I watched Off Campus and I have thoughts…

Initial thoughts and feelings

To note, my expectations were already pretty low after seeing the trailer, but I still tried to go in with an open mind. I’d also literally finished rereading The Deal the day before starting the show.

The first couple of episodes were ok, but it went downhill fast imo. The last 3 episodes were a mess and I genuinely lost interest because it stopped feeling like Garrett and Hannah’s story and diverted into something else entirely.

Garrett & Hannah

I dislike how many changes were made to Garrett and Hannah’s relationship. They should have included more of the friendship-first dynamic and the smaller cute moments because the build-up felt way too rushed.

They also handled the SA storyline poorly. The book executed this so well, so I genuinely don’t understand what happened here.

And I’m gonna say it… there was too much Allie and Dean. I get that some things have to be translated differently for screen, but if they’d spent more time properly building the MAIN relationship first, it would have hit harder. It was doing too much. Did nobody learn from Bridgerton!?

The characters / acting

What the hell did they do to Hannah’s character? It felt like they turned her into a caricature of herself. Hannah was feisty and independent in the books, yes, but TV Hannah was way too goofy and smiley and it felt off-putting.

Also… why the fuck is she suddenly playing clarinet? 😭

And Garrett “one facial expression” Graham… seriously, he was more chipper in the books. TV Garrett was painfully grumpy/broody the entire time. Character assassination was VERY much at work here.

While we’re on the topic of character assassination… what the heck happened to Allie? I swear she wasn’t this insecure in the books?

Jules was one of the most annoying additions and it had nothing to do with them being non-binary because I didn’t even clock that at first. They were just irritating, constantly in everyone’s business, and had WAY too much screen time for a side character. I also completely get why people are worried because it probably will impact Logan’s story.

And who they cast as Hunter Davenport… yikes.

I’m sorry but every time I see Dean all I can picture is Charming from Shrek 🤦🏻‍♀️ At least they got his height right.

The changes

One of my biggest gripes and I’ve barely seen anyone mention this — is that they made it TOO modern. The books were written 10 years ago… why couldn’t the show just be set in the same time period?

People keep saying certain things would have been “problematic” now, like the original hands-off rule, but hello… it’s fiction ffs 🤦🏻‍♀️ meanwhile they still included things that were arguably worse, like Sean basically slut-shaming Allie.

I’m also so annoyed with the Justin storyline because I’m sorry… it was cringe 😬 Just no.

And the drama between Logan and Garrett over his dad was absolutely diabolical.

Final thoughts

I won’t be watching season 2. I just can’t.

Jesus, even the Twilight films stayed truer to the books 😳

And honestly… this adaptation has made me VERY nervous for the Fourth Wing adaptation now.