Off Campus Recap Season 1 Episode 1: The Deal

Hello gentle readers! No, there has not been a mistake. Your resident mystery recapper has been tasked to recap a rather buzzy (at least, on Twitter) romance tale that had the camera lingering on the male physique somewhere in its first couple of minutes. Linger, linger. It was as though the camera was not certain we got it the first time, and did another pass. It was impressive. It was very pleasant to watch. This is going to be a trip to cover, so let’s get on it!

First off, whilst I don’t watch a lot of teen romance (anymore), I am completely fine with them. I have enjoyed my fair share of CW shows. To be honest, I was a bit taken aback at how this pilot episode started, but roughly 25 minutes in, and I started thinking, this isn’t bad. I can understand why the show has buzz. By the end of the episode, I was ready to label this a happy pill. And isn’t that something we need, especially in these uncertain times?

Based on a book series by Elle Kennedy, Off Campus is a Prime Video offering that stars Ella Bright as Hannah Wells, a music major about to lose her scholarship due to budget cuts, and Belmont Cameli as Garrett Graham, a star hockey player who just happened to be failing a class Hannah was acing, and needed her help. At halftime during a rivalry game where a distracted Garrett was playing badly, he happened to see Hannah singing and dancing on her own, lost in the music. From just another classmate whose name he didn’t even know, he actually saw her, looked at and for her, and wisely figured out the way to get her to see him, too.

Hannah, who according to her best friend Allie never had crushes, nursed a serious crush on musician Justin Kohl. As bright and confident as she was, she tended to fumble every time she tried to talk to Justin. And so Garrett swooped in, gave her his jacket, placed an arm around her, and pretended to be her boyfriend. He was right; that got Justin’s attention.

The deal was fairly straightforward as far as deals go – Hannah would tutor Garrett so he would pass the class and continue playing hockey. In exchange, he would pay Hannah and pretend to be her boyfriend. The thing is, they did this deal in the middle of a loud block party. Suddenly, everything else fell silent. Garrett hooked his fingers on the band of Hannah’s pants to pull her closer. They touched on her love of music and his more complicated feelings toward hockey. He mentioned his mother’s death. He mentioned Dirty Dancing, Hannah’s favourite movie, and his mother’s, too. He insisted that he wanted to earn his grade. Their faces told the tale of how this was a deal for her, but not for him. It’s working on me, you guys.

One of my favourite story choices of this pilot episode is that, at least amongst the young cast for now, there are no bad guys. It would have been easy to cast at least one of the four jocks living together in a jerk role. The show powers that be did not do that in this episode. Garrett was honest about what he offered to his erstwhile lover Kendall – fun, but nothing serious. Dean was probably the most sexually active of the four, and he did not give douche vibes. Logan was a good friend to Garrett. Tucker cooked and just seemed chill. When the guys were talking about Garrett’s non-relationship with Kendall, they pointed out that Garrett could not fault Kendall for thinking they were dating since they have been hooking up all semester.* Logan later called out Garrett for not knowing Hannah’s name when she had waited on them at Malone’s multiple times. You can craft an engaging story without heaping evil in the midst, and I am loving it. 

This is not to say that there is no foil. Garrett clearly had a complicated relationship with his father, who just happened to be a NHL legend. He had been ignoring his calls, and when his father showed up at his house just before a big game, it was to tell him that he was marrying his girlfriend of six months. Hannah, too, seemed to have trauma related to a boy she saw outside the hockey game. She rushed to find a room to calm herself, and played music, and sang and danced. It was this confluence of these two young people struggling and dealing with their pain that led to the music Hannah played piercing Garrett's dark mood, a smile finally touching his lips as he watched her.

My verdict? I’m in. This is a relaxing watch. This is a break from a heavy world. This is fun. And it’s perfectly okay to have fun. 

Rating: B+

Strays

🌸*Early in the episode, Hannah mentioned how they were only three weeks into the semester. But the vibe with Garrett’s conversation with his teammates made it seem like the semester has gone on longer. Or maybe three weeks is long in college hookup world? 

🌸Hannah accidentally walked in on Garrett naked in the shower at the gym locker room. Later, when she called him out for looking at her paper over her shoulder, he retorted, ‘What? Only you get to look at things you shouldn’t?’ Lol touché.

🌸Hannah, on a classical composition scholarship that was ending, decided to enter a pop songwriting competition to hopefully win another scholarship for the next semester. She, however, has been struggling with writing her showcase song. She was still in high school the last time she wrote a pop song. Part of Hannah’s desire to fall in love (with Justin) was so she could write a good pop song.

🌸Allie’s boyfriend is Sean, and her and Hannah’s other friend was Dexter. When Garrett inserted himself into Hannah and Justin’s conversation, Allie made a move to intervene, but Dexter, who immediately understood what Garrett was doing, stopped her.

Episode Title: The Deal

Episode Teleplay: Louisa Levy

Episode Director: Silver Tree

Original Release Date: May 13, 2026

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