Entertainment

/

ArcaMax

What to stream: 'The Love Hypothesis' and more romance adaptations heating up the small screen

Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service on

Published in Entertainment News

Romance novels are all the rage right now, both in publishing and in their screen adaptations. Gay hockey romance “Heated Rivalry” has been a sensation since the Canadian series dropped on HBO Max in late November of 2025, and since then, it’s been a nonstop flurry of romance adaptation, mostly on the small screen.

There was “Off Campus,” the straight hockey romance based on the popular book series by Elle Kennedy, which became a hot ticket in its own right, propelling star Belmont Cameli into instant internet boyfriend status alongside “Heated Rivalry’s" breakout stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. That’s streaming on Prime Video, and is worth the watch — or rewatch for many.

Prime Video also has the series “Every Year After,” adapted from the book “Every Summer After” by Carley Fortune, the series stars Matt Cornett, Sadie Soverall, Michael Bradway and Abigail Cowen in a summers-spanning romance between a young woman who vacations in a idyllic Canadian summer town and two local brothers. Keep summer going a little longer with both Fortune’s books and the series, streaming on Prime Video.

On Netflix, the first Emily Henry movie adaptation arrived with Brett Haley’s “People We Meet on Vacation,” starring Emily Bader and Tom Blyth, a friends-to-lovers story about besties who fall in love while taking an annual vacation together. This charming tale brings the heat, the yearning and the chemistry, and Haley’s direction is both assured and light on its feet. Stream it on Netflix.

Before the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation, “Verity,” starring Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett and Dakota Johnson hits theaters next week, up first we have another streaming offering on Prime Video. “The Love Hypothesis” is the much anticipated adaptation of the Ali Hazelwood novel, starring Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman. Directed by Claire Scanlon, this fake dating/enemies to lovers romance takes place among a group of biology Ph.D. students and professors at Stanford, so it’s perfect for back-to-school season.

 

Fun fact: Hazelwood originally wrote this manuscript as “Star Wars” fanfic, a “Reylo” ship, that imagines the relationship between the characters Rey and Kylo Ren. What adds an extra layer of metatextuality is that Bateman is married, in real life, to Rey actress Daisy Ridley. Reinhart and Bateman’s characters Olive and Adam are painfully awkward scientists, but in each other, they find, at first allies, before fondness, and eventually attraction, and love, grows between them. The supporting cast includes a very fun Rachel Marsh and Jaboukie Young-White as Olive’s best friends, and Arty Froushan as a dastardly Harvard rival.

“The Love Hypothesis” streams on Prime Video starting Wednesday, Sept. 23.

Hopefully, these series tide you over until next spring, when we get the new season of “Heated Rivalry,” and the new season of “Off Campus,” both of which are currently filming now, in Canada. Also coming soon, the movie culmination of the Prime Video romance hit “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” the “Red, White & Royal Blue” sequel “Red, White & Royal Blue Wedding” on Prime Video, and more Emily Henry adaptations are also in the works. Romance is here to stay on the small screen at least.

———


©2026 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus