Off Campus Review: Amazon’s Hockey Romance Is Sweet, Cozy, and No Heated Rivalry

Off Campus Review time, and Amazon is clearly hoping that the recent wave of interest in sports-themed romance carries over to its newest series. Adapted from Elle Kennedy’s widely loved novels, Off Campus arrives at a moment when audiences seem genuinely curious about love stories set against the sweaty, intense world of hockey. Whether this particular show will satisfy that craving is a more complicated question.

A Show Stepping Into a Crowded Rink

Comparisons with HBO’s breakout drama Heated Rivalry are inevitable. That earlier series captured a kind of cultural lightning that very few sports romances ever manage to bottle. Off Campus, by contrast, plays in a softer, gentler key. It is less steamy, less emotionally raw, and somehow even less focused on the sport of hockey itself.

The hope, presumably, is that viewers drawn in by the buzz around Heated Rivalry will give Off Campus a chance and stay for its own charms. The good news is that those charms do exist. The slightly less good news is that you have to first let go of the show it is not, in order to enjoy the one it actually is.

A Familiar Romance Built on Beloved Tropes

Adapted by Louisa Levy, Off Campus is essentially a love letter to every classic romance trope you can imagine. The series serves up:

• Opposites attract
• Fake dating
• The unexpected playboy who catches real feelings
• Tutor and athlete dynamics
• Friend group hijinks at a generic New England college

This is not a flaw. It is the point. Off Campus invites you in the way a comfort show should, like easing into a warm bath after a long day. For fans of romance fiction, that familiarity is the whole appeal.

The Setup: Hannah, Garrett, and a Convenient Deal

The story revolves around two students on the same campus with seemingly unrelated problems. Hannah, played by Ella Bright, is a music major hopelessly crushing on Justin, a wannabe rock star portrayed by Josh Heuston. Garrett, played by Belmont Cameli, is the school’s NHL-bound hockey captain whose grades are slipping.

Garrett barely notices Hannah at first, even though she works at the campus hangout he frequents, and even though his best friend Logan, played by Antonio Cipriano, clearly has a crush on her. Things shift the moment Garrett realises Hannah is acing the class he is failing.

A deal is born. She will tutor him in exchange for his help winning over Justin, which involves a healthy dose of fake dating to make her crush jealous.

The arrangement doesn’t hold up to much logical scrutiny. Garrett is wealthy and could easily just pay Hannah for tutoring, but the show isn’t pretending the setup is airtight. Its real purpose is simply to throw two unlikely people together and let chemistry handle the rest.

Chemistry That Slowly Finds Its Footing

The leads take a little time to settle into their dynamic. Bright, who at 19 appears to be one of the few cast members playing roughly her own age, brings a natural warmth and sunshiny energy to Hannah right away. Cameli, on the other hand, occasionally struggles to make Garrett’s reserved cool feel like more than just blankness in the early episodes.

The good news is that Cameli excels in the gentler moments, especially when Garrett softens around Hannah. The pair is at their most endearing when they are simply existing in each other’s space, like Garrett stealing glances across a crowded room or Hannah quietly taking the lead in their relationship.

The supporting cast helps too. Mika Abdalla brings a delightful energy to the role of Allie, Hannah’s theatre-kid best friend, who quickly becomes one of the most likable parts of the entire season.

A Romance That Doesn’t Shy Away from Heat

Off Campus makes its sexual chemistry clear from the start. The very first episode features Hannah accidentally walking in on Garrett in a locker room shower, with the camera taking its time on his muscular back, his abs, and the water rolling over him. The message is unmistakable: this is a romance that intends to embrace its physicality.

As Hannah and Garrett grow closer, intimacy becomes a way for them to build trust and express vulnerability. It is treated as a meaningful part of their connection, not just titillation.

Heavier Emotional Layers Underneath

The series tries to give both lead characters more depth by introducing traumatic backstories that explain Hannah’s anxieties about intimacy and Garrett’s discomfort with commitment. To the show’s credit, these reveals come gradually, allowing viewers to know the characters as they are before unpacking everything that shaped them.

That choice is admirable. The execution, however, is uneven.

Across its eight-episode season, Off Campus struggles to balance its fluffy, lighthearted moments with its heavier dramatic ones. Some of the transitions feel abrupt, and a few stretches of dialogue land with a noticeable thud. One early conversation between Hannah and Garrett swings wildly from cheerful banter about Dirty Dancing to a sharp critique of hockey’s glorification of violence. The shift is jarring, even when the foreshadowing is clearly intentional.

Another scene attempts to model healthy consent through wholesome locker room conversation. The intent is lovely, but it veers so deeply into after-school-special territory that it could have been lifted from a late-season episode of Ted Lasso.

A Tonally Uneven Second Half

The first half of the season is where Off Campus truly shines. The flirtation, banter, and slow-building chemistry create the kind of cozy comfort the show clearly wants to deliver. By the midpoint, however, the sweeter notes start giving way to heavier emotional territory.

The back half leans hard into the more painful backstories, and by the time Hannah and Garrett finally find their happy resolution, the emotional payoff feels a bit rushed. The lightness that defined the early episodes is harder to recapture once the darker themes take over.

A Familiar Shift Toward an Ensemble Future

Adding to that imbalance is the show’s growing interest in another couple within the friend group. As the season closes in on its final episodes, attention noticeably begins shifting toward this secondary pairing, who seem clearly positioned to take centre stage in a possible second season.

It is a move that recalls the Bridgerton model, where each season focuses on a new romance within the same broader social world. If you came to Off Campus purely for Hannah and Garrett, the shift may feel premature. If you are open to the idea of a rotating ensemble romance series, the strategy makes a certain kind of sense.

A Cozy Watch, Not a Cultural Moment

Off Campus may not become the next Heated Rivalry, but it does not need to. It delivers a soft, familiar, occasionally clunky but mostly enjoyable comfort-watch experience that romance fans will recognise immediately. With a little tonal refinement and a clearer sense of focus, future seasons could grow into something genuinely warm and rewatchable.

For now, the show is a serviceable, sometimes sweet entry into the sports romance genre, perfect for viewers who simply want to curl up and let a story sweep them along.