7 TV Shows to Watch If You Loved Off Campus
Left your heart (and sanity) at Briar University? These are the shows to queue next.
I’m sure you’ve heard – and maybe even believed – the old adage that lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice. Not only is that a myth (the Empire State Building, for example, is allegedly struck by lightning around 25 times each year), it also fails to account for the mass hysteria triggered by the release of not one but two ice hockey romance series within the last six months.
If the HBO show Heated Rivalry consumed much of your summer holiday season, there’s a good chance the past two weeks have been dominated by another unhealthily popular entry in the ice hockey romance canon: Off Campus.
Based on author Elle Kennedy’s YA book series of the same name, the Amazon Prime show’s first season follows the intersecting lives of Briar University ice hockey star Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli) and college music major Hannah Wells (Ella Bright). Both in need of something from the other – Garrett, a philosophy tutor; Hannah, a lesson in the art of seduction – the pair become entangled in a fake-dating-to-real-lovers plot (hello, first season of Bridgerton), complete with all the chaos, confusion and supporting characters inherent in any campus-set caper.\
Perhaps you’re new to the show, perhaps you’ve heard friends talking about it incessantly, or perhaps you’re already onto your fourth viewing. Whatever your status, the first thing to know is that this is a safe place for your calcified or burgeoning obsession. And if you’re desperate for other shows that elicit the same first-love spark that Off Campus delivered, read on.
1. Heated Rivalry
Where Can I Watch it? On HBO Max
Granted, it’s an obvious choice, but Heated Rivalry is the show that really ignited this unhinged obsession with on-screen hockey romances. Following the eight-year situationship between on-ice rivals and in-bedroom lovers – bad boy Ilya and shy boy Shane – the series delivers exactly what its title promises: tension, tenderness, competitive male suffering and the kind of yearning that makes viewers behave as though they personally have something at stake in a fictional sports schedule. If Off Campus gave you the college romance version of obsession, Heated Rivalry is its moodier, more tortured cousin.
2. One Tree Hill
Where Can I Watch it? On Stan
Nathan and Hayley walked so Garrett and Hannah could run. Long before hockey boys were breaking hearts and ruining lives, basketball boys were doing, well, the exact same thing. One Tree Hill remains one of the great teen melodrama sacred texts: a small-town saga of half-brothers, complicated friendships, love triangles, varsity jackets, and parental trauma. Like Off Campus, it understands the specific power of sport as both narrative backdrop and emotional pressure cooker, where every game is somehow also about identity, heartbreak, ambition, and whether two people should absolutely, disastrously get together.
3. The Sex Lives of College Girls
Where Can I Watch it? On HBO Max
For those less attached to the hockey of it all and more interested in the campus chaos, The Sex Lives of College Girls is an easy next stop. Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, the series follows four roommates navigating friendship, sex, class, ambition, and the millions of small humiliations of early adulthood. Picture the same collegiate ecosystem that makes Off Campus so addictive – dorm rooms, and crushes that become crises – but with a sharp comic edge and a broader ensemble dynamic. With three seasons (30 episodes) out, there’s plenty to keep you occupied on the catch-up.
4. The Summer I Turned Pretty
Where Can I Watch it? On Amazon Video
Chasing the dizzy, all-consuming feeling of first love? The Summer I Turned Pretty is practically built in a lab for you. Based on Jenny Han’s bestselling book series, the show follows protagonist Belly Conklin (Lola Tung) as she returns each summer to Cousins Beach and finds herself caught between brothers Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher (Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno respectively). There are love triangles, beach houses, lingering glances across kitchens, and enough Taylor Swift needle drops to make even the most emotionally stable viewer feel 17 again. Seriously – the music budget is something that needs to be talked about more. Like Off Campus, it trades in romantic inevitability, and the sense that every small interaction might become the thing you think about for years.
5. Overcompensating
Where Can I Watch it? On Amazon Prime
From the heart and mind and life of the internet’s favourite @bennydrama7 (Benito Skinner), Overcompensating offers a more chaotic spin on campus life, and a sharper, more self-aware energy to the genre. Created by and starring Skinner, the series follows a closeted former football player attempting to reinvent himself at college. It shares Off Campus’ interest in the social theatre of young adulthood – who people pretend to be, who they want to become, and who they accidentally reveal themselves to be after two drinks and one bad decision. Bonus reason to watch: The series also stars Skinner’s IRL best friend and Ride podcast host Mary Beth Barone as Benny’s caustic and captivating sister Grace.
6. Heartbreak High
Where Can I Watch it? On Netflix
Australia’s Heartbreak High reboot is louder and more anarchic than Off Campus (and shares a cast member in the brooding Josh Heuston), but it scratches a similar itch for ensemble drama with a beating/bleeding romantic heart. Set at the fictional Hartley High, the series follows a group of teenagers navigating sex, friendship, reputation, shame, and the kind of social fallout that only high school can make feel genuinely apocalyptic. It’s funny and surprisingly tender – packed with characters who make terrible decisions for extremely understandable reasons. Pretty much exactly what we want from a teen show.
7. Along for the Ride
Where Can I Watch it? On Netflix
Not technically a TV show but we’re throwing it in for the Belmont Cameli casting. Based on the Sarah Dessen novel of the same name, Along for the Ride is a softer option for anyone wanting a break from the intensity but absolutely not the yearning. The film follows Auden, an academic overachiever who spends the summer before college in a seaside town, where she meets Eli, a mysterious fellow insomniac (of course) with a past of his own. It is more subdued than Off Campus, but it has that same gentle pleasure of watching someone slowly come undone in the nicest possible way, through late-night conversations and a boy who knows exactly when to appear on a bike.
8. Bridgerton
Where Can I Watch it? On Netflix
No, we know, there are no hockey sticks, tutoring sessions, or high stakes pop showcases in Bridgerton. But there is fake dating, unbearable romantic tension, and people pretending their feelings are far less serious than they obviously are, which makes it essential viewing in the broader Off Campus recovery plan. The first season, in particular, shares the same fake-relationship-to-actual-emotional-disaster structure, as Daphne Bridgerton and the Duke of Hastings enter into a mutually beneficial arrangement that very quickly becomes everyone’s problem. Once you swap the varsity jackets for corsets and empire waist dresses, the emotional mechanics become deliciously familiar.
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