How Much Do You Like Them as a Couple? Rate Dean and Allie From 1-10!

Every new season of a rotating-romance show comes with the same unspoken challenge: can this next couple actually live up to the one that came before them? Off Campus is about to find out. With Season 2 handing the spotlight to Dean Di Laurentis and Allie Hayes, played by Stephen Kalyn and Mika Abdalla, fans are already forming opinions based on nothing more than press photos, a few teaser lines, and whatever chemistry they can pick up from joint interviews. So here’s the real question we’re putting to you: how much do you like them as a couple so far? Rate them from 1 to 10 — and stick around, because there’s a genuine case for a number on the higher end of that scale.

If you need a refresher on how this couple swap came about in the first place, our Season 2 cast changes breakdown covers it in full, and you can browse the rest of our ongoing coverage from the MediaAtLife homepage.

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Why Dean and Allie Are Taking Over in the First Place

To understand what you’re actually rating, it helps to know why this couple is getting a full season in the first place. Off Campus follows the same structure as Elle Kennedy’s original book series — each season centers a different couple from within the same tight-knit Briar University world, while the previous season’s leads stay present in a supporting capacity. Season 1 belonged to Hannah Wells and Garrett Graham, played by Ella Bright and Belmont Cameli, and it turned into one of Prime Video’s biggest word-of-mouth hits of the year. Season 2 is handing the baton to Dean and Allie, and Prime Video made the transition official with a simple line in its own marketing: from Garrett and Hannah, to Dean and Allie, the Off Campus love story continues.

Both Kalyn and Abdalla had smaller roles in Season 1, so this isn’t a case of two new actors being dropped into unfamiliar territory. It’s a promotion within a cast that’s already shown it has chemistry — just given a lot more room to prove it this time. For the deeper story of how Season 2 has been shaping up overall, our earlier piece on everything we know and why we’re already losing our minds over it is worth a read.

The Case for a High Score: Their Dynamic Is Genuinely Different

If you’re trying to decide where Dean and Allie land on a 1-to-10 scale, the strongest argument in their favor is that their relationship isn’t just a repeat of Garrett and Hannah’s arc with different names attached. Book readers describe Dean and Allie’s dynamic as more of a slow-burn rivalry than a straightforward fake-dating setup — two people who are clearly drawn to each other but keep circling instead of committing, “keeping score” instead of admitting what’s actually going on between them. That’s a meaningfully different flavor of romantic tension than what carried Season 1, and giving it a full eight-episode season to unfold suggests the writers are confident enough in the material to let it breathe rather than rush it.

That kind of slow-burn setup tends to reward patient viewers with bigger emotional payoffs, which is exactly the sort of thing that can push a couple from a solid 6 or 7 into genuine 9-or-10 territory once the season actually plays out. The tension between two people who won’t just say what they mean is one of the oldest, most reliable engines in romance storytelling, and if the show executes it well, Dean and Allie have real potential to become the more emotionally satisfying couple of the two seasons so far.

The Case for Reserving Judgment

On the other hand, there’s a fair argument for keeping your rating cautious until the season actually airs. Right now, most of what fans have to go on is press material, a handful of teased plot details, and whatever chemistry can be read into joint interview appearances — which is a much thinner sample size than what Season 1’s couple had by the time the show premiered. Garrett and Hannah earned their high marks over eight full episodes of buildup; Dean and Allie haven’t had that chance yet.

There’s also the structural challenge every “next couple” faces: living in the shadow of a genuinely beloved predecessor. Ella Bright and Belmont Cameli set a high bar for on-screen chemistry, and any new pairing risks being compared unfavorably simply because audiences already have an emotional attachment to the couple that came before. That’s not a knock on Dean and Allie specifically — it’s just the reality of following a hit, and it’s part of why some fans are holding their rating steady in the middle of the scale until they’ve actually seen the two of them share real screen time together.

What the Marketing Has Revealed So Far

Even without full episodes to judge, the marketing rollout has offered a few genuine clues about how this couple is being positioned. The “keeping score” framing Prime Video used in its own promotional language is a deliberate choice — it signals a relationship built on push-and-pull rather than the more straightforward emotional arc Garrett and Hannah had. That kind of dynamic often plays extremely well on screen when the two actors have real comedic timing together, since a lot of the tension in a “keeping score” relationship comes out through banter and one-upmanship rather than big dramatic declarations.

