The New Yorker:

Benito Skinner’s Prime Video series about a closeted jock starts off as a satire of toxic masculinity—and lands somewhere surprisingly sweet.

By Inkoo Kang

Benny Scanlon, the protagonist of the new comedy “Overcompensating,” is the kind of boy mothers don’t know to warn their daughters about. Tall, handsome, and polite, Benny—played by Benito Skinner—checks a near-comical number of boxes: valedictorian, football player, homecoming king. The Prime Video series opens on Benny’s first day of college, where he instantly clicks with a girl named Carmen (Wally Baram) at orientation. He’s eager to get it on, but his driving motivation isn’t lust or connection. Benny is a closeted gay guy who craves the acceptance of straight dudes—so he brings Carmen back to his dorm and fantasizes about a boy back home in order to get aroused by the half-naked girl in front of him.

“Overcompensating” is about the immense temptation to keep up such an act, even as the lack of authenticity becomes corrosive. Skinner, who created the series with elements drawn from his own life, is a particularly sharp satirist of the relentless policing of masculinity by other men. Knowing how to execute a bro-y handshake correctly is treated as a matter of life or death; in an Intro to Film Studies class, every single male student claims one of the “Godfather” movies as his favorite. Small talk among guys—even strangers—amounts to asking if the other party’s got some, getting some, or planning to get some. (Subjected to one such interrogation, Benny is quick to assert that he’s on the case, declaring, in language that no one who actually has sex would use, “It’s gonna be a porkfest.”)

Go to link