I’m ending the debate once and for all: Is Sterling Point actually better than Off Campus?

As someone who could probably have graduated with a degree in teen romances and YA shows and books, I feel like I need to give my verdict on whether Sterling Point is actually better than Off Campus and settle this debate once and for all.

Since Sterling Point arrived on Amazon Prime Video, people have found a new teen drama obsession after the success of Off Campus, which is based on Elle Kennedy’s books.

Off Campus got plenty of the love it deserved, but instead of letting Sterling Point have its own moment, people have started comparing the two.

So, is Sterling Point actually better than Off Campus?

First things first, both shows are very different, with very different themes and approaches. Just because they’re both coming-of-age YA romance shows doesn’t mean they belong in the same category. So, to work out which one is better overall, I’m looking at the casting, acting, pacing, plot and diversity.

I really liked Off Campus, partly because I love the books, but the show also surprised me with how it handled its male characters. Going in, you might expect the frat boys and hockey players to be judgemental, arrogant, or just walking red flags. Instead, quite a few of them were surprisingly sensible and genuinely nice.

Garrett, especially, was a really likeable character. He has plenty of the usual romance-book hockey-boy traits, but the show gives him a softer side and makes him more emotionally aware than I expected. Basically, they are very much men written by women.

The cast also has strong chemistry, particularly Ella Bright and Belmont Cameli as Hannah and Garrett. That said, I sometimes felt the acting could have been stronger, especially in some of the more emotional scenes. The chemistry is there, but not every scene landed for me.

Sterling Point, though, completely surprised me with its young cast. Ella Rubin, Amélie Hoeferle, Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie, Daniel Quinn-Toye and the rest of the cast make their characters feel like actual teenagers rather than actors trying to sound like them.

And I liked how nice the boys were here too. The show doesn’t need to make a character horrible just to create conflict.

The pacing is where things get interesting

This is probably where I’d give Off Campus some credit. The show knows what it wants to be. It’s a romance adaptation, so the story is built around the relationship, with the chemistry, drama and obstacles moving things along.

Sterling Point is slower and much more interested in letting its characters exist outside their relationships. For me, that worked more often than it didn’t. I liked having time with Annie, Ramona, Connor and the rest of the group without every scene having to move the romantic plot forward.

That doesn’t mean Sterling Point is perfectly paced. There are moments when it takes a little too long to get somewhere. But overall, I preferred the slower approach because there was more space for the characters to feel like people.

But then again, the plots aren’t even trying to do the same thing

Off Campus is fundamentally a romance. It’s about Hannah and Garrett, their relationship, their friendships and everything that comes with figuring yourself out while you’re still young.

And it does that well. The show understands why people like the books without trying to completely reinvent the formula. You get the hockey players, the romance, the friendships, the sexual tension and the drama.

Sterling Point, meanwhile, has romance, but it isn’t really about romance. There is the love triangle, obviously, but then you have Annie discovering Ramona, the family secrets, the island, Goldie’s history, Connor looking for his birth parents and the question of how this family ended up so disconnected in the first place.

So, Off Campus is a better romance, but Sterling Point is a better coming-of-age story.

And then there’s the diversity

Off Campus has made room for more emotional vulnerability and has moved away from some of the harsher stereotypes you might expect from a college romance.

But Sterling Point goes further in making different identities and relationships part of the world without constantly making them the subject of the story. Ramona and Oona’s relationship is a good example. Their sexuality isn’t treated as the reason their relationship is difficult. They have communication problems, romantic confusion, heartbreak and different ways of dealing with things, just like the other couples.

That makes the relationship feel much more natural to me.

So, which one is actually better?

For me, Sterling Point wins. But that doesn’t mean Off Campus loses.

If I want a romance with hockey players, sexual tension, fake dating and the feeling of an Elle Kennedy book coming to life, I’m picking Off Campus.

If I want characters who feel more natural, a bigger story outside the romance, complicated family drama and performances that feel less like they’re being performed, I’m picking Sterling Point.

I also think Off Campus deserves credit for surprising me. I went in already loving the books, so I knew I’d probably enjoy the show. What I didn’t expect was how well the conversations between the male characters were handled. It was genuinely refreshing to watch.

But Sterling Point made me care about more than who was going to end up with whom. I wanted to know what happened to Annie and Ramona’s family, what Connor would find out and where all of these characters would end up.

So after watching both, I’m giving this one to Sterling Point. Not because Off Campus is bad. Quite the opposite.

I just think Sterling Point gave me more to care about once the romance was taken out of the equation.

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