Rob highlighted that the aim of the series was to make Wrexham everyone’s favourite team in North America and everyone’s second favourite in the UK, and oh did he achieve it. Amazon Prime are notorious for their documentaries on Premier League football teams, such as Manchester City, Tottenham and Arsenal. However, opening a club up to the whole world leaves its fans nervous, as some things are better left to the imagination.
FX’s Welcome to Wrexham is different.
I implore you to binge this series if you haven’t already
The purity shown by local supporters has made viewers become attached to the community that is Wrexham. People have ventured from around the world to come to The Turf, a pub connected to Wrexham’s stadium and part of the town’s soul. The landlord, Wayne Jones, has embraced new visitors and shared in the knowledge and love for the football club.
The series also focused on other locals of Wrexham and how their personal lives are intertwined with the club that they support every week. As a local to the town, some scenes perhaps go too far into the lives of the people showcased and distract from the storyline of the season. But that’s the point. This documentary isn’t aimed at devoted Wrexham fans. It’s aimed at telling the story that is Wrexham to the outer world, and part of that is showcasing the extent to which the club factors into the lives of its community.
For the camera crew, who allowed Wrexham to take over their lives for the best part of two years, they couldn’t have hoped for a more dramatic season to capture. The 2021/22 season saw unthinkable scorelines, pandemonium against bitter rivals, final day heartache, an emotion sapping loss at Wembley and unscripted intensity in the play-off loss that defined melodrama to a T. The 5-4 loss to Grimsby Town in the play-off semi-final destroyed the fairy ending tale to a rollercoaster of a season, but it only brought along more fans for the journey this year.
The purity shown by local supporters has made viewers become attached to the community that is Wrexham
People from abroad are obsessed with the club in England’s fifth tier, as they eagerly await any opportunity to watch a game televised across the globe. It’s one thing having the club’s social presence increased from the takeover of the two Hollywood actors, but it’s quite another to make people live and breathe Wrexham. Other documentaries have given space for people to ridicule respective football clubs; FX have captured hearts and minds for Wrexham. It also gave room to understand Ryan and Rob behind acting. You truly can see how engrossed they become with the trials and tribulations of football and the connection they have orchestrated with the community is unimaginable.
I implore you to binge this series if you haven’t already and stay tuned for series two, because this season has already defied odds.