Off Campus Review
Director: Silver Tree, Samantha Bailey, Erica Dunton, and Dawn Wilkinson
Date Created: 2026-05-13 17:25
3
Off Campus Review: Directed by Silver Tree, Samantha Bailey, Erica Dunton, and Dawn Wilkinson, the Prime Video series stars Belmont Cameli as Garrett Graham, Ella Bright as Hannah Wells, Mika Abdalla as Allie Hayes, Stephen Kalyn as Dean Di Laurentis, Jalen Thomas Brooks as John Tucker, Antonio Cipriano as Logan, and others. Based on Elle Kennedy’s bestselling novel series, the drama consists of eight episodes with a runtime of around 48 minutes each.
Off Campus Review
Off Campus on Prime Video revolves around Hannah Wells, a music student at Briar University, who suffers from mental trauma due to something that happened to her before. Despite being an excellent person with many great qualities, such as smartness, talent, and independence, Hannah suffers from intimacy problems since something happened to her in the past that continues haunting her to this day. On the other hand, there is Garrett Graham, the captain of the university’s hockey team. From the outside, Garrett has an ideal life; he is famous, handsome, and always surrounded by women, yet he is doing poorly academically.
The two cross paths because Garrett discovers that Hannah is one of the best-performing students in his class and requires her help to get by. Initially, Hannah does not want anything to do with Garrett since he is part of the hockey community at Briar, which Hannah despises. After Garrett pesters her enough about helping him out, they finally make an agreement. Hannah tutors Garrett while he acts like Hannah’s boyfriend to attract Justin’s attention.
Needless to say, the false relationship soon becomes the focus of the plot, and frankly, this is when the Prime Video series Off Campus reaches its maximum strength and weakness. The series features all the cliches typical of romantic comedies, but nevertheless manages to keep some of them amusing. It is clear that the development of Hannah and Garrett’s characters’ relations will be quite predictable, but it is still interesting to see the dynamics of their communication.
What appealed to me the most about Prime Video’s Off Campus is that there is enough development in their relationship without jumping straight into the love bit. The lessons that the two have gradually turned into emotional talks during which they both start revealing themselves and opening up. At first, Garrett seemed like a typical egotistic athlete who likes to flirt with everyone around, but later in the episode, we find out that there are complex problems in his family that have been bothering him emotionally due to the pressure put on him by his dad, Phil Graham, the former hockey star.
However, I was surprised by the fact that Hannah’s character is much more complex than one would usually expect in a YA romance story. This show does not feature constant traumatic flashbacks at the beginning of each episode. Instead, viewers can see how trauma affected her self-confidence and relationships with others. The storyline where Hannah was uneasy about some men’s behaviour at a party was told without any exaggeration. I appreciate the fact that the show did not manipulate her traumatic experience to shock the audience.
The romance itself makes the whole Off Campus series worth watching. Belmont Cameli and Ella Bright definitely make Hannah and Garrett an appealing couple. The banter and flirtations, as well as the conversations they have, create enough tension to move the plot along, even in some boring episodes. The transformation that takes place in Garrett when he becomes more gentle towards Hannah, and in Hannah, who starts breaking down her walls for him, makes the whole series very cute. There are quite a few instances in which nothing happens, but they still work.
Nonetheless, the series turns out to be irritating owing to the high use of clichés. Every conflict that comes along in the series seems so familiar. The misunderstandings occur just at the time one might have anticipated them; there will always be a fight just as the romantic part is about to begin, and sometimes it will just be prolonged for eight episodes just to create tension.
The secondary plots are a mix as well. The flirtation between Allie and Dean adds life to the series, considering that Dean is wilder and less serious than Garrett. Similarly, Logan and Tucker provide realism to the hockey buddies by making them appear like secondary characters instead of simply providing backdrops to the series. However, some secondary plots are abandoned hastily or are simply used as a foundation for future episodes.
In terms of visual production, the show is highly polished, like other Prime Video productions that are aimed towards the YA demographic. The university setting is very vibrant, hockey sequences are shot brilliantly, and parties fit right into the tone that the show is trying to capture. The musical score is great in emotional and romantic sequences, despite the fact that the show goes a little too far when it comes to presenting an idealised world of college.
One thing I kept feeling while watching Off Campus is how this series always seems to walk a fine line between genuine emotion and utter predictability. The first moments of the show, when the characters seem authentic and open about their fears and feelings, can be very emotional. However, the show instantly throws another clichéd misunderstanding or romance storyline into the mix that brings back the realisation that it’s yet another predictable young adult drama.
Prime Video Off Campus Review: Summing Up
Overall, the 2026 Off Campus series is an enjoyable and romantic one, which you will want to watch again and again; however, it is not likely to step beyond the genre conventions. Although nothing revolutionary takes place in this series, there is an undeniable chemistry between its main characters, who are so warm-hearted that they keep you glued to your screen for hours and hours. This series may be predictable in the way the story develops, but it still remains captivating.
