From its steamy cold open to its many, many sex montages, Prime Video‘s sudsy new hit Off Campus makes no attempt to hide the fact that it’s an adaptation of a smutty romance series. We see butts, we see boobs, we see abs, and we even see a pink vibrator that readers of the books will know is lovingly named “Winston.”
Off Campus is a shamelessly horny show, but there’s one scene in Episode 8 that has some fans wondering if the show went too far. An irate Hannah Wells (Ella Bright) charges into the ice hockey locker room to confront ex-boyfriend Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli) over an alleged campus-wide “hands off” order he gave. However, she doesn’t initially find Garrett in the locker room. Instead, she’s greeted by a room full of naked men. The camera then zooms in on several background actors’ genitals, a moment one TikTokker, Kaila Books, described as a “jump scare.”
So did Off Campus need that much full frontal male nudity? Did the show need “all of the peens”?
Off Campus Season 1 adapts Elle Kennedy’s very first romance novel set at the fictional Briar University, The Deal. In that story, music major Hannah Wells agrees to tutor hockey star Garrett Graham only because he offers to pretend to date her in order to make her more attractive to her crush Justin Kohl (Josh Heuston). Naturally, Garrett and “Wellsy” wind up falling in love and having lots of healthy sex. Everything is going great until Hannah’s high school rapist winds up playing against Garrett on the ice. Garrett erupts, beating the vile Aaron Delaney (Quinten James) to a pulp, leading to his suspension from the game and a crisis point in his and Hannah’s relationship.
While Off Campus makes several smart changes from Elle Kennedy’s text — including the Episode 8 reveal that Garrett did not put a chauvinistic campus-wide “hands off”order on Hannah — one thing the show maintains is the book’s spirit. Namely, its smutty spirit. Case in point: Hannah walking into the locker room and discovering…
“Penises!
Sweet Jesus.
Penises everywhere.
Horror slams into me as I register what I’m seeing. Oh God. I’ve stumbled onto a penis convention. Big penises and small penises and fat penises and penis-shaped penises. It doesn’t matter which direction I move my head because everywhere I look I see penises.” – The Deal, “Chapter 43,” by Elle Kennedy
So, yes, Hannah’s horror over all those penises is actually lifted directly from the source material. However, did Off Campus need to recreate this moment so vividly? Did we need all those penises on our screen?
I fear I’ve become so desensitized to sex on screen that I personally didn’t register the full frontal nudity as a “scare,” but just a silly sight gag in an already overtly sexual show. I did notice that when Garrett’s friend Dean (Stephen Kalyn) enters the frame, he’s positioned to suggest he’s also fully naked. Hannah glances down and Dean makes a characteristically flirtatious comment. So we know that Hannah also saw Dean’s penis even if we, the audience, did not. Similarly, Tucker (Jalen Thomas Brooks) and Logan (Antonio Cipriano) enter with towels covering them.
I bring all that up because there are many ways to adapt the locker room scene in a way where we would register what Hannah’s seeing without necessarily seeing full frontal male nudity ourselves. Heck, the show’s cold open has Hannah similarly stumbling upon Garrett showering and getting a full look at him that we, the audience, do not get. Still, we know what she saw in that very first scene: Garrett’s penis.
All of which to say, I don’t think the penises in Off Campus Episode 8 were a “scare” so much as they were a “choice.” They fit the sex positive mood of the show (and book) to a tee, but they were still a choice. Like, I’m not sure we needed to zoom in on the three penises like that, but this was hardly the overwhelming sausage fest that Euphoria Season 1 or all of Minx served up. It’s a playful gag that may or may not spoil the mood for you, depending on your prude level.