Overcompensating

Did you love Pen15 and want to watch more shows where adults pretend to be teens? Except this time it's worse because it's not clearly played for laughs. Overcompensating truly asked a lot of me when they expected me to accept actors who were clearly in their 30s as university-aged. 

I watched 10 Things I Hate About You last night, and it still holds up. Kat is still a badass. The dialogue may be ridiculous, but I can still quote many lines. The actors are also fully grown adults. But for some reason, I can forgive this indiscretion because it feels like a relic of the past.

With Overcompensating, I found it distracting. I couldn't understand how I was supposed to sympathise with these mature people and their juvenile problems. It just felt like watching a bunch of millennials play-acting as Gen Z.  

We live in a post-Skins world, and young people are often played by actual young people.  I know this isn't always the case, but there's something so special about watching talented young actors and fresh faces take on the very roles meant for them. They should be bright-eyed and full of energy. They are playing adolescents. 

Some of the characters in Overcompensating look like they could use a nap. As their contemporary, I completely understand that. But that's just the problem. I should find their excessive energy grating, I shouldn't relate to teens, and this is because these actors probably struggle to remember even being teens. 

I'm unsure what the show wants to be. With all the criticism of the actors aside, I was moved by some moments, and I often found myself rooting for the characters, especially Benny. But Overcompensating certainly lacks a clear purpose. It's not gritty and cinematic like Euphoria, but it fails to stick the landing of fun, campy early twenties romps, like the early seasons of The Sex Lives of College Girls (may she rest in peace). 

The show feels like an MTV show. It has that same high-resolution look and meaninglessly convoluted storylines. 

As queer young person I was hungry for any queer media, but particularly queer stories. I was obessesed with MTV's Faking It, about two best friends at high school who are pretending to be in a queer relationship to get the approval and attention of their peers. To say that Faking It failed to stick the landing is an understatement. Despite that, with very little queer media to enjoy, I stuck it out to the bitter end. 

Overcompensating has a similar feel to Faking It. So much of the tension is reliant on miscommunication, and the laughs are often cheap. Benny and his peers' over-the-top impressions of masculinity were borderline unwatchable. To sum up the feel of Overcompensating, I'd say it's MTV's Faking It meets Love, Simon. I'm sure most of you have already lost interest.

Despite all my vitriol, Overcompensating does have heart. The relationship between Carmen and Benny is particularly refreshing. In a sea of confusion, they find each other and cling to one another. But, they lack the maturity to be the friends to each other that they need as Carmen moves through the grief from losing her brother, and Benny stumbles his way out of the closet. 

Benny's character also represents a painful reality for many queer people, if you're straight passing, and even in Benny's case, the pinnacle of conventional masculinity, why ruin that by revealing your deepest secret? 

At first, I wasn’t sure I could finish the season. But I’m glad I followed my instincts to keep watching. There were some amazing cameos, particularly from Charli XCX. All in all, this series is messy. But I don’t mind a bit of mess. If you ignore a lot of odd choices, there are hints of depth to its story. 

I’m sorry about what I said about Love, Simon. Overcompensating is a little bit edgier than that.