Joint appearances and interviews so far have also given fans a chance to gauge Kalyn and Abdalla’s off-screen rapport, which tends to be a reasonably good predictor of how convincingly two actors will sell a romance on screen. Chemistry that reads easily and naturally off-camera usually translates, and early reactions to their press appearances have generally been positive, with fans noting an easy back-and-forth between the two that bodes well for how their characters’ dynamic will land once the season actually airs.

How Their Story Compares to the Books

For anyone rating this couple with the source material in mind, it’s worth knowing that Dean and Allie’s story is often cited by longtime readers of Elle Kennedy’s series as one of the more layered entries, precisely because of how differently it handles romantic tension compared to Garrett and Hannah’s arc. Where the first book leans on a fake-relationship premise slowly turning genuine, Dean and Allie’s story is built more around two people who already know exactly what they want and keep finding reasons to resist it anyway.

That kind of dynamic requires strong performances to land — the chemistry has to carry scenes that are built more on subtext and restraint than obvious romantic gestures. If Kalyn and Abdalla can pull that off, it’s the kind of couple that tends to age extremely well with audiences, building goodwill gradually across a season rather than winning everyone over in the first episode. If you’re a book reader trying to decide how much faith to put in the adaptation, that’s the detail worth watching most closely once the season actually premieres.

A Quick Refresher on Who’s Playing Them

Stephen Kalyn steps into Dean Di Laurentis after a smaller supporting role in Season 1, and Mika Abdalla does the same moving into Allie Hayes. Both actors are part of the wider Briar University ensemble that’s remained largely intact heading into Season 2 — a genuinely stable lineup considering how much can change between seasons of a hit show. Out of the original seven-person Season 1 regular cast, only Josh Heuston, who played Justin Kohl, isn’t returning as a series regular, and showrunner Louisa Levy has said she wouldn’t rule out a future return for him either. Everyone else, including Kalyn and Abdalla, was reconfirmed as part of the Season 2 announcement.

That continuity matters for how much trust fans can put in this new central couple. Kalyn and Abdalla aren’t unknown quantities being parachuted into the show — they’re established members of the ensemble who’ve already spent a season building familiarity with the world, the tone, and each other, even in smaller roles. That kind of groundwork tends to translate into a more comfortable, lived-in dynamic once a couple actually gets the spotlight, which is one more point in favor of rating them generously going in.

What Could Push Their Rating Even Higher

A few specific things could realistically push Dean and Allie toward the top of a 1-to-10 scale once Season 2 actually airs. First, if the show nails the “keeping score” tension without letting it drag — slow-burn romances only work if the push-and-pull feels purposeful rather than repetitive, and getting that balance right is one of the harder things a writers’ room has to pull off. Second, if the supporting cast additions, like India Fowler’s Grace Ivers or Phillipa Soo’s Scarlett, give Dean and Allie’s story room to breathe by carrying some of the season’s secondary plotlines, rather than crowding their central arc. And third, if the show finds a genuine emotional high point equivalent to Season 1’s viral needle-drop moment — something the show has already teased with hints of a “big pop star feature” coming this season.

We’ve broken down the leading theory about what that pop-star moment might actually be in a separate piece on the rumored Sabrina Carpenter cameo. It’s still speculation rather than a confirmed casting, but if it does end up tied to a pivotal Dean-and-Allie moment, that’s exactly the kind of scene that tends to turn a good couple into a genuinely beloved one in the eyes of the fandom.

What Could Hold Their Rating Back

On the flip side, a few things could keep Dean and Allie from reaching the top of the scale, at least early on. If the show leans too heavily on the “will they, won’t they” tension without giving the characters enough individual depth outside the relationship, it risks feeling thinner than Garrett and Hannah’s more fully fleshed-out arc. There’s also the simple challenge of a full season being a lot of screen time to fill with two people who spend much of their story keeping each other at arm’s length — pacing that well across eight episodes is genuinely difficult, and a slow-burn that moves too slowly can just as easily frustrate an audience as one that rushes things.

Comparisons to Season 1 are also going to be unavoidable, fairly or not. Some fans will judge Dean and Allie against the standard Garrett and Hannah already set, which isn’t necessarily a reflection of the new couple’s own strengths so much as the reality of following a genuinely beloved predecessor. That’s worth factoring in if you’re trying to rate them fairly on their own terms rather than purely by comparison.

Where the Cast Themselves Seem to Stand

Interestingly, the cast’s own comments so far have leaned optimistic. Bright and Abdalla’s joint appearance at Obsessed Fest, where they teased the pop-star cameo, also gave fans a glimpse of easy camaraderie among the wider cast heading into the new season — the kind of behind-the-scenes chemistry that tends to bode well for how a show’s central relationships land on screen. And Prime Video’s decision to frame the couple transition so directly in its own marketing, rather than downplaying the shift, suggests real confidence from the studio in how Dean and Allie’s story is going to play out.

