Television Review: Welcome to Wrexham Season 2

Ted Lasso has gotten a ton of great word of mouth and attention. I think pretty much everyone I’ve talked to has heard about the show, since it’s permeated the general pop culture scene. Deservedly so. It’s a great series. However, I don’t think nearly enough people know about Welcome to Wrexham (both seasons streaming on Hulu now), and that’s a shame, because the people who liked Ted Lasso will almost certainly like Wrexham.

As a reminder, this one’s a documentary chronicling the efforts of Ryan Reynolds (of Deadpool fame) and Rob McElhenney (of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fame) to buy a down-on-its-luck European soccer team and then try to bring it some success. The first season shows them selecting Wrexham, a Welsh team in the city of the same name, and shows all the effort they put into the team to make it have a better chance of moving up in the British soccer leagues. (I may be getting some of those terms wrong. I’m not an expert on how the UK works OR how soccer works, which makes things problematic when I try to talk about both.)

The second season starts right up again, showing how things go during the team’s second season under Ryan and Rob. They’re hiring coaches. Hiring players. Selecting uniforms. Getting sponsors. Upgrading the stands. You name it. But the show also goes into detail on the back story of the players and, just as importantly, the fans. Wrexham used to be in the top level of British soccer, and it’s steadily fallen from grace to the point that it’s been kicked to lower conferences multiple times. The fans, of course, are distraught, and dream of a brighter future.

I don’t really need to say much more than that, really. The show is funny, touching, informative, and just a ton of fun to watch. Very easily bingeable. Like Ted Lasso, it’s got a fair bit of bad language, because that’s just how some of the soccer players speak, especially when they get riled up. But this is very much a documentary. The actual results of the games are out of the control of the producers. It’s incredible how well they’re able to take those and get a whole ton of tension and drama out of them.

Denisa and I just finished the second season now. 10/10. Loved loved loved it, and looking forward to season three. Go Wrexham!