Elle Kennedy published The Deal in 2015. In the eleven years since, the Off-Campus series has sold millions of copies, lived permanently on BookTok recommendation lists, and become one of the most beloved hockey romance series in the genre. The fake-dating trope. The charismatic hockey captain. The girl who wants nothing to do with him. It is a formula that works because Kennedy executes it with warmth, humor, and characters you actually care about.
Prime Video’s Off Campus adaptation, which dropped all eight episodes on May 13, 2026, was ordered to series back in October 2024. It was already renewed for a second season before the first episode aired. That kind of confidence from a streamer either means they know exactly what they have or they are gambling heavily. In this case it was the former. Off Campus is exactly the kind of show it needed to be.
The Setup
Season one adapts The Deal, the first book in Kennedy’s series. Hannah Wells, a music student at Briar University played by Ella Bright, makes an arrangement with Garrett Graham, the school’s star hockey captain played by Belmont Cameli. She will tutor him so he stays academically eligible for the team. He will help her get the attention of Justin, a rock star she has a crush on, played by Josh Heuston. Neither of them expects to actually like each other.
If you have read the book you know how this goes. If you have not, you will figure it out within the first episode. Off Campus is not trying to surprise you with where the story lands. It is trying to make you feel something on the way there. The question with any adaptation of a beloved novel is always whether it can translate the internal experience of reading onto a screen. Off Campus mostly manages it.
The Leads
Ella Bright is the reason the show works as well as it does. British actress Bright, best known for playing a young Kate Middleton and for her BAFTA nomination, brings a dry wit and a grounded vulnerability to Hannah that keeps the character from ever feeling like a placeholder for the audience to project onto. Hannah has history. She carries it. Bright makes sure you feel the weight of it without ever letting it sink the show’s lighter moments.
Belmont Cameli as Garrett is charming in exactly the right ways. Garrett is written as the classic cocky hockey player who turns out to be more than that, and Cameli navigates that arc without making the transition feel like a gear change. His Garrett is funny before he is sweet, and sweet in a way that feels earned. The chemistry between him and Bright is real. The show lives or dies on whether you believe these two people falling for each other, and you do.
Josh Heuston as Justin is a pleasant surprise. He could easily have been a cardboard obstacle and instead he is a fully drawn character whose relationship with Hannah is complicated in ways the show handles with genuine care.
The Ensemble
One of the smartest things Off Campus does is treat the ensemble cast as a priority rather than an afterthought. Kennedy’s book series works on a Bridgerton model, with each book centering a different character from the group. The show plants seeds accordingly. Dean and Allie, played by Stephen Kalyn and Mika Abdalla, are positioned as the season’s secondary love story in a way that clearly sets up their arc for season two. Logan gets enough screen time to establish why he will carry his own season. Tucker and his Friendsgiving subplot is the show being warm and funny at the same time, which it does well.
The hockey sequences are shot with genuine energy. The show does not treat the sport as background dressing. Games matter. Garrett’s performance on the ice affects his mood, his relationships, and the stakes of the story. That kind of integration between a character’s professional world and their personal life is harder to pull off than it looks.
Where It Falls Short
The pacing in the middle episodes dips slightly. Episodes four and five spend a little too long circling the will-they-won’t-they without adding new information, and a subplot involving Garrett’s family backstory is introduced and then underserved. The show seems to know it needs to plant those seeds but has not quite figured out how to water them in season one.
The production also occasionally shows its budget constraints. Briar University looks like a television college rather than a real one, which is a minor thing but consistent enough to notice. The Summer I Turned Pretty set a high bar for Prime Video romance productions and Off Campus does not quite match it visually, though it more than compensates in character work.
The Bigger Picture
Off Campus arrives at a moment when hockey romance has never been more culturally visible. Heated Rivalry on HBO dominated the winter. Now Prime Video has its own entry. The two shows are different in tone and target audience but they represent something real: sports romance, and queer romance in particular, has moved from a niche corner of genre fiction to mainstream entertainment. Kennedy’s books have been part of that shift for years. This adaptation feels like a proper celebration of that.
The fact that it was renewed before it aired also means the show’s creators could build season one knowing they had room to develop characters over time. You can feel that security in the writing. Nothing feels rushed toward a conclusion. The season ends in a place that is satisfying for Hannah and Garrett while leaving genuine anticipation for what comes next for everyone around them.
The Verdict
Off Campus is a genuinely enjoyable, well-cast adaptation of a book series that deserved exactly this treatment. Ella Bright is a star. Belmont Cameli makes you root for Garrett even when he is being an idiot. The ensemble is built with real intention. And the show understands what makes Kennedy’s books work: the romance is central, but the friendships around it are what make it last.
Season two is already confirmed. Dean and Allie are up next. Briar University’s spring semester cannot come soon enough.
Off Campus Season 1 is streaming now on Prime Video. Created by Louisa Levy. Based on the book series by Elle Kennedy.
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