

• Carolyn Scott as Carol

• Austin Lindsay as Trey

• Julia Shiplett as Mimi

• David Klein as Adam

• Lukas Gage as Sammy

Prime Video

Notable guest stars include Megan Fox, Bowen Yang, Matt Rogers, James Van Der Beek, Didi Conn, and Charli XCX, who also serves as an executive producer, along with Jonah Hill. The series is already one of the best 2025 has to offer, full of heart, highly relatable, tackling the sensitive subject of coming out and the anxieties, expectations, and disappointments that come with it. The series could have easily become another run-of-the-mill, typical college series with sexual antics. Instead, this charming and funny series is surprisingly honest in showcasing the lies we tell ourselves and the fabrications we create, often driven by feelings of inadequacy, leading to exaggeration and overcompensation.

At the heart of Overcompensated is Benny and Carmen's relationship, along with the relationships between the characters that make the series highly entertaining. The first season ends on a tantalizing cliffhanger, with Carmen revealing his secret, laying the foundation for another highly entertaining and layered season 2.

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All eight episodes of Overcompensating are currently available to stream on Prime Video.

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