Culture Study Podcast - BONUS EPISODE： Is Off Campus the Corniest New Show on Television... or The Hottest？ [preview]

00:00:00.000 Hi, everyone. Welcome to a very special bonus episode of the Culture Study Podcast on the

00:00:07.060 new show, Off Campus. With me today, let's introduce ourselves. So there's me, Anne Helen

00:00:14.140 Peterson, your host. Who else is here?

00:00:17.460 I'm Margaret H. Willison. I'm your specifically, I'm your bonus host.

00:00:23.960 Yeah, that's a good way to put it. 0.85

00:00:25.620 Some kids have a bonus mom. 0.98

00:00:27.300 like in fact one of the things I refer to them as myself as a bonus adult uh of the girls nice

00:00:34.640 uh I'm Melody Rowell I produce this show uh and how do you feel about hockey romances Melody

00:00:40.960 uh I've read exactly one and that was wow heated rivalry after I watched the show um I just have

00:00:49.760 no interest in hockey as a concept so and I don't I just I haven't read that many sports romances

00:00:55.760 in general you read baseball romance i've read a couple but not like not like the genre of oh it's

00:01:05.280 different dang it i meant to um i have a hat there's a really great romance company that's

00:01:11.440 called 831 press and they put out like very chic little novellas and they also have really great

00:01:16.860 um merch including like favorite trope baseball caps and my baseball cap is fake relationship

00:01:25.000 it because also melody is one of hers also uh shared bed right melody they have that one

00:01:31.240 actually forced proximity yeah but that can't be like you can't sell me the book based on only one

00:01:37.920 bed this is i feel like it needs to be a surprise okay hold on we gotta we gotta talk about what

00:01:42.920 we're gonna talk about today so sure this show off campus i first started hearing about it because 0.77

00:01:48.460 my best friend elena who is going to murder me for not inviting her as additional co-host for

00:01:54.700 this show she is a huge hockey romance fan and i mean i think she's read like a solid dozen

00:02:03.180 if not more she is not a hockey person but it just scratches an itch for her and so she knew

00:02:09.740 about this new show and then also she works with a bunch of younger people who are also very into

00:02:15.100 it so she started sending me memes and peer pressuring me into watching it and i knew like

00:02:21.600 given the premise this is a show that comes out you know how many months like we're talking six

00:02:28.940 months after heated rivalry there is a lot of still a lot of discourse and affection and interest

00:02:35.520 in romance adaptations it is based on a very long series of books written by l kennedy and i think

00:02:44.900 that the first one was released in 2015 we can talk later in the episode about the very interesting

00:02:53.020 year vibes that are going on in this show um but it starts in 2015 or she releases the first one

00:03:00.520 in 2015 and then there are five in that series and then there's a spinoff series that has another

00:03:06.540 four books and another spinoff series that has three books and the premise of the show is pretty

00:03:13.420 simple it's kind of a classic like slightly nerdy girl has to be in a relationship for

00:03:19.400 complicated reasons a fake relationship for complicated reasons she makes a deal with the

00:03:23.760 star hockey player she makes a deal the first the first book in the series is actually called

00:03:29.880 the deal i didn't even know that that's funny with this with the star hot hockey player

00:03:36.760 at a university yeah garrett at a university called briar university that again very interesting

00:03:45.160 seems like it's someplace ambiguously in massachusetts 100 but also ambiguously like

00:03:50.980 d3 but with like d1 fans yeah and also hockey scholarships which do not exist in d3 schools

00:04:01.220 and uh like sports media like local television stations covering well local television stations

00:04:10.100 and um like a cute gossip they slash them yes as a gossip girl they're live streaming it on

00:04:16.900 instagram right okay so jewels is uh logan's sibling and apparently we'll get into this again

00:04:24.420 later apparently there's a lot more in the books about like these other sub characters and like

00:04:29.320 class divides and that sort of thing that we only get into a little bit here so discuss today I just

00:04:35.200 want to set the table and then we'll go into all of our details we're gonna spend the first half of

00:04:39.340 the episode pretty spoiler free we're gonna talk about some plot points but we're not gonna get

