Off Campus Just Dropped On Prime Video, And We Have Thoughts

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Prime Video’s adaptation of Elle Kennedy’s Off Campus series landed on May 13, and we couldn’t wait to dig into this one. If you’ve been anywhere near BookTok or romance reader circles, you’ve probably seen The Deal on a bookshelf or in someone’s hands.

It’s been a staple of the contemporary romance genre since 2015, and now it’s gotten the full television treatment. We sat down to break the whole thing open for this episode of the Fully-Booked: Literary Podcast, and what followed was a conversation about fake dating, friendship chemistry, sensitive subject matter, and the eternal debate about what makes a good book-to-screen adaptation.

One of us read the books. One of us went in completely blind. And honestly? That’s what made this conversation so much fun.

Note
The following is an editorialized transcript of our weekly literary podcast. If you would like to listen to the podcast, click the play button above orlisten on your favorite platform with the links below.

**A Quick Primer on the Off Campus Universe**

For those who aren’t familiar, the Off Campus book series was written by Elle Kennedy, who is a powerhouse in the contemporary romance space. The original four books were published between 2015 and 2016 (two a year, which is a pace we still can’t wrap our heads around). A fifth book, The Legacy, followed in 2021 as a collection of short stories catching up with the characters.

The series did so well that it spawned not one but two full spin-off series. Briar U consists of four books published between 2018 and 2020, and then the Campus Diaries series followed with three books published between 2023 and 2025, following the next generation of characters. As Shirin put it;

I don’t know how romance authors do this, but you guys are on another fucking level.

The core Off Campus series is set at the fictional Briar University in Massachusetts and follows four members of the school’s hockey team, each getting their own book and their own love story. The Deal follows Hannah and Garrett; The Mistake is Logan’s book; The Score belongs to Dean; and The Goal is Tucker’s story. Each one comes with its own set of tropes and its own emotional weight, and the first season of the show focuses primarily on The Deal while planting seeds for everything else.

The Fake Dating Setup and What Makes It Work

The central storyline of season one follows Hannah Wells and Garrett Graham. She’s a music major who’s doing well in a philosophy class that Garrett is failing. He’s the captain of the hockey team and has already been predrafted by the Bruins, so failing this class could tank his entire future. The deal they strike is simple: Hannah tutors Garrett, and in exchange, he pretends to be her boyfriend to make her crush (a pretentious musician named Justin) jealous. Classic fake dating territory. And look, we know how this goes. Fake feelings become real feelings. That’s the fun of it.

What we liked about this version of the trope is that neither character feels like a cardboard cutout. Garrett has a reputation, sure, but as Shirin pointed out;

It seems like his reputation precedes him more than what he’s actually doing most of the time. He’s hyper focused on hockey.

He’s not written as some irredeemable guy who needs saving. That distinction matters, especially when you’ve got a genre that sometimes leans a little too hard into the “I can change him” narrative. We talked about that, and Meaghan flagged it: “Let’s not be teaching girls that, you know?” Fair point. But this show avoids the worst of that, at least for the most part.

The cast brings real warmth to it. Ella Bright plays Hannah, Belmont Cameli plays Garrett, and the two of them carry the central romance in a way that feels grounded and sweet without tipping into saccharine. Mika Abdalla is excellent as Allie Hayes (Hannah’s best friend and resident ride-or-die), Stephen Kalyn plays Dean Di Laurentis, Jalen Thomas Brooks is Tucker, and Antonio Cipriano plays Logan. We also have to give a shoutout to Cipriano specifically because, well… “He looks like he writes poetry,” Shirin said. “Beautiful eyes.”

Balancing Heavy Subject Matter With Lighthearted Romance

One thing that genuinely surprised us about this show is how well it handles some very difficult material. There are trigger warnings here for sexual assault and domestic violence, and those themes are woven into the backstories of both Hannah and Garrett. That’s a lot of weight for two young characters to carry, and we spent some real time talking about what that means.

Meaghan drew a comparison to 13 Reasons Why, pointing out that both shows feature a character named Hannah who experienced sexual assault at the hands of a popular, wealthy jock. But the outcomes are completely different. In Off Campus, Hannah felt comfortable enough to go to her parents. In 13 Reasons Why, she didn’t. “You see kind of the two fallouts and what happens on both sides,” Meaghan said. That comparison hit hard.

