"Off Campus" might be one of the best new shows of the year

“I don’t subscribe to the notion that art has to be painful. In fact, if done right, allowing people into our truth can even be healing.”

Amazon’s newest romantic drama series, Off Campus, debuted this month with all eight episodes dropping at once on Prime Video to immediate global success and, more importantly, strong critical and fan acclaim alike.

At first glance, the series might seem like Amazon’s answer to HBO’s 2025 phenomenon Heated Rivalry. 

In reality, Off Campus becomes something far more emotionally grounded and surprisingly ambitious. What could have easily been another disposable adaptation of a “spicy BookTok” favorite instead evolves into a genuinely affecting drama that is charming, emotional, funny, romantic and, yes, relentlessly sexy.

The series follows Hannah Wells, played brilliantly by Ella Bright, a music major at the fictional Briar University whose scholarship is hanging by a thread. Hannah also happens to have a crush on fellow music student Justin, a brooding British punk rocker.

Meanwhile, Briar Hawks hockey captain Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli) is struggling through the psychology course he shares with Hannah while trying to live up to the legacy of his famous hockey-player father. With dreams of making it to the Bruins, Garrett believes relationships and distractions have no place in his life.

Their worlds collide when Garrett notices Hannah aced a brutal psychology quiz and asks her to tutor him. Hannah, who has little patience for hockey players, refuses at first. Eventually, the two strike a deal: Garrett will pretend to be Hannah’s boyfriend to make Justin jealous if Hannah helps him pass psych and maintain his athletic eligibility.

Naturally, the fake relationship quickly becomes real.

The romance also ripples outward into the lives of those around them, particularly Hannah’s best friend and roommate Allie (a breakout performance from Mika Abdalla), who finds herself drawn to Dean Di Laurentis, Garrett’s teammate, roommate and resident chaos agent, played with scene-stealing charisma by Stephen Kalyn.

What makes Off Campus work so well is how quickly it moves beyond the familiar “fake dating” formula that dominates so many BookTok-inspired adaptations. Under showrunner Louisa Levy and co-showrunner Gina Fattore (Gilmore Girls, Californication), the series evolves into something far richer and more emotionally grounded.

The show tackles abuse, sexual violence, PTSD, mental health and complicated relationship dynamics with a surprising amount of maturity and care, all while maintaining the glossy escapism and romantic fantasy audiences are likely showing up for in the first place.

Thankfully, the series never loses sight of the fun.

The casting directors deserve enormous credit for assembling one of the most absurdly attractive casts currently on television without sacrificing actual acting ability. The chemistry throughout the ensemble is explosive, particularly between the two central pairings: Garrett and Hannah, and Dean and Allie.

Ella Bright gives Hannah an awkward warmth that never slips into caricature. She makes the character funny and eccentric while still carrying the emotional weight of Hannah’s trauma and insecurity. Cameli’s Garrett balances effortless charm with simmering anger and vulnerability, making him feel far more layered than the typical “brooding hockey captain” archetype.

Then there’s Stephen Kalyn’s Dean, who quickly becomes the show’s secret weapon. Dean is reckless, flirtatious and hilariously self-aware, but Kalyn gives him such natural magnetism that every scene he enters immediately becomes more entertaining. A Halloween party sequence early in the season -particularly Dean and Allie’s first dance together -somehow manages to be more electric than most of the show’s actual sex scenes.

Another standout element is the music supervision, which is phenomenal throughout. Tracks from The Beaches, Remi Wolf, Griff, Avery Cochrane, Elton John, Lady Gaga and even The Foundations are woven naturally into the series, often reflecting Hannah’s struggle to write an original song for a music showcase competition tied to her scholarship.

The soundtrack doesn’t simply decorate scenes it deepens them both diagetically and thematically.

What ultimately makes Off Campus such a compelling watch is its ability to balance an enormous ensemble cast and multiple subplots without ever losing emotional focus. Every relationship feels lived in, every emotional beat lands, and the quieter moments hit just as hard - and raw- as the larger romantic set pieces.

The show becomes intensely bingeable almost immediately. 

It's the kind of series that quietly steals your entire night before you realize it’s 4 a.m.

It’s no surprise Amazon renewed Off Campus for a second season ahead of its premiere. What is surprising is just how good the first season turned out to be.

Not only is it one of the strongest freshman drama seasons in recent memory, it may genuinely end up in the conversation for one of the year’s best television dramas overall.

All episodes of Off Campus are now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.