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In <\/em><\/strong>Sex Reviews<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, writers offer a sober critical assessment of the sex scenes in new films and television series. This installment contains spoilers for <\/em>Off Campus.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It might shock you to learn that before romance author Rachel Reid published the first installment of her Game Changers<\/em> novel series<\/a>, which would go on to be adapted into the now-hit show Heated Rivalry<\/em><\/a>, there was another, significantly more heterosexual, hockey romance series. Well, actually, there were and are many. But of the blooming hockey romance canon, one of the more popular entries remains Elle Kennedy\u2019s Off Campus<\/em> books, which follow the romances of four collegiate hockey players who are much better at handling a puck than handling matters of the heart.<\/p>\n Now the first book of the pentalogy, The Deal<\/em>, has been adapted into Off Campus<\/em>, a new romantic drama on Prime Video. This first season follows Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli), a ladies\u2019 man and nepo baby who is trying to outrun the shadow of his hockey legend of a father as he makes a deal with a bookish music major named Hannah Wells (Ella Bright). Per the deal, Hannah agrees to tutor Garrett in exchange for Garrett\u2019s help with landing Hannah a date with her crush, Justin Kohl (Josh Heuston). Among the ensemble cast, the show\u2019s got all of the tropes a romance lover could ask for\u2014opposites attract, unrequited love, and fake-dating galore\u2014but it also pointedly concerns itself with one other big element: sex. I mean, these are<\/em> premier college athletes living, titularly, off campus\u2014coitus is bound to be had. But Hannah has a dark secret that changes everything for her and Garrett, both in the bedroom and in the rink. So just how hot does Off Campus<\/em> get? Is it enough to melt the ice? Below, Slate senior writer Rebecca Onion and Slate staff writer Nadira Goffe assess.<\/p>\n Nadira:<\/strong> Rebecca! I\u2019m happy to discuss this show with someone who has actually read the book, because I definitely have some questions. But let\u2019s start where the show starts: establishing Garrett Graham and many of his teammates as modern-day rakes. Within the show\u2019s first 15 minutes, after meeting up at his house party, Garrett hooks up with Kendall (Karis Cameron), a member of the groupies for the Briar University hockey team, who call themselves \u201cpuck bunnies.\u201d<\/p>\n Their hookup is spliced together with footage of Hannah trying, and struggling, to write a new song for a pop music competition that could earn her a desperately needed scholarship. Garrett goes down on a topless Kendall while Hannah messes with a Rubik\u2019s cube, the couple begins riding each other while Hannah furiously scratches out lyrics she\u2019s written down in a notebook, Kendall\u2019s scream of pleasure is overlaid with Hannah\u2019s groan of frustration. After they finish, Kendall tells Garrett that she wants to be his girlfriend, but Garrett shuts her down with his strict \u201cNo Girlfriends\u201d policy. Also, as he points out, they don\u2019t really<\/em> know each other any other way than biblically.<\/p>\n Off Campus<\/em> clearly sets the tone with this first sex scene, letting us know that the sex on the show is more graphic than the PG-13 scenes a network romance would demand (nipple! cunnilingus!). However, it\u2019s still a little more melodramatic than Heated Rivalry<\/em>\u2019s goal of sexual realism. I really liked the way the show set up the two main characters. What did you think, Rebecca?<\/p>\n Rebecca:<\/strong> Not only have I read ONE of these books, I have now read THREE. Since I usually read historical romance, the milieu of these is a welcome change-up. We go from \u201cIf a girl is so much as seen alone with a man, she will doom her chances of marriage, and also her sisters\u2019 chances, forever!\u201d to \u201cAt this off-campus hockey house, so much sex is being had that it could be more than one housemate who flushed a condom down the shower drain.\u201d (The condom flusher is obviously cocky rich boy Dean Heyward-Di Laurentis, played with dimples by Stephen Kalyn, whom we\u2019ll see a lot more of later on.)<\/p>\n These guys are, as you say, modern-day rakes who are getting a lot of joy out of their time at Briar University, a fictional college that plays hockey against Yale and Harvard and sends players to the NHL. People looking for a new Heated Rivalry<\/em>, a story about yearning jocks with a secret love that takes place mostly in hotel rooms and the Cottage (™), may find this red-Solo-cup milieu to be a little less provocative, perhaps depending on how you feel about college parties. Also, these guys are straight. They may make a ton of jokes about puck bunnies, but at heart they are \u201cgood,\u201d accepting, nonmisogynistic jocks who are best friends with their teammate\u2019s nonbinary sibling. But they remain straight. Disappointing.