For a broader look at how the wider cast has been talking about Season 2 heading into production, our profile on Belmont Cameli, Ella Bright, and Josh Heuston’s career journeys is a good next read, and our earlier piece on where things actually stand covers the production timeline in more detail if you want the full picture before the season lands.

How Fan Ratings Usually Shift Once a Season Airs

It’s worth keeping in mind that pre-premiere ratings almost never match how a couple gets scored once an audience has actually watched their full arc play out. Garrett and Hannah are a good example of this pattern within the show’s own history — early Season 1 marketing didn’t generate nearly the same intensity of reaction that the couple did once viewers had seen several episodes of buildup between them. A lot of what makes a fictional couple feel like a genuine 9 or 10 comes from small, cumulative moments rather than anything a trailer or press photo can fully capture: a specific line delivery, a look held a beat too long, the way two actors handle a scene that isn’t obviously “romantic” but still carries weight because of everything that’s come before it.

That’s worth remembering before locking in a final number for Dean and Allie. Whatever rating feels right based on marketing and press appearances alone is really more of a prediction than a verdict — a reasonable starting point that’s almost guaranteed to shift once the season actually gives their relationship room to develop on screen. If anything, that’s part of what makes rating a couple before premiere fun in the first place: it’s a chance to see how close early impressions come to matching the real thing once it airs.

Why This Kind of Fan Engagement Matters to the Show

There’s also a practical reason shows like Off Campus lean into this kind of direct fan engagement — asking audiences to rate, rank, or weigh in on couples before a season even airs. It keeps a fandom actively participating during a hiatus rather than passively waiting for news, and it gives the marketing team a rough real-time read on how a new pairing is landing before the reviews that actually matter — the ones written after people have watched the show — start rolling in. For a series this dependent on rotating romantic leads season after season, that kind of early temperature check is genuinely useful data, even if it’s informal.

It also creates a natural before-and-after moment for the fandom itself. Rating Dean and Allie now, based on limited information, and then revisiting that same rating once the season airs is exactly the kind of engagement that keeps a fanbase invested across a long gap between seasons — and it’s part of why “rate them 1 to 10” style engagement tends to perform so well with audiences who are already this invested in a show’s central relationships.

So, Where Do You Land?

Here’s the honest breakdown, if you’re trying to actually put a number on it before the season airs. If you’re going purely off the marketing, the “keeping score” framing, and the two actors’ visible ease together in press appearances, there’s a reasonable case for rating them a solid 7 or 8 right out of the gate — enough evidence of genuine potential to be optimistic, without the full season of material Garrett and Hannah had by the time fans fell in love with them. If you’re the type who reserves judgment until you’ve actually watched the chemistry play out on screen, a cautious 5 or 6 is a completely fair placeholder, with plenty of room to move up once the season actually premieres.

What’s clear either way is that Dean and Allie aren’t being set up to fail. The show has given them a full season, a genuinely different romantic dynamic than their predecessors, an established ensemble already familiar with the world around them, and enough marketing confidence to frame the transition head-on rather than quietly. Whether that adds up to a 6 or a 10 is ultimately going to come down to execution — but the foundation, at least, looks stronger than a lot of “next couple” setups usually get.

For the latest on where production and casting news currently stand, our roundup on everything we know about Season 2 has the details, and if you want to track the broader countdown to release, we’ve been covering that too in our piece on why the wait is almost worth it and in more love, more chaos, more unforgettable moments. And if Dean and Allie aren’t the couple you’re most curious about, we’ve also taken a closer look at John Logan’s character and the story building toward his own eventual spotlight.

The Bottom Line

Rating a couple before their season has even aired is always a bit of a guessing game, but Dean and Allie have more going for them than most “next in line” pairings usually do heading into a new season. A genuinely different romantic dynamic, an established ensemble, visible off-screen chemistry, and a studio confident enough to frame the couple swap directly in its own marketing all point toward a couple worth being optimistic about. Whether they end up as a 6, an 8, or somewhere higher once the season actually lands is something we’ll only really know once Season 2 premieres — but based on everything currently known, there’s a solid case for giving them the benefit of the doubt.

So — how much do you like them as a couple? Drop your rating from 1 to 10, and we’ll see how it holds up once Season 2 actually airs.

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