Whoever Is Greenlighting These Amazon Adaptations Deserves A Raise
On Off Campus, an unopened can of beer, and what it looks like when men are actually good.
Amazon Prime has been on a run lately. Someone in that building keeps greenlighting romance novel adaptations, and I want them to know that I see them, I appreciate them, and I am fully on board.
Off Campus, based on Elle Kennedy’s beloved hockey romance series, is the latest, and I loved it. But I’m not here to debate what they changed from the books or whether I liked the casting. There are whole Reddit threads for that, and I trust you can find them.
What I want to talk about is three specific scenes that made me want to give the whole team a standing ovation. Not dramatic scenes, not iconic ones. Quiet, almost throwaway moments that normalize something we apparently still need to normalize: men who are actually good to women. (Note: spoilers ahead)
The first one is small. Our lead, Hannah, doesn’t drink at parties. She mentions this to Garrett, the hockey player love interest, and he goes back into the kitchen to track down something else for her. He runs into his friend John Logan and asks if there’s anything non-alcoholic.
Garrett: Do you see anything non-alcoholic? It’s for Hannah.
Logan: She doesn’t drink?
Garrett: She said not at parties.
Logan: (picks up an unopened can) Here, try this. Closed cans are safer, bro.
Logan doesn’t make it weird. He doesn’t ask why. He reads the room — I don’t drink at parties communicates exactly what it communicates — and he gives a simple, practical solution. Garrett takes it back to Hannah. She thanks him and kisses him on the cheek.
What’s remarkable about it is how unremarkable it is. A woman signals something without having to explain it. The men around her read the signal. One of them hands over something specific and useful. Nobody makes a moment out of it. It just happens.
This is the bar. It is not a high bar. And yet…
The second scene is more substantive. Hannah has some history that makes physical intimacy complicated, and she’s asked Garrett to help her work through some of it. He’s nervous because he cares deeply about getting it right. He’s in the gym doing bench press when his teammate Dean walks over to spot him and senses something is up. Garrett asks Dean (who by general consensus has a significant amount of sexual experience) for advice.
What follows is one of the best conversations between two men I have watched on television in recent memory.
Garrett: I really want it to be good. For her.
Dean: If it’s her first time, she might not come.
Garrett: Not an option. She has to come.
Dean: Respect. Well, there is one thing that helps women come. The single most effective, highly recommended, enjoyed by all tool at your disposal. Trust. That’s it. She just has to feel completely safe. Completely relaxed. But consent is key. And she can’t consent if she doesn’t feel safe. So you just have to figure out what makes her feel safe.
Garrett: I’m just not sure I’m the kind of guy she should be trusting with this.
Dean: Well, if she asked you, she thinks you are. Which is fucking hot.
Two hockey players. In a gym surrounded by weights. Talking frankly about a woman’s pleasure and safety as the stated goal of the conversation. No irony, no discomfort, no machismo getting in the way.
This is the cultural argument I keep making: when you actually watch what romance audiences respond to, the pattern is right there. Women do not want watered-down men. They want men who are strong and present and fully themselves and who treat women like full human beings. Those things have never been in conflict, no matter how loudly the internet insists otherwise.
The third scene is a change from the book, and I think it was the right call.
After the breakup, Hannah hears about a campus-wide “hands off” policy — a declaration that she’s off limits to other men. She assumes Garrett issued it. She’s furious, and she confronts him.
He’s genuinely confused. It turns out the freshmen on the team had taken “he’ll lose his shit if someone hits on Hannah” as a threat rather than an expression of feelings. They apologize. And Garrett turns to her and says he would never do that. She should be with whoever she wants to be with.
That’s the whole scene. He just states clearly that putting a “no trespassing” sign on a woman without her consent isn’t romantic. It’s removal of autonomy, and it’s disrespectful.
There’s a loud argument online happening right now that respecting women costs men something. And then here we see three men who are coded as hyper masculine in every traditional sense—hockey players, conventionally attractive, physically imposing—and they are just... good. Attentive and protective and direct and trustworthy, and none of those qualities cost them anything.
These scenes work because nobody in them is trying to make a point. That's just what good men look like when you write them accurately.
This is what I mean when I say women’s stories are worth more than the industry gives them credit for. The audience for this genre has always known what it wanted: men who lead with care as a default rather than a concession. The show is currently #1 on Amazon, which tells you everything you need to know about what audiences actually want.
For the record, I also know that this is not some female fantasy version of men. I know so many men who are good like this. The bar isn’t imaginary. We just rarely see it onscreen.
Someone at Amazon looked at the romance novel market and decided that audience deserved more, and I am here for it!
Excellent post.