When I saw that Charli XCX was in a new Amazon Prime series Overcompensating, I dropped all my responsibilities and started watching immediately. Created by Benito Skinner, this college set comedy follows closeted ex football star and homecoming king Benny and chaos loving try hard Carmen as they stumble through their freshman year at “Yates University.” As a recent grad, the show is painfully funny, insanely accurate, and somehow manages to dig up every memory I’ve tried to repress since my freshman year at IU. Before we get started, here is a tik tok I posted at the end of my first semester freshman year so enjoy : )
Charli XCX: From Yates U to IU
So yes, I started watching because of Charli XCX. In the show, she performs during Benny and Carmen’s freshman year, and I immediately had IU flashbacks. During my freshman year at Indiana University Bloomington in 2021, Charli performed at our Welcome Week Block Party. I remember sitting in my intensive freshman seminar class not paying attention to class (sorry professor Embry <3) just waiting to get my hands on those tickets. But seeing Charli XCX today for $40??? BFFR never again
And just like Carmen in the show, it felt like the event to go. Some people were excited and some people didn’t care and wish IU could’ve gotten a bigger artist to perform… well look at her now LOL. But then… Charli didn’t play “Boom Clap.” People were mad and a lot of my friends said Charli seemed seemed like she didn’t even want to be there 😭 and then the show literally has Charli saying to her manager, “Do you think I wanna play fucking ‘Boom Clap’ in a fucking college?” I screamed when I saw this clip on Tik Tok and sent it to the gc. In this moment, I knew I was about to binge the whole season.
Freshman Year Party Tops
Within the first five minutes, I had to pause and take a moment because freshman Carmen shows up in a green Zara party top that my actual roommate wore our freshman year. 😭😭 I took a screenshot and sent it to my friends immediately.
That was the moment I realized: this show gets it. The freshman year party tops. Finding your first friends that you may or may not talk to ever again. Worrying about who is going to get alcohol for you with their fake ID.
Hookup Culture
Another part of the show that hit way too close to home was the totally unhinged way the characters talk about sex and relationships the first day they got on campus. Peter says to Benny, “Tonight sets the tone for the rest of college. Either you’re a dude who fucks or… nah.” And Hailee pressures Carmen by saying, “I just need you to have a night-one hookup because I don’t want anyone to think you’re a sad, lonely freak.”
…This reminded me once again of one of the most awkward experiences of my life.
During Welcome Week, my new friend group sat in a circle eating Pizza X (a Bloomington staple), and someone — who I had literally just met — started talking about her body count. Then she made everyone go around the circle and say theirs. “Oh you’re a virgin?!?” WHAT???? I remembered I lied and I’m pretty sure I said 2 because everyone else was fucking in HS apparently. In this moment I was shocked, jaw dropped, and I still bring it up to this day because it was one of those quintessential college moments that feels too ridiculous to be real and yet, it was.
Going to school in Indiana… A Diversity Reality Check
One of the most relatable scenes in Overcompensating was also when the New Student Orientation leaders are introduced and one of them says, “You might recognize us from the school’s diversity brochure, diversity website and diversity in action panel, and that is the extent of that diversity.” LOL As a POC at a predominantly white institution, that line was both funny and real asf. And in another scene, my fav character Hailee, turns to Carmen and asks, “Are you Latinx?” in the most casual, white girl way possible. I feel like I’ve lived that exact conversation. Multiple times. It’s like the writers opened my snap memories and made it a script.
A Love Letter to Freshman Year
What makes Overcompensating so good isn’t just how funny or campy it is having 30 year olds play college students. It’s how deeply it understands that freshman year is one long, unhinged performance of who you think you’re supposed to be. It’s the fake confidence. It’s oversharing with strangers and underestimating your own awkwardness. It’s trying so hard to not be the “sad, lonely freak” that you end up in a group chat called “Whore House” and regretting everything.
So in conclusion before I end up spoiling anything about the show… Benito Skinner’s show is a chaotic and insanely relatable and for that reason, I am obsessed.
Bring on Season 2. I need it.
Natalia Diaz 
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