<\/p>\n Anyway, this first sex montage, with the intercuts between Kendall and Garrett and Hannah and her empty notebook, really worked for me, contrasting Garrett\u2019s carefree horniness with Hannah\u2019s intense drive to achieve. Off Campus<\/em> is a soap, but it\u2019s a soap with a match cut between Kendall\u2019s Guess-clad ass and Hannah\u2019s book bag, each getting slammed down on a desk\u2014this show is trying!<\/p>\n Rebecca:<\/strong> Here we have two dreams, one nighttime, one daytime, that represent Hannah\u2019s brain working out what it might be like to get together with Justin. In the first, in her unconscious mind, <\/strong>Hannah and Justin are playing piano. She falters and says, \u201cYou make me nervous\u00a0\u2026\u201d Then they start making out. But things begin to get tense. He tells her, \u201cYou can do it,\u201d and she says, \u201cI\u2019m going to.\u201d But she obviously can\u2019t do whatever it is, and he starts to doubt. Then, in the second sequence, a daydream, Hannah and Justin are in bed together, and he starts to go down on her. Then he comes back up, and guess what Hannah\u2019s brain has served her? Yes\u00a0\u2026 the man went down as Justin but came back up as Garrett! Shocker to none: All that fake dating, including a fake kiss or two, has got her thinking.<\/p>\n The book is far more forthright than the show about Hannah\u2019s underlying issue, which is that she was roofied and raped as a high schooler, and while she\u2019s had a lot of therapy that\u2019s helped her, she was unable to come with a boyfriend she had afterward, no matter what they tried. The show cuts the boyfriend out altogether but leaves her with this problem. Nadira, surely \u201cI can\u2019t come with a partner\u201d is not an uncommon problem for college-age women (I, uh, find it rather familiar), but obviously Hannah\u2019s situation is unique. When you watched these sequences, as a non\u2013book reader, what did you suspect was going on? And were they sexy? I liked the way the series sort of sped up the pace of the encounters, showing how Hannah\u2019s anxiety was taking over, even in the middle of fantasy.<\/p>\n Nadira:<\/strong> Throughout the first few episodes, the show has been dropping hints via super-quick flashbacks, images really, that Something Bad™ happened to Hannah in the past. Given the context clues and my experience as a woman, it was all too easy to guess what that thing might have been. But Hannah hasn\u2019t revealed it to anyone just yet, leaving her with nothing but that aforementioned anxiety. So I had some vague idea of what was up, even if it wasn\u2019t entirely clear.<\/p>\n There\u2019s only one thing left to do when a romance character is confused about their affections. I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s a quippy name for it, but the whole Bait-and-Switch Dream Fantasizing About the Guy I Swear I Don\u2019t Like thing is practically a tenet of these kinds of stories when a character is torn between two lovers. As soon as Justin and Hannah leaned in for a kiss at the top of the episode, I knew that it was a dream. And later on, when we knew that the second encounter was a dream from the start, as soon as the two began macking on each other, I figured that Justin would, at some point, turn into Garrett. It\u2019s a clich\u00e9, but kind of a fun one? I love that both of these scenes were set to different versions of Janelle Mon\u00e1e\u2019s \u201cMake Me Feel,\u201d which is an absolute banger. Though the best part about this narrative tactic is getting to watch Hannah spiral afterward whenever she\u2019s in front of Garrett.<\/p>\n As an aside: I appreciate how dedicated Off Campus<\/em> is to a woman\u2019s sexual pleasure. Hannah\u2019s second dream is one of many<\/em> times cunnilingus is shown here. It\u2019s not even the only display of it in this particular episode. Hannah accidentally walking in on Garrett going down on a random girl earlier on is a part of what triggers his appearance in her subsequent sex dream.<\/p>\n Nadira:<\/strong> By now, Hannah has revealed her past trauma to the hockey center, and has asked him to help her orgasm so that she can do it properly with Justin. Garrett agrees, though he is both deeply touched and flustered that Hannah would trust him alone not only with her secret, but also with this mission.<\/p>\n Hannah comes over to Garrett\u2019s shared house in a super-tight dress, and he offers her a comfortable T-shirt to change into. He looks away while she changes, and when she asks why he has turned around when he\u2019s about to see her naked, he says he is about to, \u201cbut not until you want me to.\u201d (Aww!) He lets her pick a song to set the mood, and she sees that one of his most played songs is the Foundations\u2019 \u201cBaby Now That I\u2019ve Found You.\u201d He starts awkwardly dancing, then they\u2019re dancing together and laughing, breaking the tension. They start making out, but when Garrett begins to touch her elsewhere, she gets overwhelmed and uncomfortable. They stop, leading Hannah to confide in Garrett about the out-of-body feeling she experiences during sex, and that she wonders if she\u2019s \u201cbroken.\u201d He assures her that she isn\u2019t; she assures him that she trusts him. He offers her an alternative: She should give herself an orgasm. Hannah tells Garrett that it won\u2019t prove anything because she does that \u201call the time.