Welcome to Wrexham review: a surprisingly touching documentary series
This ‘little gem’ isn’t just about football – it’s about hope and heartbreak

In early 2021, two “Hollywood stars with seemingly little knowledge of football” bought Wrexham AFC, the oldest club in Wales, said Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian. This series from Disney+ looks at what happened next. It’s pitched at a US audience, which can create irritations – anyone with a “whiff of an accent that isn’t Home Counties gets subtitles”, and there is a lot of exposition – but once the “Football for Dummies shtick” is over, it “improves enormously”.
The stars in question, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, are sincere and funny. They’re outshone, though, by the players and fans: after its bumpy start, the series evolves into a touching portrait of “an ordinary town that is down on its luck and could do with a lift”.
Part of the series’s appeal is that the Wrexham players are clearly not in it for “the riches or the glamour”, said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times. We meet one who is 35, and still living in a small house with his large family. The series “takes us back to a nostalgic, almost mythical time before football became Big Football, and it’s great”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“If someone had told me that I would become mildly hooked on a docuseries about Wrexham football club,” said Carol Midgley in The Times, “I would have told them that they were deranged.” But Welcome to Wrexham isn’t just about football: it’s about hope and heartbreak; it’s about living in a working-class community, and sharing in the “pride/sorrow (mostly sorrow) of your local club”. The show is a “little gem”.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
May 30 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Friday's political cartoons include the Gipper's message to Russia, the U.S. Constitution, TACOS ruining Trump's parade, and grift at the White House.
-
'Wonder drug': the potential health benefits of creatine
The Explainer Popular fitness supplement shows promise in easing symptoms of everything from depression to menopause and could even help prevent Alzheimer's
-
What's next for Elon Musk?
Today's Big Question The world's richest man has become 'disillusioned' with politics – but returning to his tech empire presents its own challenges
-
Ancient India: living traditions – 'ethereal and sensual' exhibition
The Week Recommends Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are explored in show that remains 'remarkably compact'
-
6 well-preserved homes built in the 1930s
Feature Featuring a restored 1934 colonial in Arizona and a cold-storage warehouse turned loft in New York City
-
Things in Nature Merely Grow: memoir of 'harsh beauty' after loss
The Week Recommends Chinese-American novelist Yiyun Li's 'devastating' memoir explores the deaths of her two sons
-
Sirens: entertaining satire on the lives of the ultra-wealthy stars Julianne Moore
The Week Recommends This 'blackly comic affair' unfurls at a 'breakneck speed'
-
Mrs Warren's Profession: 'tour-de-force' from Imelda Staunton and daughter Bessie Carter
The Week Recommends Mother-daughter duo bring new life to George Bernard Shaw's morality play
-
Critics' choice: Steak houses that break from tradition
Feature Eight hours of slow-roasting prime rib, a 41-ounce steak, and a former Catholic school chapel turned steakhouse
-
Tash Aw's 6 favorite books about forbidden love
Feature The Malaysian novelist recommends works by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and more
-
Film reviews: Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning, Lilo & Stitch, and Final Destination: Bloodlines
Feature Tom Cruise risks life and limb to entertain us, a young girl befriends a destructive alien, and death stalks a family that resets fate's toll.