We were impressed that a contemporary romance series can hold that kind of emotional depth while still maintaining its lighthearted energy. It’s a tricky thing to pull off, and the show mostly does it well. The friendships between characters carry a lot of the warmth. Allie, for example, could easily be written off as “the dramatic one” (she’s a theater kid, after all), but she has real emotional intelligence. She’s the friend who shows up, and that matters. Shirin hinted that there are future storyline reasons for why Allie carries that level of understanding, but we’ll leave that for another day.

The friendship dynamic overall was one of the biggest strengths of the show.

I felt like I was watching a group of friends on screen.

Meaghan said. “It’s like the show Friends from the nineties. You’re like, oh, these are my friends. I wanna hang out with them.” And that’s exactly right. A lot of these romance shows leave you feeling like the outsider looking in. This one invites you into the group.

Adaptation Choices, Easter Eggs, and the Shot-for-Shot Debate

We spent a good chunk of the episode talking about the adaptation itself, because that’s always the conversation when a beloved book series hits the screen. And we’ve seen the posts online; people cataloguing every missing scene and every change, only to follow it up with “I still loved it, though.” It’s a funny kind of hypocrisy, and we called it out.

Here’s where we land: a literal, shot-for-shot adaptation would be boring. We know this because we’ve watched Passionflix, and those are basically screenplays ripped straight from the page. “Go watch Gabriel’s Inferno and come back and tell me,” Meaghan said. The problem with that approach is that books have an internal monologue. They have context that doesn’t translate to the screen without becoming flat and lifeless. You lose all the depth. So changes are necessary. They’re welcome, even.

Some of the changes in Off Campus were smart. Making Justin a musician instead of a football player gives Hannah a reason to be around him naturally, without introducing an entirely separate sports program and another huge group of characters. The introduction of Jules (Logan’s sibling, a new character created for the show) was a clever way to handle exposition.

Jules runs a social media gossip account focused on the hockey team, and the character provides a narrative thread for context dumps. We get why they exist. That said, we both felt Jules was a bit underdeveloped and a little gimmicky.

Don’t shoehorn in what could be an interesting character just for the sake of putting a label on things.

Meaghan said. We’re hoping future seasons give Jules more to do.

There were also plenty of Easter eggs for book readers. Dean announcing “Grace Ivers” as a raffle winner at a charity event was a blink-and-you-miss-it moment that sets up Logan’s future love interest. Hunter, who appears towards the end of the season, is part of the Briar U spin-off series and will have his own book.

The tension between Dean and Hunter in the final scene of the season was a genuine surprise, since the two characters get along well in the books. Shirin suspects Summer (Dean’s younger sister) might be at the center of whatever that conflict is, and we’re very curious to find out.

What Worked, What Didn’t, and What’s Coming Next

If we’re talking strengths, we landed on three big ones. First, the chemistry between the characters, both romantic and platonic. Second, the quality of the friendships. Third, the handling of sensitive topics. These three things held the show together and gave it real heart.

The biggest weakness, for us, was pacing. There’s a long, slow build between Hannah and Garrett, and then their actual relationship kicks off via montage. It felt rushed. We wanted to sit with the beginning of that romance a little longer before the show pivoted to other storylines. And it does pivot; by mid-season, Dean and Allie’s developing relationship gets almost equal screen time. Stephen Kalyn and Mika Abdalla have incredible chemistry together, and their storyline is genuinely enjoyable to watch. But it diluted the core love story a bit.

Meaghan compared this to the Heated Rivalry adaptation, where the side couple (Scott and Kip) got a spin-off episode but never pulled focus from the central romance between Shane and Ilya. With Off Campus, the balance tipped closer to fifty-fifty, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it did affect how anchored we felt in Hannah and Garrett’s relationship.

Looking ahead, the show has already been renewed for a second season. There’s been some indication that Dean and Allie’s story might be the focus of season two rather than Logan’s (which would be the next book in sequence). We’re fine either way, honestly. We’d love to see how they handle Logan’s storyline, especially the crush he develops on Hannah, and the fallout from that, but Dean and Allie have earned their screen time. Give us all the love stories. We’re here for it.

Season two has also confirmed the casting of Grace Ivers, who is Logan’s future love interest. So, regardless of the order they choose, the pieces are being placed. We just hope Amazon doesn’t make us wait too long.