Review | Created by Benito Skinner, ‘Very Effortful’ is one of the best comedy series of the year

Benito Skinner began to gain a lot of popularity when it became one of the personas most prolific social platforms today – drawing inspiration from comedy legends to create hilarious sketches that soon caught the attention of Hollywood. It didn’t take long until the actor made his official debut on the entertainment scene with the series ‘Hitbox’shortly after being cast in productions such as ‘Queer as people’, ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and the ambitious feature film by ‘Idiot’which made its debut at the SXSW Festival in March. Now, he makes his official debut as a screenwriter, producer and protagonist of the LGBTQIA+ drama ‘Very Effortful’.

The production, which reached the catalog of Prime Video on the last day May 15centers on Benny, an American football player who was very successful in high school and was always painted as an exemplary boy – with high grades, selected as valedictorian and prom king in his graduation year, and a skilled athlete desired by all the school’s female students. However, Benny spent his life hiding a secret from everyone – his true sexual orientation that he tried to hide buried in his mind and focus on the role model he needed to represent for his family and his supposed friends. When he enters the rigorous Yale University to study business administration, the fear of rejection and freedom to be who he is returns with force, sending him into an inescapable spiral.

The narrative seems to have been taken from Skinner’s experiences, as he revealed he was gay in his final year of college – and bringing them to the small screen is not just an exercise in entertainment, but a healthy and therapeutic way of realizing how he has evolved since then. After all, this experience of “coming out of the closet” is known to almost every member of the community queer – and seeing a plot like this being remodeled in the purest form of fun has the inestimable value of a representation that does not force itself to empty the agenda, but that focuses on a specific anthropological situation with playfulness and simplicity. And, over the course of eight short episodes, Skinner knows very well what he is doing by enchanting us with solid plots and impeccable performances.

Of course, the genre in question has already been explored ad nauseam no show businessmainly from the final years of the 2010s. Skinner borrows pages from names like Phoebe Waller-Bridge e Tom Perrotta to establish a comedy of situations with touches of nonsense that shine from the screens. The great result is not just the result of an acid script marked by delicious sarcasm: this journey coming-of-age is marked by great chemistry between Skinner and the rest of the cast, which includes Wally Baram as Carmem, a recent Yale graduate who, on her first night, tries to have sex with Benny and becomes a friend through thick and thin who, in fact, emerges as one of the main plots of the attraction.

Mary Beth Barone does a great job as Grace, Benny’s older sister and one of the reasons why pressure has always accompanied the protagonist’s life; Here, she poses as Peter’s love interest, an inconvenient and childish university veteran who doesn’t seem to grow up and has an intrinsic need to attract attention and reaffirm his popularity – and who is masterfully embodied by Adam DiMarco. Finally, Rish Shah emerges as Miles, a film student who catches Benny’s attention for obvious reasons and who becomes the starting point for him to finally understand who he is (and start making decisions on his own, without fear if he finds happiness).

One of the most successful aspects of the show is the way in which teen and young adult dramas converge on the same point, whether in showing the disparate reality between high school and college, or the way in which conventions we grew up with and are bombarded with day after day remain even when we are at the height of our freedom. And this concern with the sincerity and honesty of each character’s arcs is reflected in cautious aesthetic care – both in technical and artistic direction.

‘Very Effortful’ is a pleasant surprise from Prime Video and one of the best debuts of the year – bringing Skinner at his best through a jocular, personal and intimate statement that is analyzed from an original perspective and filled with classic incursions of the genre. The eight chapters that make up the first season pass in the blink of an eye and leave us looking forward to a likely second cycle, which certainly has a lot to tell us.