Looking back on the wins and lows of Welcome to Wrexham season 1

To be honest, I’m not even that interested in football, much less English football. I don’t even like Rob McElhenney or Ryan Reynolds much, until Welcome to Wrexham.

What I do like are well-made documentaries. From the first two episodes of the FX series Welcome to Wrexham there was a great sense I got that this docu that goes beyond the low-hanging fruit of “a real life Ted Lasso” peg was going to be a kick-ass journey.

I was right. From episode one to episode 18, there’s great care taken by the editors and writers to be respectful of the material. I have felt that there have been efforts to build up genuine characters that we can root for and feel for.

Fillers and winners of Welcome to Wrexham

The architecture of each episode, running only at around 30 minutes or less, helps plenty in its easy-to-digest programming architecture. A year after the acquisition of Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney of the world’s third oldest professional football (aka soccer) club, the real meat of compelling streaming was really about the stories of the supporters and the working-class town.

Looking back now, the first season did peter out in the later half. It was undercooked as reality documentary programming goes, hence there were some fillers, like the “Relationships Among Men” parts in episode 17.

Beyond episode 12, the storylines were stretched a bit thin, but picked up again in episode 18, the season finale. I mean, I get it.

I’ve worked in both network and cable TV. Things do get way harder to curate when you have a team that’s always juuust on the brink of success.

Still, there are also very informative episodes where the production team haven’t flinched from tackling the darker side of the sport. Episode 10, for example, was devoted entirely to the phenomenon of hooliganism and why it’s intrinsic to the European way.

I also greatly enjoyed the cliffhanger non-sports moments, like riding in cars with the players or sitting down with the head coach, to possible meetings where they’re almost sure they’re going to be fired.

Moments of sobering clarity

I did also like moments of clarity for both Rob and Ryan, shelling out millions for the team, pounding the ground for sponsorships (to be fair they got TikTok, American Aviation Gin, and other companies on board). Plus broadcast exposure on ESPN, and the sheer scale of all the funding needed to cultivate a great stadium like The Racecourse and a competitive edge for the team.

“There’s a version of this story where we are the villains.” Rob told Ryan this at the onset, in episode 1. It’s a sobering projection into the worst possible future where they’d run out of money and the only decision is to sell the team and cut their losses.

This would mean abandoning the community they’d alleged to care about and talked up to media so much. Still there are great highlights that will stick with me.

For example, local Wrexham band The Declan Swans singing “Always Sunny in Wrexham,” never fails to cheer me up. Especially when it’s sung at club events by the fans.

I still don’t know why it’s not the official OBB or CBB track for the series?! I mean the chorus that goes “Bring on the Deadpool / And the Rob McElhenney” is pretty cool.

Getting to know the players and following their narrative arc will also stay with me. I feel like I’ve gotten to know superstar acquisition and forward, Paul Mullins.

His choice to move down leagues to be closer to his family and newborn son resonates with plenty of the “in service of community” themes of the series. Struggling goalie Paul Dibble, who always gets blamed for bad defense yet never gets credit for swatting away the last 10 offenses, has a special place in my underdog heart.

His fall and rise to redemption as a fan favorite was pretty cathartic.

Beyond a real-life “Ted Lasso”

Overall, while there are great moments in the vein of “Hollywood A-listers acquire a low-level Welsh football team”, they are way less interesting than the empathic moments we get from the community and their connection to the club. Sure, there are genuine Ha Ha moments with Rob and Ryan, too, that makes the comedy a signature of this series.

That time when Rob jumped into Ryan’s arms when their team scored, ignoring his wife Kaitlin Olson a few feet away, was just so gold. The fact the scene made it to a clip of a talk show (where Rob was guest hosting on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”) is no surprise.

There are all the times the two comedians are trying to learn Welsh and fumbling it. There is the constant way that Rob tries to undermine Ryan because he’s light years a bigger star, plays a superhero, more handsome, with a better physique.

And, of course, taller. Also, their Welsh friend (Rob’s assistant) Humphrey Kerr, was a very notable and endearing character in how he bridged the Hollywood and Wales divide.

Props to that big guy. Come to think of it, the episodes where Rob narrates how he came to view sports and sporting events growing up in Philadelphia as bonding moments with family—especially his father—also created eloquent and instant pathos with the audience.

It did for me.

An appreciation for UK ballers

At the end of this season what stuck to my mind as compelling, wasn’t so much the tribulations that the two Hollywood comedians underwent. Rather it was how the townspeople of Wrexham persevered in making their local team survive.

Strangely enough with the involvement of Rob and Ryan, brought them to a point where they have not only dug themselves out of a competitive fifth tier hole, but thrived as a force to be reckoned with on the football pitch. Through Welcome to Wrexham, I can now appreciate the sport more, from both the managerial and player side.

I can also picture in my mind the scope and history of the football clubs in general. The sheer resources and will power needed to run one are just gigantic.

The nature of the elevating drama and the crushing defeats that make being a fan a rollercoaster ride is intense. Wishing “Buddugoliaeth” or victory soon to the fighting dragons of Wrexham.

I’ll be following their adventures on the pitch now, with or without the Hollywood comedians.

You can stream all the episodes of Welcome to Wrexham on FX and HULU.