Benito Skinner’s sexy college comedy “Overcompensating” ends in a heartbreaking cliffhanger – the creator, writer, executive producer and star said he always knew the first season’s ending from his first conversations with producing partner Scott King.
“Overcompensating,” Skinner’s first foray into long-form comedy, is semi-autobiographical. He stars as a closeted high-school football star Benny from Idaho, who must confront his sexuality in a way he never had to before when he goes off to college.
After a season of failed attempts, missteps with friends and countless discoveries, Benny finds himself betrayed by the person he trusts most. After a heart-to-heart with his first college kiss turned best friend Carmen (Wally Baram), he finds her kissing his campus crush Miles (Rish Shah). Moments later Carmen accidentally outs him at the party, while both his sister and his crush are within earshot.
Skinner said that this sequence of unfortunate events was loosely based on his own college experience and said he and King crafted the finale and worked their way backwards from there.
“We had that last moment, and then we came up with the last back and forth between Benny and Carmen, and it was like all right, let’s find the in between,” Skinner told TheWrap.
The creator and star said that one of the hardest parts of being in the writers’ room was forcing characters he fell in love with to continue to make mistakes.
“It was hard at times, because in the room – I’m excited that people felt this way – but we would start to really love some of the characters, but then we would have to have them do awful things because we’re in college,” Skinner said. “They’re drunk, they’re insecure, they want to be loved.”
Whether it is Adam DiMarco’s Peter putting his secret society on blast to the entire school or Carmen kissing her best friend’s crush or Benny ditching Carmen for Flesh & Gold, each one of the leading characters mess up their closest relationships by obsessing over themselves and their own self image.
“College is a bit selfish, and it’s self preservation,” he said. “They’re not just going to stop overcompensating. I think people do their whole lives.”
Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger, cutting just seconds after Carmen spills Benny’s big secret, but Skinner says he has big plans for Season 2 – he just needs the greenlight.
“I can’t believe this was my first experience of it because I’m addicted now, and we have to make Season 2,” Skinner told TheWrap. “Can you text Amazon right now?”
Skinner’s supporting cast members agree. Baram and Mary Beth Barone, who plays Benny’s sister Grace, both worked in the writers’ room for the Amazon series before signing on as series regulars. The two women told TheWrap that Season 2, if renewed, will allow the characters to find new ways to overcompensate.
“If Benny is living as a gay man in season two, what does the overcompensation look like for that person? And if Grace is more into the counterculture, what does that look like for her to be overcompensating? Is she going to get a septum piercing? Is she gonna dye her hair black?” Barone told TheWrap. “And then I think we might see them slip back into their old ways.”
DiMarco, who plays Grace’s toxic boyfriend Peter and leader of Flesh & Gold, told TheWrap that “Overcompensating” needs a Season 2 because he knows what is up Skinner’s sleeve.
“It’s a tough question to answer because I know exactly what Benny has planned if there is a Season 2 for most of the characters,” “The White Lotus” star told TheWrap. “Everything Benny has planned is just insane and hilarious, and you just wouldn’t see it coming.”
For Peter, DiMarco said he will grow and change in an “unhinged way.” Baram hopes that Benny and Carmen can mend their relationship after her big slip in the finale episode.
“Her overcompensating with intimacy is an example of, ultimately, artifice, because she wants to feel loved so very badly,” she told TheWrap. “I really hope for Benny and Carmen’s relationship that they’re able to mend that because I think it’s really the heart and soul of the show.”
All eight episodes of “Overcompensating” are available to stream on Prime Video.
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