Off Campus Review: Romance Fans Will Love This Fake-Dating Drama About a College Hockey Star

Every TV executive right now is presumably ravenous to get their hands on the next Heated Rivalry, a comparison that may act as a double-edged sword for Off Campus, which adapts a series of hockey romance novels with less adventurous themes.

Unlike the high-stakes queer drama of Heated Rivalry, this show is lighter in tone, following the love lives of a college hockey team at the fictional Briar University. Their captain, Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli), has already been drafted into the NHL, making him a minor celebrity on campus. But his womanizing jock reputation hides some real angst behind the scenes, as he struggles with the high expectations of his future career and a conflicted relationship with his tough NHL superstar father (Steve Howey).

Unlike the puck bunnies who pursue Garrett and his Briar U teammates, music student Hannah Wells (Ella Bright) has no affection for hockey, viewing it as a needlessly violent sport whose players receive far too much special treatment. She's not exactly wrong. While she juggles three jobs and stresses out over finding a new scholarship, nepo baby Garrett enjoys public adulation and an endless supply of sorority girl hookups. Circumstances, however, will conspire to unite this unlikely pair, collaborating on a fake-dating scheme.

Garrett needs a tutor to pass his philosophy class, while the high-achieving Hannah needs help seducing her crush Justin (Josh Heuston), a gorgeous but spiritually inert indie rock guy. She can't even string a sentence together in Justin's presence, and so far he barely seems to know who she is. Garrett's advice is to make him jealous. "Start thinking like a f---boy," he suggests, and he turns out to be right on the money. With personal insight into the minds of undergrad douchebags, Garrett knows that Justin will only want Hannah if she appears to belong to another man — especially if it's a popular alpha male like the school's hockey captain. To us, that's an obvious red flag, but Hannah is too naive (and too hypnotized by Justin's beautiful hair and angular jawline) to notice. Meanwhile, the more time Garrett and Hannah spend together on fake dates, the more Garrett begins to fall for her. 

Treading the line between hunk and lunk, Belmont Cameli is visibly older than his college-age character (he's 28, while Ella Bright is a more appropriate 19), but otherwise he's great casting for a frat guy with a heart of gold. It's honestly very cute that once Garrett gets to know Hannah as a friend, his response is to give her a hockey bro nickname: Wellsy.

Garrett's teammates are similarly lovable: an oasis of consent kings and supportive himbos in a culture that otherwise promotes toxic masculinity. With their goofy banter and respectful approach to casual sex, they reflect the ever-popular romantic fantasy that outwardly privileged men (English aristocrats, CEOs, star athletes) can sometimes be more sensitive and multidimensional than appearances suggest.

There's obviously a lot to unpack there in terms of gender dynamics within the romance genre and its audience, but taken at face value, Off Campus knows what it's about. After a cringey first episode where the characters are mostly reduced to one-note tropes, the show finds its feet as a college dramedy, giving equal weight to the emotional journeys of the two leads. Showrunners Louisa Levy (The Flight Attendant) and Gina Fattore (Gilmore Girls) clearly understand their target audience, digging into the psychological reasons why Hannah and Garrett are better together than apart.

7.0

Off Campus

at Prime Video

Like

• The goofy friendship between Garrett and his frat bro buddies
• The emphasis on consent during sex scenes
• The balance of serious themes in a funny and lighthearted love story

Dislike

• It takes a couple of episodes to really get going
• The music isn't much to write home about

Even outside of the Heated Rivalry phenomenon, hockey romance is a thriving subgenre at the moment, popular in part because hockey players represent a particular kind of rough-and-ready masculine archetype. Yet this rugged image overlaps with the ugly side of hockey culture, which has a grim reputation for violence, homophobia, and sexual assault scandals. This year, the No. 1 NHL draft prospect is a college player who was recently arrested and charged with felony assault for allegedly breaking a man's jaw. It's a complicated demographic to romanticize, but as Heated Rivalry already proved, these thornier topics can also provide fodder for drama.

In Off Campus, Garrett already feels ambivalent toward his burgeoning hockey career. Pushed into the sport from an early age, he isn't comfortable with the constant comparisons to his father, a man who embodies some of hockey's most toxic traits. Garrett is too young and too jockish to fully articulate what this means for his own identity, but as he and Hannah grow closer, we see that he cares deeply about consent and carefully avoids abusing any power he might hold in their relationship.

To be honest, there are some moments when Garrett and his teammates feel a little too cuddly and progressive to be plausible, but this show doesn't exist in a total dream world either. It faces up to the unpleasant realities of sexual assault in men's sports, acknowledging why a girl like Hannah might be wary of getting drunk at frat parties. To fully come out of her shell, she has to trust Garrett as a reliably safe boyfriend — fake or otherwise. It's a tough balancing act, but Off Campus creates an environment where he and Hannah can embark on a sweet, sexy romance while still touching upon some darker themes, establishing Garrett as a love interest who respects his partner's boundaries and desires. 

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One of the reasons why TV historically struggled with the romance genre is that love stories are perceived as a one-and-done deal, unsuited to serialized drama. But Bridgerton (and to a lesser extent Heated Rivalry) solved that problem by adapting multi-volume series, centering one main couple per season while seeding in the protagonists of later books. Off Campus follows a similar model. The original novels by Elle Kennedy switch focus between different members of the Briar U hockey team, and several of Garrett's teammates already receive their own storylines this season. His best friend John Logan (Antonio Cipriano), for example, provides a contrasting perspective as a working-class athlete in an expensive sport, and he's expected to take the lead role in Season 2.

A love story between a misunderstood jock and a beautiful wallflower is hardly breaking new ground, but Off Campus makes a strong argument for why conventional romance can flourish in a longer format. An eight-episode runtime means more time for complex emotional development, and more room to explore Garrett and Hannah's lives outside of their relationship.

While Garrett hangs out and practices with his team, Hannah is trying to make her mark as a songwriter. Her scholarship application hinges on finding her own creative voice, which is one of the reasons why she's so attracted to the confident, guitar-playing Justin. In fact, music is so important to her arc that TV critics are forbidden from spoiling any of the show's many needle drops — a rule that would probably have more impact if the songs were more interesting.

If you asked me to name-check some memorable soundtrack moments, I'd mention a couple of obvious scenes involving live performances… and then pivot to the comically blatant Spotify product placement. The Spotify app is so prominent that one of Hannah's playlists is actually baked into the plot: a piece of sponsored content that feels excessive even for an Amazon drama where the characters once eat dinner in front of an Amazon logo. These details add to the sense that Off Campus is sometimes a little too glossy and derivative, but while it isn't necessarily original, Garrett and Hannah's relationship is sincere enough to win us over.

Premieres: Wednesday, May 13 on Prime Video
Who's in it: Ella Bright, Belmont Cameli, Mika Abdalla, Antonio Cipriano, Josh Heuston
Who's behind it: Louisa Levy and Gina Fattore (showrunners), Elle Kennedy (original novelist, producer)
For fans of: Heated Rivalry, Bridgerton, Greek, Gossip Girl
Episodes watched: 6 of 8