00:04:44.180 into the nitty-gritty so if you still want to watch the show then you can listen to this first

00:04:50.060 part and just listen to us talking about like hockey romance adaptations in general but we're

00:04:55.180 also going to talk about uh why this show is resonating what gap it's filling in i think a

00:05:03.000 lot of our media diets we're going to talk about the boobs in this show we're going to have a whole

00:05:07.940 segment this is in our google doc let's talk a bit about boobs there's so much to say uh and what

00:05:14.700 works and what doesn't so if all of this is of interest i really think um this is just a really

00:05:20.640 enjoyable show so even if you don't think you are into hockey romance hopefully you will have fun

00:05:26.360 listening to us talk about this show and also about college set romance uh the style of which

00:05:34.840 we have not seen a ton of in the last i don't know five six years so okay to kick us off what

00:05:43.760 did i not talk about in terms of plot margaret can you tell us a little bit like um about like

00:05:50.380 the intrigue how the yeah pilot sets us up i guess so how the pilot sets us up we get a lot

00:05:57.900 of background about hannah nickname wellesie per garrett graham uh who's the sort of nerdy uh

00:06:06.740 nerdy student who agrees to tutor him in philosophy so that he will pretend to date her

00:06:14.600 and make her look more desirable to the musician she has a crush on i don't understand why she's

00:06:19.820 tutoring him in philosophy when she's a music major great for her but she's a music major

00:06:27.000 and her arc in this moment is she wanted to be she was focused on classical composition

00:06:34.100 but there's no money in classical composition so the scholarship she was counting on

00:06:38.620 to be at briar next semester has just disappeared just uh mid-semester her advisor's like just

00:06:46.120 sorry sorry yeah yeah no it's like three weeks into the semester she mentions this in the

00:06:51.220 conversation with the advisor but then her big chance to win another scholarship isn't until

00:06:56.800 the end of the semester and it's a pop showcase right which is just like you write your best

00:07:02.940 possible pop song and then you all go head to head live to win in a scholarship hacked auditorium

00:07:10.480 every audience is packed this is part of the beauty of this show right is every college

00:07:16.580 anything there's just a packed and attentive audience um yeah yeah i'll just say that this

00:07:23.700 show does not demonstrate a very sophisticated understanding of college financial aid that's all

00:07:31.700 yeah especially i think having a sophisticated understanding of almost anything other than like

00:07:40.860 classic rom-com tropes and how to embody them slash improve on them is like if you're looking

00:07:48.380 for a sophisticated understanding of anything other than that you've come to the wrong show

00:07:51.480 the show doesn't traffic in sophisticated understanding it traffics in really good

00:07:58.120 trope execution but to get back to it our trope execution we have hannah she's working so many 0.97

00:08:06.860 jobs she's a brunette she's she's really cute she doesn't seem to know it and she's got really low 1.00

00:08:12.040 self-esteem so she can't pursue the like sexy musician who plays at the bar where she waitresses

00:08:17.840 as one of her 17 different jobs um meanwhile garrett graham is the son of some really big

00:08:27.100 deal New York Rangers player. Uh, and he's the star hockey, hockey athlete. And he's so good

00:08:33.720 that he's even been recruited already by the Boston Bruins. Um, and although he could as

00:08:40.280 star athlete, just like get his coach to sort of make his academics suddenly work out in such a

00:08:47.800 way that he can play, you know, he won't ever use his name or position. He only wants things he's

00:08:52.240 earned for himself including a better grade in philosophy which he needs to get through Hannah

00:08:57.200 because even though their class is graded on a curve and therefore statistically only a certain

00:09:01.420 number of people can get above a C she managed to get an A plus on one paper so he wants the

00:09:08.140 tutoring she's like I'm way too busy I can't tutor you but then he observes the social awkwardness

00:09:13.720 around the musician and he's like I know guys like that that guy is not going to be interested

00:09:19.560 you until he knows you've been taken by somebody else and that is sort of where we end the episode

00:09:26.300 as he demonstrates it by coming over and like putting his coat on her while she's talking to

00:09:30.920 the musician guy and you like watch the musician guy being like wow your status has gone up in my 0.95

