Warning: This article contains spoilers for “Off Campus” Season 1.
“Off Campus” Season 1 proves a faithful adaptation of Elle Kennedy’s 2015 hockey romance novel “The Deal” — mostly. Prime Video released all eight episodes of the college-set romance show May 13. But even before its release, dedicated book fans hoped it would honor some the book’s most beloved moments.
Some came true. Some did not.
Belmont Cameli and Ella Bright, who star in “Off Campus” Season 1 as romantic leads Garrett and Hannah, have said they read “The Deal” in preparation for their roles.
“I think all of the changes that we made to put this book on screen were really amazing and really thoughtful changes that I really enjoyed,” Bright tells TODAY.com. “We made it our own in a really special way. I think people can hopefully love both of them in their own individual ways.”
Cameli adds that he can’t think of anything from the book that was truly missing in the show.
“In the book, you get to hear everything that these two characters are thinking and feeling at all times, and in a show you don’t have that luxury,” he says. “So we wanted to show some of those things rather than tell.”
“I think (co-showrunners) Louisa (Levy) and Gina (Fattore) and the writing team did a really good job if not perfectly translating something from the book, paying homage, or making it better, more fitting for TV,” he adds.
Read on for all the major differences between “Off Campus” and Kennedy’s book that inspired it all.
Hannah’s Crush, Justin, Is Now a Musician
Both the book and show focus on the titular “deal” between Hannah and Garrett: She will tutor him, and he’ll pretend to date her to attract the attention of her crush, Justin Kohl (Josh Heuston).
In the book, Justin is a football player who Hannah believes “gives off an intelligent, intense vibe.” So though she’s “not usually into jocks,” her belief in his “hidden depths” draws her attraction.
As Garrett pursues Hannah for studying help, he learns of her crush on Justin. He insists that, due to their shared athletic circle, if Hannah is seen on a date with Garrett, it’ll raise her social currency and desirability in Justin’s eyes.
In the show, however, Justin isn’t a football player, but a musician.
Heuston tells TODAY.com that his character and Garrett have a “similar status on campus.” Both are in the limelight in their respective fields.
“I think when he sees that Garrett is interested in this girl, and she seems genuine and endearing in all these ways, Justin’s like, ‘Oh, this person’s going to be actually liking me for me, not just the college rock star.’”
Elle Kennedy, the author of the books, even approves.
“I’m actually happy with making Justin a musician in the show,” Kennedy told E! News when asked about book-to-show changes. “It was just so unlike her to have a crush on a jock, so I thought it would be really funny.”
“It was a way for Garrett to know who Justin is and why they would be at the same parties because, for the most part, they probably wouldn’t,” she added. “But I really, really enjoyed making Justin the musician.”
Hannah Kisses Logan, Not Dean
After Hannah and Garrett strike up their deal, they soon run into a slight snag: PDA.
Garrett insists that to truly sell their fake relationship, they need to be affectionate with each other in front of other people. When Hannah seems hesitant, he accuses her of being scared, so she kisses him in defiance.
In the books, resident bad boy/player Dean Di Laurentis then walks in on them, after they had previously told all the housemates they were just study buddies. To back up her white lie that it was just kissing practice, she walks up to Dean and kisses him, too.
In the show, Garrett and Hannah’s kiss happens in the gym. It’s not Dean who walks in on them, though — it’s John Logan, played by Antonio Cipriano.
To prove her and Garrett’s kiss didn’t mean anything, she kisses Logan right after.
Showrunner Louisa Levy says that change was made to tee up an important part of Logan’s story told in book two, “The Mistake”: his crush on Hannah.
“That’s obviously such a fun moment in the book,” Levy tells TODAY.com. “We have such limited time, and we felt like that real estate was useful setting up Logan’s crush.”
“We wanted to kind of collapse those two things and make them work with each other,” she adds. “We felt like that one small change, even though it was really fun with Dean in the books, we felt like switching it to Logan helped him and his story more than the kiss with Dean helped him in his.”
