Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the podcast episode about?
hello and welcome to shameless the pop culture podcast for smart people who love dumb stuff you are joined as always by melbourne writers michelle andrews hello zara mcdonald hello hello to nobody in the producing chair we're alone we're all alone alone with one and a half voices good luck to us no as we said on friday's episode billy and gil in sydney they're in sid They'll be back.
Off gallivanting. Gallivanting without us. We miss them. Oh, so much. It's kind of funny. As soon as a gill and a belly leave the room, Zara and I look at each other like two dummies. I'm like, how do we do a podcast? Yeah, even though that's how we did it for like five years. I know. Anyway. Today on the show, Mishimu. We're reviewing Off Campus.
This has been a highly demanded episode from you guys. We have said on previous episodes that we both binged Off Campus. We've also said it's like the show of the moment that everyone's talking about. All of the listeners came back to us and our DMs have been on fire. They said, where is the review then? Where's the review? We want a comprehensive chat about Off Campus.
We said, sure, we can do that for you. Sure thing, Queenies. We can absolutely do that. Before we get into it, a quick shout out to our sponsor, Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that helps you build a beautiful website and launch your passion, project or business. Thank you, Squarespace. Thank you so much to Squarespace. Where do you want to start with Off Campus Mish?
Because I think while we touched on the show the other week, the numbers that have been published from Amazon about the success of this TV show since then have been quite amazing. Yeah. So last week it became the third most watched TV series for the streamer in its history, beaten only by Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power and Fallout.
Off campus, and this really took me by surprise, is significantly bigger than The Summer I Turned Pretty. That has also taken me off guard. The Summer I Turned Pretty was huge. It felt like... The Samurai Turned Pretty enveloped culture like we did an emergency episode about the finale. Did we? I'm like more than sure we did. Oh my God, that does ring a bell. Yeah. Well, like.
Because don't you remember we got in and then we rushed Belly and she didn't have notes. And then we realized. And she watched the wrong episode. She realized that in her watching of the show, she'd accidentally skipped an episode. So it missed like all these plot points. But yeah, this is massive. Off campus hit 36 million viewers in just 12 days.
For context, season three of The Summer I Turned Pretty hit 70 million viewers in the first 70 days. So it's on track to beat it. on track to absolutely smash it. We also have this from Variety. Among female viewers aged 18 to 34 alone, Off Campus is Prime Video's number one debut of all time.
It's funny when a show is this ubiquitous this fast because it feels like the rise is so astronomical that almost the fall away feels quite quick too that it just like spikes so fast but then also these people feel like they've been famous forever. Yeah, you're so right. I also felt like with Off Campus, I went from not seeing it at all, literally having no idea what it was.
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Chapter 2: Why is 'Off Campus' considered a significant show right now?
No, they wouldn't. To stand on the red carpet and take photos in front of the off-campus logo. So with that kind of budget, I was sort of in the back of my mind being like, I wonder what this show is going to be. Then I forgot about it. See, I had missed the premiere photo. I hadn't seen any of that. Was that on Instagram that you saw that? Yeah.
All I saw, it was one of the first videos, the one of Ellie and Dean dancing that I just said. The other video that was on my feed that night was of Jackie and Sofa Dofa filming a little like... It wasn't a skit. It was just like a little video panning around the room with all the off-campus stars. That had come up where I'm like, who are these people? Right.
That was one of the first videos I saw. There you go. So I think this is such is the genius of marketing sometimes that it's little seed plantings. And then by the third or fourth time you've heard about a television show, you're like, well, I simply have to turn this on, right? A hundred percent.
It's funny because I think there's also been some conversation about whether this has exploded so much because largely all of these stars were unknown on a global scale until now. I mean, we had Penn Badgley of Gossip Girl, You fame. He thinks that that could be a key factor in the success of a show like this.
I want to play a clip from a recent episode of his podcast, Podcrush, where he shares his thoughts on the unknown actor being factor in the success of TV shows.
I'm sorry. Call it what it is. I feel like I'm just, all I can think of is like, oh, there's that famous person doing it, delivering a performance. Celebrity culture is actually like robbing us of stories because there's, because, you know, in some ways the craft of cinema is becoming more and more elevated. It's, you know, people are getting more and more specialized.
We're capable of more and more, but the stories are full of the same celebrities. And I'm sorry, it's just like, let's be real. That's what we all think. We're like, wow, Timmy Chalamet is killing this right now. That is that person.
I largely agree, but I wonder if this is a little bit of recency bias from Penn Badgley. If we think back to Hollywood in the 1950s, we did a lot of scandals in that era. If anything, back then, it was only a handful of faces that were across all of the roles. Like how prolific the Marilyn Monroe's and Audrey Hepburn's were of that time.
I would say it's exactly the same, that Marilyn Monroe would star in a bunch of films in quick succession and it would be, oh, Marilyn Monroe is playing that character. I take your point. I see quite a stark difference between the 19... 50s, 60s, 70s example in today, which is that yes, they were more prolific then, but today we know more about the people behind the characters.
