Off-Campus Season 1 Review

Netflix has a thing or two to learn from Amazon about adapting a romcom book for TV. This is exactly how you adapt for Television. 

It has been a minute since we had a feel-good chick flick that was actually good. Not because these stories stopped being made, if anything, since 2020, we’ve probably had more of them than is good for our collective mental health.

Bridgerton reminded studios that audiences enjoy watching attractive people dramatically ruin each other’s lives in the name of love, while half-dressed. Movies and TV shows have been trying, with varying levels of success, to recreate that formula.

So imagine my surprise when Off-Campus turned out to be… good.

“Heated Rivalry for straight people” is probably the fastest way to explain the vibe.

Off-Campus is a book adaptation, but I went into this completely blind. I hadn’t read the books, barely saw any hype online, and for once, I didn’t immediately run to read the book before diving into the series. 

The Plot

Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli), our male lead, is a college hockey star and the son of a hockey legend. He’s under constant pressure to either match or surpass his father’s legacy, both on the ice and in life. Hannah “Wellsy” Wells (Ella Bright), the female lead, is a music major who has just lost her scholarship and is nursing a massive crush on Justin Kohl, the lead singer of a boy band.

Garrett needs help passing a philosophy class. Hannah wants help getting Justin’s attention. So they strike a deal that benefits both of them.

My Thoughts

This show isn’t for everyone. 

None of it is revolutionary. Fake dating, hockey romance, and college stories adapted from books are basically their own cinematic universe at this point. 

Nobody goes into these stories expecting groundbreaking storytelling. The dialogue is still cringy sometimes, with some meh acting.

But with Off-Campus, there are a few things the showrunners did to make this one better.

The Characters

My favorite thing about this series is the way it handles its male characters. Apart from the antagonist, all the boys are good people, despite all being athletes and popular on campus. It’s refreshing to see. 

Garrett isn’t just a “dumb jock.” He is fundamentally a good guy. Even when he’s supposed to be the “bad boy” of the school, he doesn’t date; he just sleeps around. He is honest with everyone he’s involved with, and he doesn’t stomp around campus all moody and broody. Even with classes, we see him putting in effort while also asking for help. Throughout the show, his character develops, and the decisions he makes in the end feel like real growth, driven by the lessons he has learned. 

As I said before, I haven’t read the books, but I read many like it back in the 2010s (God, I’m old), and I just know that book Garrett probably wasn’t this much of a green flag.

Allie, Hannah’s friend, is just iconic. 

Dean is exactly who he thinks he is.

Hannah is fine, I guess. 

The rest of the ensemble had a genuine bond on set, and it translates into phenomenal chemistry and camaraderie on screen. 

The Chemistry 

This is the sole reason we’re all here, and thankfully, the show delivers.

Yearning is so back! Yay!!

I genuinely loved watching Garrett fall in love with Hannah. Their relationship feels like so much more than just lust because she’s hot. He’s drawn to her softer traits, too, her smile, her music, the way she carries herself. The show actually takes the time to let him admire her as a person, which makes their chemistry feel believable.

You understand why Hannah cannot get him out of her head despite her massive crush on Justin. 

When they finally start dating for real, their relationship isn’t toxic and chaotic; it evolves, becomes calmer, and that is the biggest relief. 

The Friendships

The friendship between John Logan and Garrett Graham is genuinely one of the best parts of the series. That warmth extends to the entire hockey team. They’re allowed to enjoy each other’s company openly. They can be emotional, intelligent, supportive, and vulnerable.

The female friendships are equally refreshing. Hannah and Allie actually feel like friends who genuinely like each other. They listen to each other, show up for each other, and their friendship feels balanced instead of one-sided.

Handling Heavy Themes

The show handles serious themes like sexual assault and the trauma that comes with it with a surprising amount of care. Despite promoting a lot of nudity, the series still pays attention to preserving the dignity of the female lead, who is also the victim, and handles post-traumatic care with intentionality.

The men in this story are emotionally aware in a way that feels refreshing for this genre. They listen to the women around them, protect them, and are big on consent and respecting boundaries.

Solid A+ behaviour.

Another heavy theme the show tackles is domestic violence, and the way it affects Garrett’s character is told as a cohesive story. It doesn’t feel like it was thrown in just to make the male lead tragic or to excuse bad behaviour. It is central to shaping the decisions he makes throughout the series.

Another surprisingly refreshing choice is how the show handles the “puck bunnies.” Usually, women in these stories who openly enjoy athletes, hookups, or casual relationships are immediately turned into villains. But here, the show actually respects them and treats them like human beings.

I particularly enjoyed how they handled Kendall, Garrett’s sneaky link, who wanted more from the relationship. She could have very easily become the stereotypical bitter mean girl once Garrett started dating Hannah. Instead, the writers allow her to have a very human reaction without going overboard.

Hazing is still a crap tradition that colleges should scrap, but the way it was handled in this show was funny, and I’m not mad at it.

The Soundtrack

There are so many banger songs on this soundtrack. Whoever put it together deserves a raise immediately.

Let’s start with Justin Khol’s (Josh Heuston) cover of Into You. I did not expect it to go that hard.

Bonus points because I hadn’t even heard of some of the songs or artists before watching the series. My FYP is now filled with artists getting serious streams because this show introduced people to their music.

Minor Complaints

My singular complaint is that they pushed the nudity too far.

I understand the tone and aesthetic they were going for, and apparently, hockey locker rooms are contractually obligated to appear on screen every fifteen minutes. But there were at least two locker room scenes too many, and Ella Bright is 18/19 during filming. She doesn’t feel younger than the rest of the cast or less mature, by any means, but it still bothered me so much. 

We get it, everyone is hot, no need to drown us in their privates. 

Final Thoughts

All in all, this is a good show, probably better than the book, which I will be reading next. 

Go watch it. 

Also, Netflix has a thing or two to learn from Amazon about adapting a romcom book for TV. Kudos to Louisa Levy, the showrunner. This is how you adapt for TV. 

Thank God Amazon already renewed the show for a second season. I cannot wait to see Dean and Allie. I just know their season is going to be much better. 

8/10 YA Romcom stars.