\u201d \u201cOh, do you?\u201d he asks, somewhat sarcastically. \u201cYeah,\u201d she responds. \u201cGood. Then\u201d\u2014and there\u2019s a beat before he delivers the directive\u2014\u201cshow me.\u201d EEP! Can you hear me screaming?<\/p>\n They undress slowly, then sit across from each other, with Hannah on the bed and Garrett on a chair, and masturbate while maintaining eye contact. At one point, Hannah looks away. \u201cStay here. Stay with me,\u201d he instructs. After they both orgasm, Hannah thanks Garrett. They fist-bump and laugh. Just two friends getting over sexual trauma by being unbelievably vulnerable with each other\u00a0\u2026 right.<\/p>\n Rebecca:<\/strong> \u201cAsk a hot friend to help me figure out something about sex, in some ostensibly non-feelings-y and predetermined way that will obviously result in feelings\u201d is 100\u00a0percent something I would have done at this age. The difference is that the outcome was never this good! Either male zoomers are just better at sex (uh\u00a0\u2026 are they?), or this is a romance novel adaptation, because in my straight-girl memories of this type of college assignation, the guy you chose wasn\u2019t likely to turn out sensitive, adept, caring, and persistent. The scene has the job of getting you so into the vibe that you believe that Hannah could actually get over her block, and when the camera cuts to his eyes as he says \u201cStay here,\u201d and then hers, you almost 80\u00a0percent buy it.<\/p>\n Nadira:<\/strong> It is also something I would have done at this age, especially if any of my college friends were having sex at the rate Garrett is. Look, I definitely hear you, but I do buy it in the sense that Belmont Cameli delivers the hell out of that \u201cShow me\u201d line, and also in the sense that I think this is how these situations should turn out even if they rarely ever do. Everything about his interaction with her in this scene is so achingly sweet, mostly because he lets everything be on her terms: the music, the pacing, the touching. It may not be common, but I have to hope it\u2019s happened before! Still, one thing we\u2019re missing in this equation is the acknowledgment that the main reason Garrett is so caring and kind, the main reason this works, is because he has feelings for Hannah. He doesn\u2019t know it, she sure doesn\u2019t know it, but we do.<\/p>\n Rebecca:<\/strong> This is the sex high point of the show, right in the middle, as Garrett and Hannah admit to each other that they want to be exclusive. He pulls her toward him by the waistband of her pants, which is pretty hot, and\u00a0\u2026 sex montage! We get scenes of the two in bed\u2014Garrett fingering her with his hand and her waist artfully hidden by sheets, Hannah gasping as yet more cunnilingus unfolds (again, I ask you, is this Gen\u00a0Z or just romance novel?), a full shot of Garrett\u2019s ass with Hannah\u2019s feet wrapped around it during missionary\u2014intercut with images of their lives starting to merge, with Hannah in the stands at hockey games and making lasagna with his housemates. The sequence ends with Hannah\u2019s head flung over the edge of the bed, coming loudly, as her mother\u2019s voice is heard from her phone. Hannah\u2019s problem is, apparently, extremely solved. That was easy! Too easy?<\/p>\n Nadira:<\/strong> I love the fake-dating trope because it\u2019s so nonsensical\u2014literally no one<\/em> would ever agree to date someone, even falsely, that they didn\u2019t actually like on some level. The waistband callback to when Garrett first proposes their arrangement in the pilot is so good because it shows that truth: They\u2019ve always liked each other, even from that first moment. And now they have a bunch of sex. Like, a lot! (On the Gen\u00a0Z front, I think it\u2019s a little bit Gen\u00a0Z\u2014women\u2019s empowerment has come a long way\u2014and a little bit genre.)<\/p>\n It is<\/em> a bit too easy. I would have liked a sex scene that showed her and Garrett actually working through her bedroom blockage, but I guess I\u2019ll settle for this hot montage instead. Speaking of, and maybe this is the zillennial in me, I kept getting hung up on how it was possible that her phone answered her mother\u2019s video call by itself? Whatever! I like this couple, and I like seeing them happy!<\/p>\n Nadira:<\/strong> Episode\u00a06 pivots away from our main romance to focus on Allie (Mika Abdalla), Hannah\u2019s best friend and roommate, and dimpled Dean. Allie recently broke up with her longtime on-again, off-again boyfriend, and shortly thereafter (like, less than 48 hours later), she hooks up with Dean. This is revealed in a montage of them having sex in random locations, like backstage after a theater performance, in the kitchen of the local restaurant where Allie and Hannah work (unsanitary), and in Dean\u2019s room while Garrett and Hannah are home. At one point, as the two are having sexytime in a super-sudsy bathtub at the boys\u2019 house, their other roommate, Tucker (played by The Pitt<\/em>\u2019s Jalen Thomas Brooks), walks in to get something, forcing Allie to dunk herself under the water and hold her breath until he leaves.<\/p>\n\n
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