00:09:34.860 eyes you're so much hotter than me now um and she's like oh darn it i guess i will agree to 0.76

00:09:41.960 tutor you so you'll pretend to date me so this musician will want to be with me um and that's 0.93

00:09:47.700 our basic table setting i guess in our background we have um some winning hockey boys who live in

00:09:56.640 the titular off-campus hockey house the nicest off-campus house i have ever seen in my entire

00:10:03.020 life yeah and you have one like um draco malfoy with a heart of gold blonde rich hockey player

00:10:12.080 who's like also a player and sleeps with everybody but like really respectful about it

00:10:17.280 His last name is De Laurentiis.

00:10:19.660 Yeah.

00:10:20.100 The names are really impressive.

00:10:23.240 So yeah, Dean De Laurentiis.

00:10:26.460 Love, again, alliterative naming.

00:10:28.340 I don't think I knew his name until like the seventh episode.

00:10:31.220 I mean, well, you don't need to.

00:10:33.380 It's just Draco Malfoy with a heart of gold.

00:10:35.840 Who's named Dean?

00:10:38.960 Only characters on CW shows.

00:10:41.160 And we should say that this, to me,

00:10:45.440 like it feels like a cw show which means it also feels like uh like what was the one before cw

00:10:52.880 before they merged together the wb the wb or upn right those are the two those are the two

00:10:58.640 networks that predated production values in terms of writing skill uh see i think that's unfair to

00:11:06.720 a lot of really quality shows that are on the cw and wb like i think we're conflating like a one

00:11:11.960 tree hill and a gilmore girls and they were both on the same network but they are a very different

00:11:16.040 quality when it comes to writing i have a very specific understanding of sort of like where this

00:11:21.980 movie exists in an aesthetic quality space i think it's more in line with like gossip girl

00:11:28.220 yeah yeah in terms of sophistication i think that's about right although there's irony in

00:11:37.340 gossip girl because like gossip girl like wanted to be watched by adults who lived in new york city

00:11:41.940 yeah yeah so there's like a self-referential irony that's sort of baked into it that is like

00:11:46.440 not in this at all there is no irony in this production it is purely sincere and utterly

00:11:53.820 pure of heart yes and i also we haven't talked about this yet but there are um two very significant

00:11:59.180 trauma plots that run through the show right each each each romantic protagonist has their own

00:12:06.600 complicated trauma backstory yes and one of them and i know this is something that's come up in the

00:12:12.580 culture study chat for people who wanted to like know how this is handled one of them involves

00:12:16.740 sexual assault a rape um in the in hannah's backstory and then the other one involves um

00:12:24.000 this isn't a spoiler the other one involves abuse um like parental abuse physical abuse yeah

00:12:30.500 and we'll we'll talk more about this later but i actually think that especially the physical abuse

00:12:38.060 plot line was pretty well handled i thought both were really well done and actually i guess that's

00:12:44.360 me being unfair to the show because i was like there's no sophisticated understanding of anything

00:12:48.560 there but i actually do think there's a pretty sophisticated understanding of like

00:12:51.800 how one would be traumatized as a survivor of sexual assault right and then what one would

00:13:00.180 want from like the people in your life and your partner around that news and around those

00:13:05.980 revelations like i think they do a good job of showing that in a more complicated way than you

00:13:14.460 would expect especially watching the pilot yeah which is oh my god yeah we have to say the pilot

00:13:20.640 is so bad that like i i texted melody did we text you early and we're like please stick with it the

00:13:27.180 pilot is so bad and then i texted you and i was like i hope you're right because i was like

00:13:32.640 10 minutes and i was like i don't know if i can do this i know the first 10 minutes especially

00:13:38.100 are really painful so that's our note as well to people who are starting the show that it has

00:13:44.260 pilot sickness which is a very common affliction right and in this show it's like one of the

00:13:50.920 struggles is um like exposition they don't have any time to do it artfully so it is done in like

00:13:59.800 glaring dumps and you have to do so many more of those in the first episode yeah where she's like

00:14:07.100 wait but you mean the scholarship i was relying on to continue coming to briar college has suddenly