Allie and Dean Start Their Relationship Much, Much Earlier
Speaking of Dean, the events of his book — book three, “The Score” — came earlier than expected, as he and his eventual love interest, Hannah’s best friend Allie, start hooking up in Season 1.
Episode 5 ends with a big twist: For months after her breakup with longterm boyfriend Sean, Allie (Mika Abdalla) has been secretly having a rebound fling with Dean (Stephen Kalyn).
This aligns with the events of Kennedy’s book, “The Score.” Like the show, Dean and Allie start sleeping together shortly after her breakup with Sean but keep it a secret from their friends.
They eventually realize they are essentially already in a relationship and decide to make things official after Hannah and Garrett accidentally find out about their arrangement.
The show sets up a less smooth course forward, though. In the show, Allie has the epiphany that she’s jumping immediately into another relationship and decides she wants to prove to herself she can be single. So she gives herself and Dean an “assignment”: sleep with someone else.
In the final moments of Season 1, Dean tells her he couldn’t follow through with it and confesses his feelings for her. But Allie admits she did complete the assignment. And, unbeknownst to her, the person she slept with is none other than Dean’s nemesis: Hunter Davenport.
Garrett Breaks Up with Hannah
In both Season 1 and “The Deal,” Garrett and Hannah fall victim to the classic romantic trope of the third-act breakup.
After Garrett gets in a fight on the ice for Hannah, they call it quits, but the circumstances differ between the book and show.
In the book, Garrett’s dad confronts Hannah after the fight and accuses her of distracting his son and jeopardizing his future. He gives her an ultimatum: break up with Garrett or he’ll financially cut his son off.
She goes through with it and tries to cut off contact, but Garrett refuses to give up. He enacts a campus “hands-off” ban, promising his wrath if another guy pursues Hannah. After she confronts him about it, they kiss, and she shares the real reason she ended things. They get back together after he reveals that he has a trust fund out of his dad’s control.
But in the show, it’s Garrett who breaks up with Hannah.
Levy says this change was made because of the evolving world of college athletics.
“Because the books came out over a decade ago, we now have different NCAA laws where athletes can earn money themselves,” Levy says. “It just didn’t feel credible in today’s landscape. So we were trying to find a way around that.”
Garrett decides to break up with Hannah after the fight because he’s scared he will turn out like his abusive father.
“It also just felt so much more organic that Garrett would break up with Hannah because of his inner fear that he would become his dad, which, of course, he would not, but we buy that he would believe that,” Levy adds.
Hannah is heartbroken. Garrett eventually opens up to his best friend John Logan about his father’s abuse and rediscovers why he loves hockey. At the last minute, Hannah decides to perform at the pop showcase, and Garrett and the team sits front row in support. After, outside the auditorium, he asks for her back, and they share a kiss.
No ‘Hands-Off’ Campus Ban?
Because Garrett is the one who broke up with Hannah in the show, the circumstances of his “hands-off” campus ban had to change, too.
So it all turns out to be a misunderstanding.
In Episode 8, after their breakup, Hannah is working her shift at the diner. When she approaches a table of guys to take their order, they barely look her in the eye and ask for a different server.
Later, she hears of the “hands-off” rule and storms into the Briar hockey locker room to confront Garrett.
In the book, Garrett responds to her accusation with a boastful, “Of course I did.” But in the show, he immediately denies it. Turns out, the “campus ban” was just a rumor that began when another hockey player misinterpreted a comment from Dean.
“Look, I would never tell anyone to stay away from you. You should be with whoever you want to be,” Garrett tells Hannah.
While Levy maintains Garrett and Hannah’s breakup feels more current and natural in the show, “the casualty of that is the ‘hands-off law’ feels much worse coming from Garrett if he broke up with Hannah.”
“We were trying to find a way to keep this fan-favorite moment from the book, while not making it like a problem for Garrett,” Levy says. “So we came up with a solution that still honors the original intent but makes Garrett not completely terrible for doing this after breaking up with Hannah.”
