Benito Skinner is previewing the forthcoming second season of Prime Video‘s Overcompensating.
The semi-autobiographical dramedy — centering on his titular character, a closeted jock who becomes fast friends with outsider Carmen (Wally Baram) during their freshman year of college — “feels more queer” in Season 2, the writer-star teased, as Benny ventures further out of the closet.
“We didn’t make a whole new show, but we did elevate it in a lot of ways. I think there’s a maturity to it,” the creator told People in a new interview. “I’m really excited — and it’s nasty.”
The multi-hyphenate added of the second season, which is currently filming: “I’m really proud of these scripts — I worked so hard on them. What we’ve done so far feels even more of exactly what I wanted to make. Everything feels really warmed up and everyone is just so funny and sharp.”
Of the sophomore installment, Skinner said he wanted to replicate the “specificity” that resonated with audiences in the inaugural season of the ensemble series. “I’m like, ‘Let’s see how honest we can get here without us all feeling uncomfortable,’ without me being like, ‘I can’t do that because what if my aunt watches?’”
After bowing on the Amazon streaming platform in May of last year, the show remained on the bubble for some months before eventually being renewed in September.
In Season 1, with guidance from Benny’s older sister (Mary Beth Barone) and her campus-legend boyfriend (Adam DiMarco), Benny and Carmen juggled horrible hookups, flavored vodka and fake IDs, as the show explored the ways we all overcompensate while on the path to finding out who we truly are. The finale concluded on an uncomfortable cliffhanger between Benny and Carmen, as the former walked in on the latter making out with his crush Miles (Rish Shah), leading to an unexpected confrontation in which Benny is accidentally outed to his sister.
