Off Campus is a teen series on Prime Video based on the Young Adult (YA) novel with the same title by Elle Kennedy. The show was released in 2026 and stars Ella Bright, Mika Abdalla, and Belmont Cameli. Hannah Wells (Bright) is a junior at Briar University who's trying to date a guy named Justin Kohl who is not interested in her. Garrett Graham (Cameli) is a junior and the captain of the Briar University Hawks hockey team. When Garrett is about to fail a philosophy class, he enlists Hannah as his tutor, and in exchange, he helps her get with Justin. As the two get closer, Garrett realizes he has feelings for Hannah, and the two begin a relationship together.
Off Campus is a very cliché teen show based on a cliché YA novel popularized by TikTok/BookTok. Cliches are fun to watch, but it becomes very predictable very quick. The characters also have the same backstories as Wattpad fan fictions, which is not bad. It does continue the conversation of mental health struggles and acceptance, but it was a little funny to me. Again, very predictable. I wasn't a big fan of the main character, Hannah. Nothing about her felt very relatable to me, and I found her annoying in the first 30 minutes of the show. However, when she's dancing to 'The Bitch is Back' by Elton John in the last 10 minutes of the first episode was very entertaining and made me change my mind for a moment.
The soundtrack also wasn't my favorite of a teen show. I think another Prime Video show, The Summer I Turned Pretty, had a better soundtrack. Comparing it to that show, Off Campus did not have the budget to license more mainstream songs. In the halloween party scene in episode 2, where Hannah comes down the stairs, the song playing is 'Deeply Still in Love' by ROLE MODEL, and it made absolutely no sense to me. I really did not like that song choice for the characters. That song is about loving someone after a relationship, and Hannah and Garrett were only starting out their 'fake' relationship. 0/10 on that song for me. Out of the whole season, I had 3 favorites that may make it into my personal playlists.
Though I have my faults with the show, I do think it's a cute show to watch. I enjoyed watching Allie (Abdalla), Hannah's best friend. She felt more lively and exciting to watch. I also liked the second love interest (kind of) for Hannah, John Logan. He seemed nicer and more down-to-earth than Garrett. Garrett is also a great love interest though. He's very reasonable, realistic, and handsome too. I also liked the set design. TV Shows have strayed away from maximalism and are trying to be more modern with the current world. But the Off Campus sets had decorations on every wall and table. They were nice backdrops. It gives the show more of a nostalgic feel like the teen shows from the 2000's. It also helps tell the story and set the scene. I do slightly think though that this show should've come out in the summer rather than in the fall, the season the story is set in. Seeing the characters celebrate Thanksgiving and seeing snow on the ground while it is hot out did not feel right to me.
This show was okay at best. It didn't give me a happy or fun feeling while watching it. I wasn't really rooting for anyone or anything to happen, I was just watching. Usually for me to consider a show to be good or really good, I would get excited about it and invest myself in it. This one I was kind of invested in mostly for entertainment but not for the characters. I think this was Prime Video's attempt at another big summer teen show like The Summer I Turned Pretty. While it didn't stick for me, it seems like everyone loves it. Off Campus has been renewed for a second season and has already been announced that it will focus more on Allie and her love interest, Dean, a hockey player on the Briar University Hawks.
Rating: 6.5/10