00:14:12.480 been eradicated only three weeks into the semester and the teacher's like i know there's

00:14:17.900 just no money in classical music right and you're like okay this is and like you know very very i

00:14:25.660 think broad stroke character establishing scenes like there's a scene we haven't talked yet about

00:14:32.700 um hannah's best friend who like again that's actually a relationship that i think is done

00:14:37.460 very well yes um she they actually talk about things that aren't boys sometimes uh and but

00:14:45.060 they have to like show that like hannah's kind of like the artsy emotional nerd and her best friend 0.57

00:14:52.100 what's her best friend's name ally ally is like the gregarious actress with tiny boobs who shows

00:15:00.000 up to a party where everyone's dressed as like i don't know what are they dressed as they're like 1.00

00:15:03.980 Famous pairings.

00:15:05.440 Yes.

00:15:05.800 Famous pairings.

00:15:06.380 Famous duos.

00:15:07.180 Oh, yes.

00:15:07.500 We had one of these in college.

00:15:08.700 Famous couples. 0.58

00:15:09.560 But she comes as like in the famous J-Los outfit dress.

00:15:14.720 And the boyfriend she's obviously not going to be with for a very long time is meanwhile

00:15:19.280 dressed as Ben Affleck, which just means like normal clothing, but holding a Dunkin'

00:15:23.540 Donuts cup and wearing a Red Sox hat.

00:15:25.680 And I was like, honestly, respect.

00:15:27.620 Yeah.

00:15:28.700 Sorry.

00:15:29.300 Can we backtrack to the trauma for a second?

00:15:31.460 Yeah.

00:15:31.680 because i read an interview with louisa levy who is the showrunner and who i'm what i've read about

00:15:38.220 her i'm like super impressed with her um yeah the tone of the show came up a lot in the writer's

00:15:44.020 room and the rule that they came up with was show impact not exploitation and they said we never

00:15:51.480 actually show any trauma we show the aftermath because the show is not about trauma it's about

00:15:56.060 survival and healing that's very that's that was a great thing to bring to the table what an

00:16:01.820 excellent producer we have i did a lot of research i love that for you and for us and you know it is

00:16:08.460 uh it we're calling it a romance but it also is a melodrama um and the way that it it signals some

00:16:15.900 of these like big feelings are often through a very uh very on the nose uh song cues oftentimes

00:16:27.520 where the song lyrics describe the thing that is happening and this is not just because uh our main

00:16:34.800 character is also a songwriter um we're also just establishing like how we should be feeling how the

00:16:42.260 audience should be reacting in this moment oftentimes they are paired to with a very heavy

00:16:48.720 use of flashbacks which i think are effective and like if we're thinking about a broader audience i

00:16:53.420 don't need this to be like an avant-garde like experimental film on on trauma like i think it's

00:17:00.640 actually it works the way that they use flashbacks i agree and like so the obvious comparison point

00:17:07.560 is heated rivalry and what i think was impressive to a lot of people who had heated rivalry

00:17:12.120 right away is that it felt very well made like beautifully filmed beautifully shot lots of

00:17:19.720 articles about the cinematography its production values were very prestige even though its subject

00:17:26.100 matter was pulpy yeah um this is not that and it's in fact jarringly not that but i do think

00:17:34.460 deliberately not that and the way that i was describing it to friends who like hadn't seen 0.78

00:17:38.640 it is i was like it's like a hallmark movie where people can fuck and instead of just like formally

00:17:45.360 evoking coziness being like oh it's a little town and like uh uh through semi-toxic nostalgia 0.97

00:17:51.540 um they're actually creating like a palpable feeling of warmth and community amongst the

00:17:58.200 specific characters that they're showing on the show okay we're gonna pause here if you want to

00:18:02.200 hear the rest of this bonus episode go to patreon.com slash culture study to become a paid

00:18:07.680 subscriber. Super easy. You can do it for the month. You can do it for the year. You can add

00:18:11.800 on to your newsletter subscription. Just do it and you can hear this whole fantastic conversation.

Culture Study Podcast - June 07, 2026

BONUS EPISODE： Is Off Campus the Corniest New Show on Television... or The Hottest？ [preview]

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