With the first season of New York Times best seller Elle Kennedy’s recent adaptation of her Off-Campus Book Series coming to an end this past week, there are many things to be said, but what has been going around the most is whether the casting was the right choice and if the actors truly represent the original characters many have come to love.
This past summer, I absolutely devoured the Off-Campus series. So when I heard that a TV show was in the works, I was thrilled to hear about it, and to the dismay of my friends and family, the casting was something I couldn’t stop talking about. With that being said, at first, I wasn’t too happy with the casting. Tucker wasn’t the redhead we’ve come to love; Allie wasn’t a blonde. The only ones who seemed to perfectly match their book description were Hannah (the main female lead of season one) and Dean (the main guy from book three). But my opinion has become drastically different throughout the filming.
Since the first teaser, I have come to love the casting. The actors have embodied characters many love. Ella Bright, who plays Hannah, and Belmont Cameli, who plays Garrett (Hannah’s love interest in the books and series) have won my heart with the way they play their characters. I am not the only one who thinks this; in fact, this seems to be a very popular opinion. When the casting was first announced, I cannot remember seeing a single positive comment about it, other than the outlier of people saying that everyone is going to switch up once the show comes out. I have to agree with these people that everyone was extremely quick to judge just based on their headshots.
We have mostly seen content of Hannah and Garrett as the first season revolves around their book The Deal, being the first in the original book series (my personal favorite). But we also have seen content with the main four guys, and their chemistry, whether it is in the comments they leave on for each other on Instagram or the behind-the-scenes photos that they have posted have been matched to their friend group in the book perfectly. Honestly, the same can be said about the whole cast, from what we have seen, they seem to be an extremely close-knit cast, and that is the most important thing for this series. In the books, they are extremely close, and that’s what matters the most. At the end of the day, especially in this series, in the books, these characters are like family; it is very much a found family series and if those who were cast were not able to show that, I truly think then the casting would have been wrong.
For sure, what we have seen so far is being shown to make us excited for the show. If there was any bad chemistry (personally, I don’t think there is going to be), we wouldn’t see it. With season one just having wrapped up, we still have a long time to see if these casting decisions were the right choice, but from what we have seen so far, and especially with the original creator, Elle Kennedy, having a big part of creative control, I really do think this casting is going to do justice to the show. I am extremely excited for the date of season one to be announced and to see this show. If it is anything like the books, it will most likely end up being the new The Summer I Turned Pretty, with the book community behind it. But until then, we might just have to reread the books or wait till teaser Thursday to get our Off-Campus fix.