Top 5 Must-Watch TV Shows for Fans of ‘Off Campus’: Your Ultimate Viewing Guide

Brimming with soap opera-level drama and heartwarming romance, “Off Campus” is a whirlwind of entertainment. If you find yourself breezing through all eight episodes of the debut season and are left craving more, don’t worry. We have several recommendations lined up for you to explore, ensuring your romantic drama fix continues.

For those with an Amazon Prime membership, there’s another show you’ll want to dive into, which is also exclusive to the platform. “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” an adaptation of Jenny Han’s beloved books, shares a similar romantic allure. Han, famous for “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” also helms this series. The story centers on Isabel “Belly” Conklin, played charmingly by Lola Tung, who undergoes a transformative summer that captures the attention of her childhood friends and surrogate siblings, Jeremiah and Conrad Fisher (Gavin Casalegno and Christopher Briney). The narrative unfolds at their family’s picturesque beach house in the fictional Cousins Beach, providing a nostalgic backdrop for summer escapades.

If the hockey theme in “Off Campus” appeals to you and you’re craving some intense romantic tension, “Heated Rivalry” is a must-watch. This compelling series, a collaboration between Crave and HBO Max, comes from Canadian creator Jacob Tierney, known for “Letterkenny” and “Shoresy,” and is based on Rachel Reid’s bestselling queer romance novels. “Heated Rivalry” offers a riveting tale of two competing hockey players, Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander, portrayed by Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, who unexpectedly develop a clandestine romantic relationship that spans years, unbeknownst to those around them.

The series, adapted by Tierney, has been hailed as one of the standout shows of 2025, thanks to its compelling storyline and the chemistry between Storrie and Williams. With numerous books in Reid’s series awaiting adaptation, including one focusing on supporting characters Scott Hunter (François Arnaud) and Kip Grady (Robbie G.K.), “Heated Rivalry” promises to keep audiences engaged for seasons to come. Its concise first season makes it perfect for a one-day binge-watching session, ensuring viewers are hooked from start to finish.

If you really like the hockey part of “Off Campus” but also want some spicy scenes alongside all those sports sequences, we can’t recommend “Heated Rivalry” strongly enough. This Crave collaboration with HBO Max is the brainchild of Canadian creator and showrunner Jacob Tierney — who also made “Letterkenny” and “Shoresy” — and original series author Rachel Reid, whose “Heated Rivalry” queer romance novels have been best-sellers for some time. So what is “Heated Rivalry” about, and why is it such an enormous and unqualified success?

“Heated Rivalry” didn’t have to be this good, honestly; Reid’s books had a solid following by the time Tierney adapted it for Crave. Tierney, however, decided to make one of the best TV shows of 2025. The story of “Heated Rivalry” centers around rival hockey players — Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander, played respectively by Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams — who strike up an unexpected romantic connection as rookies and continue secretly seeing each other for years while nobody around them suspects a thing. Storrie and Williams became overnight stars thanks to this show’s success, and with plenty of novels in Reid’s series to adapt — including one that’ll center around supporting players Scott Hunter (François Arnaud) and Kip Grady (Robbie G.K.) — we can expect “Heated Rivalry” to keep getting hotter and hotter as the years go by. Plus, because Season 1 is so short, you can binge-watch the whole thing in one day.

Another Amazon Prime original that centers on an unexpected college romance, “Overcompensating” is the brainchild of comedian and actor Benito Skinner, who stars on the series as college freshman Benny “Bento” Scanlon. As Benny starts his four years at the fictional Yates University — alongside his sister Grace (Mary Beth Barone), who’s a few years older and is beginning her junior year — he hides a secret, which is that he’s gay but hasn’t yet gone public with his sexuality. In an attempt to hide this, Benny “overcompensates” (hence the title) and tries to establish himself as a super-macho jock, specifically trying to impress Grace’s popular athlete boyfriend Peter Whitney (Adam DiMarco).

The close but platonically intimate relationship and friendship between Benny and his best friend Carmen, played by Wally Baram, is the real highlight of “Overcompensating.” When Benny does come out, Carmen is the first person he tells, so while they don’t pretend to be a couple like Hannah and Garrett in “Off Campus,” these two best friends are hiding a crucial and deeply personal secret … a secret that adds some serious stakes to an otherwise funny, dishy series.

How could we assemble a list of steamy college shows without including “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” the delightfully risqué series created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble for HBO Max? This comedy, which kicked off in 2021 and was sadly canceled at the beginning of 2025, takes place at the fictional Essex College and focuses on four freshmen women who end up in the same dorm. At first, haughty rich girl Leighton (Renée Rapp), scholarship student and Midwest transplant Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet), athlete and politician’s daughter Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott), and aspiring comedian Bela (Amrit Kaur) seem like they have absolutely nothing in common, but once they get to know each other, they form a tightly knit bond.

As Kimberly, Leighton, Whitney, and Bela navigate the social structures of Essex, they also explore the boundaries of their sexualities. Sometimes, that’s played for laughs, like when Bela has a steamy encounter with the school’s mascot while he remains in costume; sometimes it’s emotionally resonant, like a moment where a crying Leighton admits to Kimberly that it was a girl, not a boy, who broke Leighton’s seemingly impenetrable heart. “The Sex Lives of College Girls” might be partially based on Kaling’s own experiences as a college student, but it’s relatable to basically anybody who’s had a period of self-discovery and made plenty of hilarious mistakes along the way.

Want romance with a side of sports, or lots of sports with a side of romance? “Friday Night Lights” has you covered. Adapted from H.G. Bissinger’s 1990 non-fiction book of the same name (which also inspired a movie of the same name in 2004), this 2006 NBC series is led by Kyle Chandler in a star-making turn as the taciturn but big-hearted Coach Eric Taylor, who works as the varsity football coach for the successful Dillon Panthers in the heart of Texas. In the very first episode of “Friday Night Lights,” the team is stunned and devastated when their star quarterback Jason Street (Scott Porter) experiences a career-ending injury during a game that leaves him paralyzed from the chest down. As Jason’s girlfriend — cheerleader Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly) — and best friend and Panthers running back Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) try to support Jason, second-string quarterback Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) finds himself thrust into the main role, aided by Coach Taylor’s guidance.

With Connie Britton as Coach Taylor’s inimitable wife Tammy, future Oscar nominee Jesse Plemons as Matt’s best friend and backup tight end Landry Clarke, and future Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan in later seasons as emerging star Vince Howard, “Friday Night Lights” is a stone-cold classic. Honestly, this show walked so “Off Campus” could … skate. (It is ice hockey, after all.)

“Off Campus” is streaming on Amazon Prime now.