What sports documentaries almost always struggle with is sentimentality. Playing up emotions that aren’t always there for the camera is a given, but often constructed poorly. A consistent problem for All or Nothing and the teams they pick apart is that there is little connection to the club, the people that support it or even the people making it, despite them being in front of the camera. Welcome to Wrexham does not have that issue. It takes its time to discuss new owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney even though the pair are established household names. It is the detail necessary to make Welcome to Wrexham as palatable, easy-going and enjoyable as it is. Anxiety forms the centre, but rewarding avenues of what football means for a community are established crucially and quickly.
Hollywood owners embarking on a revolution of a North Wales football club with its roots firmly grounded in working-class qualities are the stuff films are made of. It is a takeover of note, one that Welcome to Wrexham is keen to document, warts and all. In doing that, the real worries of McElhenney and Reynolds are charted. What if they turn into villains, rather than heroes trying to do good for a community? A community that, to the credit of Welcome to Wrexham, is documented well. Historic pieces are thrown at an audience not with necessity but out of a passion for the area. McElhenney, in particular, understands how closely knit a sports team and community are.
Yet somehow Welcome to Wrexham does not play as an advertisement for the club or an understanding of why two American actors would want to take on a challenge, they appear to know nothing of. An exciting and dangerous endeavour into football. Reynolds and McElhenney chart their own working-class upbringings along with that of the club’s history, and it never feels as though they’re trying to latch onto a culture they don’t understand. Their intentions, as projected by Welcome to Wrexham, appear sincere. They are. Reynolds speaks of the great glory that comes from an underdog project, and Wrexham F.C. is just that. It is a story that the passive audience can latch onto because seeing good people do well is only human. Welcome to Wrexham is a nice blend of fly-on-the-wall opportunities and modern historic documentation.
There is real promise shown throughout Welcome to Wrexham. For the club, for the people behind the takeover and for the documentary-making skills on display. A triple blend of good intentions, great ideas and a well-documented view of just how far some people will go to pump life into something they know very little about. Heartwarming and touching in all of the right places, there is a genuine charm underlying this series that lingers on in the new signings, older players and those in and around the club. A study of what makes the cogs turn at the heart of a football club, the dangers of having them stop and the joy of seeing them and the people that made it happen flourish. Welcome to Wrexham is keen to show that nobody in a football club is bigger than the fans, and that community spirit guides this miniseries to a satisfying conclusion.
