What to Watch After Off Campus: Hockey Boys, Found Family & Millennial Romcoms

So you finished Off Campus and now you need something else with hockey boys, chaotic friendships, found family, and the kind of millennial romcom references that make your elder millennial heart sit up like it just heard a Dawson’s Creek theme song. Same. Let’s talk about what to watch after Off Campus, not because these are perfect one-to-one matches, but because they scratch some very specific needs the show fed.

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What to Watch After Off Campus

These are not all exact matches. I am not pretending every show on this list has college hockey boys and Briar U energy. But I think they all capture different things the show left us needing and I think they will keep us fed for some time.

Along for the Ride

If Belmont Cameli as Garrett Graham is part of the reason you hit play on Off Campus, then Along for the Ride is the obvious next watch. This Netflix movie is a much softer vibe and an adaptation of Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen. It is not hockey romance, but it is more about summer nights and emotional connection.

Along for the Ride is for the Garrett girlies who want less of the locker room banter and more late-night bonding with a boy who definitely has feelings but would rather be mysterious about it.

Outer Banks

I know this one sounds random at first. Outer Banks is high school. It is treasure hunting. There are no Briar hockey boys dramatically ruining everyone’s lives. But the found family? The loyalty? The friendship? Very Off Campus adjacent.

And I need to say this clearly: JJ is Dean-coded. Not in the exact Dean Di Laurentis way. Dean is rich-boy hockey player with commitment issues and a smirk. JJ is more wounded troublemaker from the wrong side of the tracks with a loyalty complex. But personality-wise? The charm, the recklessness, the jokes as a defense mechanism, the absolute inability to make one calm decision? Yes. Dean-coded.

There is also something about JJ and John B’s friendship that gives Garrett and Logan or Beau and Dean vibes. That same ride-or-die male friendship where the teasing is constant, the loyalty is real, and everyone involved needs to process their emotions.

If what you loved most about Off Campus was the group dynamic, Outer Banks makes sense.

Finding Her Edge

If you want more athlete pressure and ice sports drama after Off Campus, try Finding Her Edge. This is another book adaptation for Finding Her Edge by Jennifer Iacopelli and we move away from hockey and into competitive figure skating. Ambition, discipline, performance, pressure but also fake dating, love triangle.

So if the ice and the sports tension were part of what pulled you into Off Campus, this is a good next watch.

Heated Rivalry

If you watched Off Campus and immediately thought, “Great, now I’m in my hockey era,” then yes, Heated Rivalry belongs on your list.

This one is a different lane from Off Campus, but it still feeds the same broader appetite of hockey, tension, rivalry, longing, pressure, and emotionally complicated athletes who should probably communicate better but then we would not have a plot.

Watch this if you want more hockey.

The Off Campus Millennial Romcom Nods I Can’t Stop Thinking About

This is where Off Campus was extra fun to watch. Because apparently, I was not imagining the nostalgia. Showrunner Louisa Levy told Bustle that the show has several visual John Hughes nods and that, energetically, they were also looking at early-2000s romcoms like 10 Things I Hate About You. 

Which makes sense, because some of these scenes practically grabbed my elder millennial brain and felt so familiar. Here are the ones that stood out to me:

Hannah singing to Garrett late at night at the ice rink
Sooo 10 Things I Hate About You. The energy was there, the romantic vulnerability, a slightly theatrical gesture.

Dean and Allie playing chess
This was exactly a nod to a scene in Sixteen Candles. From how they are sitting, to how it’s shot. Perfect!

Allie coming through Dean’s window
That is Dawson’s Creek. Remember that? Joey climbing through Dawson’s window. There is something so late ’90s teen drama about the window.

Garrett leaning against the car at the end of the episode
Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles. Immediately. The way this whole scene was filmed at the end, gave all the vibes!

Dean and Allie in the bathtub when Tucker comes in
Remember when Monica and Chandler were sneaking around on Friends, and Joey comes in? Same.

Hannah walking down the stairs in the bunny costume
This felt very She’s All That in the way it was filmed. The slow reveal. Very teen romcom visual.

Beau and Dean dressed as Maverick and Goose
This one is obviously Top Gun, and honestly, of course they would… and the foreshadowing. It tracks.

And this is why the show works so well for romance readers who grew up on that era of TV and movies (or who happen to enjoy it and yearn for it). It is not only adapting a hockey romance. It is also speaking fluent millennial romcom.

What to Watch After Off Campus If You Want Millennial Nostalgia

If those references hit for you, then your next watch does not have to be another sports romance. You may just need to go back to the source material. The emotional damage classics, if you will.

Dawson’s Creek

It has messy friendships, big feelings, dramatic conversations and the kind of teen angst that we thrived on. Also, any excuse to talk about Pacey Witter is a good excuse. I made my case about why Pacey Witter is the blueprint for the book boyfriend. And if you want the book version of that creekside emotional mess, you can also check out my list of books like Dawson’s Creek.

10 Things I Hate About You

This is the blueprint for millennial romcoms with romantic grand gestures and teenagers being much better at dramatic emotional moments than any teenager has a right to be. It also has that perfect mix of humor, angst, and romance that makes it feel like it could be in the same world. Not the same story. But same serotonin.

Final Thoughts on What to Watch After Off Campus

The best part of Off Campus is that it gives us more than one thing to obsess over, much like the Off Campus book series as well. So when it comes to what to watch after Off Campus, the answer depends on which part of the show got you.

• Want more Belmont Cameli? Watch Along for the Ride.
• Want found family? Watch Outer Banks.
• Want sports and ice drama? Watch Finding Her Edge.
• Want to stay in your hockey era? Watch Heated Rivalry.
• Feeling the nostalgia vibes? Go back to Dawson’s Creek or 10 Things I Hate About You.

And if you want more to read instead, check out my recommendations of books like Off Campus.

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