September 4, 2026 — 12:00pm
Off Campus is the hottest TV show among Millennials, though Millennials don’t say TV any more. But it is TV, I argued with my daughter, because we watch this ice-hockey love triangle on a TV screen, even if the series doesn’t appear in the TV guide.
“Do we though?” asked Tess. At 29, training to be a relationship counsellor, Tess has a gift for rhetoric. “I’m as likely to watch it on my laptop or my phone.” Still a screen, I countered, though my feet were sinking. I felt like Garrett, the hockey jock struggling with his philosophy major, needing a mentor like Hannah, the sophomore who has a secret crush on Justin, the bad boy.
OK, so the show’s very watchable, whichever your screen. Since my daughter is right, TV is a quaint word. Even traditional stuff like The Block or the news is viewable by alternative devices, at whichever hour, be that on computer or Android, where we enjoy TV on non-TVs. Episode, the word, remains seaworthy, despite such episodes avoiding the grammar of ads or timeslot durations.
Back in the day we sat on the couch to watch Hawaii Five-O at a set time with a set number of ads, the credits rolling at a set time before the next program started, the whole box and dice on the one box. Not now. Unless you’re my 94-year-old mum who keeps her Sunday date with Vera, your screen liaisons are probably promiscuous.