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Chapter 3: How did 'Off Campus' achieve such high viewership numbers?
You watch this show because... Every character is selling sex in some way. That's why there's so much male nudity. And there's so much, there's like constant, yeah, and there's constantly different takes on sexiness. Because I think you look at this show and some people are more attracted to the Josh Houston brand of sexiness. Other people are attracted to the Belmont Camelli brand of sexiness.
I think it does an interesting job. This is going to be like, so I'm kind of maybe overanalyzing it all a little too much, but
at representing a different slightly different taste and sexiness if people could see the shameless media office a couple of days ago when we were passionately arguing back and forth over who is the sexiest male actor on off campus and it's not like anyone's like he's not he's not sexy everyone has their guy on this show where they're like that's my type to me
Garrett Graham is the sexiest, sexy male lead. Like, oh my God, watch him. And I'm like, that is 10 out of 10 sexy. You watch Justin Cole. Well, yeah, I actually think I was more of a Dean gal. Yeah, which is how the convos tend to go. So everyone in that office is like, I'm for Dean. I'm for Justin. I'm for Garrett Graham.
100%, which I think is also what makes this show so fascinating and also makes the convo so fun and girly on the outside of it. I want to talk about the music because I think famously you and I have always been quite passionate, you maybe slightly more than me, but me still right there in with you, about the music budget on these shows and how it has such a factor on how well the show itself does.
The fact that Josh Houston's character, Justin Cole, was Australian, he said had a huge impact on him wanting more Australian music being played on the show because his character was a musician. Yeah. So here's a snippet from a recent interview he did with Rolling Stone. Josh told us that once the decision had been made to make his character Australian, the music influence had to follow.
Otherwise, it makes no sense for him to have that accent. Like, you'd have to be influenced if you've grown up in Australia long enough to have an accent. The music team was super like, fuck yeah, more Australian music. As a result, Off Campus' soundtrack is packed with Australian artists, which is so cool. We've got ACDC, The Kid LAROI. G Flip, George Ellis, Jet and Red.
When Jet's song came on, I was like, holy shit. It's amazing. I love this so much. I want to quote G Flip, who wrote in a video after the series came out. We'll now be thinking of Hannah and Garrett's sex scene every time I perform this song. Thank you off campus. So many new people discovering my music from this show. I love writing, playing, producing. It's all I want to do in my life.
Thanks for all the lovely messages about how this song boosts your mood. It is a mood booster. I would say G Flip's song is the song of the series. I don't know if that's my Australian bias coming out to play. I think it is. I think On the Floor by JLo and Pitbull is the song of the series. Yeah, so true. However, I think because this song was played at such a pivotal scene. The sex scene. Yeah.
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Chapter 4: What makes the sex scenes in 'Off Campus' unique?
They're frustrated by commentary online. It's not like this is a purely pleasant experience for them. But they're all friendly with Jules and none of them have an issue with what Jules is doing when Jules is really making content. That didn't add up for me where I'm like, in real life, let's be real.
Chapter 5: What are the main character dynamics in 'Off Campus'?
Anonymous gossip forums, as two people in the public eye, are not our favorite things all the time. It's not like we would be buddy-buddy, best friends, sibling of, someone running that and be totally chill with it. No, I totally understand your point. I get it. I do. Part of me thinks that's why it wasn't considered amongst the most wild gossip forum ever.
And that also Garrett wanted to be on there. So maybe they enjoyed it? Yeah, okay. I don't know. I do take your point. Do you think Jules will be in season two? Yeah, I think if Logan is in it. True. Jules will be in it. I wish they dressed Jules just more like a regular person. I think that's another bit of feedback from the viewership. A lot of non-binary characters are put in almost costumes.
Yeah. And Jules' outfits on the show were very costumey. I wonder if that feedback will be taken on board for season two and beyond to be like, Jules could also just be non-binary and be in general clothes that anyone would wear. I think you're probably right.
I think they would be looking at the discourse around this show and using it to inform season two, whilst also using all of the things they know to be true about what made this season one so great. Karnas and James felt like AI to me. Carter St. James, whose name is not Carter St. James.
He's actually the new hockey player who's in rivalry with Dean and I'm sure that's going to play out in season two. Why does he seem like an AI character? He looks so baby. He looks really young. He's hot. Don't get me wrong. Again, all hot. And I'm sure he's servicing a demographic of the viewership who find that look hot. But he has baby face to me.
I think because he went for a run in a marching track suit.
Oh.
I think. Yeah, maybe. I think you just look so teeny tiny to me. You're right. Like when he was sitting in that bar being like, here's my fake idea. I was like, but you're 16 years old. You're a baby. You're little, little. Anything else you wanted to say? How quickly do you think they'll get season two out? They're filming next week. While we were. I Googled this.
So they've decided, they must have decided before this show even launched that this was all happening.
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