Unpopular Opinion: 'Off Campus' Actually Doesn't Feel Nostalgic to Me. Hear Me Out.

Every millennial woman I know is obsessed with Off Campus, and many have cited the overwhelming sense of nostalgia they feel when watching the show. Once I started watching, though? I actually didn't find it nostalgic at all (for me, the shows that really evoke that sense of "oh-my-god-this-reminds-me-of-the-shows-I-came-of-age-with" are Tell Me Lies and The Summer I Turned Pretty!)

Okay, hear me out. This isn't a bad thing: Off Campus has odes to some of the shows I grew up loving. For example: It all starts with Hannah Wells, the sweet, smart, maybe a bit awkward girl next door, and Garrett Graham, the hotshot hockey star. He asks her to tutor him in exchange for helping her get her musician crush to notice her...and you know where this is headed. It's very Nathan Scott and Haley James, and if you get the reference, we should definitely be friends (also, are you in perimenopause yet?).

But while the tropes and the themes are familiar, I think what had made Off Campus such a runaway hit is the fact that this show is actually incredibly modern in its handling of certain issues. Think: Masculinity, consent, sexual trauma, female pleasure, and assault.

I won't give away too much here, because if you're one of the 12 people in the United States who hasn't watched this show yet, I think it's worth a try. But I will say this: Off Campus couldn't exist, at least not in this particular way, without our very 2026 understanding of some of these concepts.

Off Campus is what it is because of how much our culture has changed. It's because of survivors speaking up about how sexual assault has affected their ability to climax with a partner. Because we've confronted how deeply victims internalize the cycle of self-blame, and about how imperative it is that we remind them it was not their fault. Because we've finally started to talk about how explicit consent needs to be, and how emotional safety has to precede true intimacy. Because we are, at long last, unpacking how deeply toxic masculinity affects not just women and their mental well- being, but men as well.

Because at the end of the day, without that context, Off Campus is just another show. But with the context of all the work we've done in place, through this modern lens? Suddenly, it becomes something else entirely. It becomes something we've all been needing.