'Welcome to Wrexham' Season 2: Football Is Life

By Dustin Rowles | TV | November 15, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | November 15, 2023 |

Fans of Ted Lasso need look no further than Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s docuseries Welcome to Wrexham to scratch that same itch: It’s heartwarming, devastating, funny, touching, and immensely satisfying and has, in some respects, followed a trajectory similar to that of AFC Richmond.

Spoilers for both seasons follow

From a purely football perspective, the first season of Wrexham worked brilliantly because American viewers had minimal knowledge of Wrexham. Those of us who resisted the temptation to look up scores were treated to a heartbreaking finale. Wrexham failed in its efforts to get promoted out of a bottom-rung league for the 15th year in a row despite all the hope that R-Squared and McElhenney brought to the city. But even in that loss, hope survived and thrived during the offseason.

Anyone following the first season probably knew before the second season began airing how it ends. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s reactions were all over the Internet when the team was finally promoted. Somehow, that didn’t affect the enjoyment of the second season, nor did it lessen the anxiety surrounding Wrexham’s fate. I knew that Wrexham won the promotion. But I’m a sports fan. I needed to see it to believe it, and up until that final whistle, I remained fully on the edge of my seat.

The first season heightened that anxiety because Wrexham had been snakebit, such a beneficiary of bad luck that I couldn’t help but think that the bad luck would return. In my mind, the luck was so bad that the documentary series apparently had the ability to reverse the real-life outcome. Again, I’m a sports fan. We do not think logically.

But my god, everything about Welcome to Wrexham is a reminder of what it is about sports that we love, which is especially needed for those of us who have not felt the joy of winning in many years. Wrexham will immediately make you a fan of a little-known Welsh team in a blue-collar town that feeds off the energy of its team. Before Reynolds and McElhenney bought the team, there wasn’t much energy to speak of.

I’m sure that there are people who criticize the two Hollywood actors for using their money to buy a team in a city of which they are unfamiliar in a sport of which they know little. But you know what? They have brought a lot of happiness to a lot of people, and while they may not have changed lives, they certainly improved moods. A winning sports team can change a person’s entire world.

I’ve never lived in the city in which my rooting interests lie, so I’ve never really gotten to experience that communal joy, but it’s so much fun to see the hardcore Wrexham fans who have suffered for so long finally witness victory. Sports fans know that a victory of this magnitude is part joy and part relief because for a few months, at least, you can take a break from worrying about losing. That’s the dream. The pain of losing is often more powerful than the joy of winning, so taking a break from it is like an emotionally debilitating condition going into remission for a few months. It won’t last, but my god, it feels good.

I didn’t think that FX would be able to improve on the first season. How many stories about a town, its citizens, and the players of a bottom-dwelling soccer team can you tell? Quite a few, it turns out. The city itself has a long and interesting history. There’s also a women’s Wrexham team that is covered, and a Wrexham rival that we also become invested in. There are also players who endure real-life turmoil — one player’s wife is diagnosed with brain cancer; another player’s wife has a devastating miscarriage. The star player has a kid on the spectrum; another player has a gay Dad that the television series finally allows him to open up to. If you don’t cry when he hugs his Dad, you are broken.

It’s an emotional series, and not just because of the team. Reynolds and McElhenney, meanwhile, are in it enough to remind us that they’re owners but not so much that it takes the focus off the team and the city — although, the celebrities who become Wrexham fans and make appearances are fantastic, particularly Will Ferrell. Reynolds and McElhenney are just massive fans who have a huge amount of money at stake, and they remind us occasionally that — for all the emotional turmoil — it’s still a business. Promotion will change the mood of an entire city, but it will also save them from financial ruin.

The series has been picked up for a third season, and I’m not worried about how they’ll keep it interesting. Despite dominating the league, they’ll be the underdogs in a new league next season. They’ll be playing not just for another promotion but to avoid relegation, a result that would devastate the heart of an entire city. I’m glad we’ll know the outcome before the season airs because I don’t think I could watch a season that ends that way.