Does the saying “A rising tide lifts all boats” apply to subgenres of small-screen romance? Amazon surely hope so. As a romance involving a star hockey player with daddy issues, its new series Off Campus will be unable to avoid reflexive comparisons to Heated Rivalry — and, given the HBO drama’s lightning-in-a-bottle success, unlikely to live up to them.
Off Campus can only pray that said comparisons will attract the attention of an audience newly primed for love stories involving sweaty men with sticks on ice skates, and that its own charms will be enough to get them to stay.
Off Campus
The Bottom Line
Winningly sweet, tonally shaky.
