Power Play
Showrunner Lousia Levy and author Elle Kennedy on how they turned a 10-year-old new-adult novel into the series of the summer
In hockey, the best advice is to leave everything on the ice. But in the world of hockey romance, the focus is on what happens after the players’ skates — among other things — come off. It’s a winning formula that has just spawned another TV sensation.
Released May 13, Off Campus is Prime Video’s entry into the explosively popular genre. Based on the 2015 book The Deal, by romance author Elle Kennedy, the series follows a group of college hockey stars at the fictional Briar University and the women they fall in love with. Off Campus uses the messy lives of these athletes to explore romance tropes like fake-dating plots, enemies-to-lovers twists, secret relationships, and more. The series also taps into the current craze of new-adult stories — that is, focused on characters in that stage of life between teen and full-fledged adulthood — many specifically set in the pressure-cooker environment that college and university settings naturally supply to make romance spark. And following the success of the steamy HBO Max hit Heated Rivalry, Off Campus is a high-budget argument from Prime Video and creator Louisa Levy that hockey romance isn’t a phase — it’s a genre with plenty to say.
