Prime Video’s show with a 91% RT score is so good it was renewed for Season 2 before it even started

While Prime video has plenty of popular shows, the romantic drama was such a guaranteed hit that the streaming service renewed it before Season 1 had even been released. From the five seasons of The boys to The Lord of the Rings prequel series The rings of powerPrime Video has released some of the biggest shows in streaming history.

The upcoming HBO Harry Potter series proves, with its huge budget, that every Prime Video competitor has been forced to put big money into streaming shows to compete with the entertainment Goliath. However, not all of Prime Video’s biggest hits are the most expensive shows. The four-series detective drama franchise Bosch is a massive success for the streaming service, but remains a relatively grounded police procedural.

Corresponding to the romantic drama Off Campus is a low-key college romance, but the show was so potentially huge for the streaming service that Prime Video renewed the series before its first season even premiered. Starring Ella Bright as struggling music major Hannah Wells and Until Dawn‘s Belmont Cameli as ice hockey team captain Garrett Graham, Off Campus is adapted from the novel series of the same name by author Elle Kennedy. With five books in the source series, Prime Video clearly realized the show had potential beyond Hannah and Garrett’s love story, and its critical success proves the streaming service made the right call.

Off Campus’s 2-season guarantee made Season 1’s story stronger

Although Garrett and Hannah’s story dominates the action in the series’ first five episodes, Off Campus takes an exciting and unconventional turn when the central couple’s story ends happily. Just as Garrett and Hannah’s relationship stabilizes, Off Campus begins to explore the budding romance between their friends, Mika Abdalla’s Allie and Stephen Kalyn’s Dean. This wouldn’t be possible in a romantic drama with only one season, but Off Campuss early season 2 renewal gave the series room to introduce future storylines from later books early on.

While there’s a lot more to Allie and Dean’s love story than just their first hookups, Season 1, Episode 6, “The Breakaway,” was devoted almost entirely to the couple’s shared subplot. This poses a challenge for Season 2, as it means that many of the most compelling moments from the couple’s traditional romantic history, such as Allie and Dean’s initial meet-cute, the early hookups, and the first meaningful fights, have already been covered.

Off Campus’ season 2 cements a new trend

Heated rivalry of Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov sits on a leather couch with his phone. — Heated rivalry still by Connor Storrie

Having said that, Off Campus season 2’s Allie and Dean storyline could still work if the show keeps repeating this pattern. The first part of season 2 can focus on Off Campus‘s new protagonists Dean and Alliebut then move on to the story of another supporting character, like Tucker or John, around episode 6. Since the popularity of romantic adaptations on streaming services doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, the show can foresee a long enough period to facilitate this.

Between Off Campus‘s guaranteed two-season run, the historic streaming success Heated rivalryand the many upcoming Emily Henry movies and series on the way, romantic novel adaptations are bigger than ever on streaming. Prime Video’s upcoming Carley Fortune show Every year after further cementing this trend is the outsized popularity of the existing hit series Tthat summer I became beautiful.

Therefore, it was wise of Prime Video to renew in advance Off Campus before the show even turned out to be a success, as this facilitated a Season 1 storyline that set up Season 2 perfectly. After year of ambitious sci-fi streaming shows taking entire debut seasons to establish their lore, Off Campus‘s popularity proves it’s time streaming services offered romantic adaptations the same grace.