The third season of the Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney midlife crisis saga, Welcome to Wrexham, is like watching a live-action Ted Lasso. The series makes you think Wrexham AFC was what the team on AFC Richmond was probably really like: an eclectic group run by some ignorant, football-naive Americans who may be a bit over their heads.
Yet, the third season of Welcome to Wrexham represents something we love about movies or television: never to count out the underdog. The reality series encapsulates the dreamer in all of us, mainly by capturing how a sense of community and the nature of professional sports fandom meet in the middle.
FX’s Welcome to Wrexham Season 3 Review and Synopsis
If you are a European football fan, you know how incredible the story of Wrexham AFC is. It is the third-oldest football team in Europe and plays at the oldest venue, Racecourse Grounds. The town has so much history that they supplied the Titanic with a beer brewed in town. Yet, the soccer team has fallen on hard times, being relegated to the fifth-tier National League.
After an arduous rebuild in the first season, the sophomore effort ended with Wrexham’s fifteen-year curse of climbing back to the English Football League Two by winning the National League title. The promotion deals with Reynolds and McElhenney continuing the ambitious plan of bringing the Premier League to Wrexham.
Still, they have a long way to go, which may mean leaving others behind.
I’m not going to lie. Only three episodes of the eight-episode third season of Welcome to Wrexham were made available for review by critics. Yet, the embargo lifts SEO rules, so a review needs to be published. Luckily, the first three outings were very good. The season deals with Reynolds, McElhenney, and Wrexham AFC’s fall from grace and rude awakening upon arriving in European Football League Two.
The season has moments of levity, mainly coming from Reynolds and McElhenney’s chemistry. You also have the team as part of a traveling show, touring Europe and the United States in an exhibition play. Their main star, Wrexham AFC forward Paul Mullin, suffers a brutal injury—a punctured lung that keeps him sidelined and missing the beginning of the club’s return.
So, think of season three of Welcome to Wrexham, which is the Empire Strikes Back of European football docuseries, in which the squad deals with the bumps and bruises that come with such a promotion.
Also Read: Ryan Reynolds Refused to Film One Key Scene for Welcome to Wrexham Despite Production Crew’s Request
Is FX’s third season of Welcome to Wrexham Worth Watching?
Welcome to Wrexham is worth watching because the series truly captures the feverish fandom of football culture. The filmmaking also captures the spirit and excitement of live games, using hand-held cameras not from the deluxe luxury boxes but the cheap seats with a fervent atmosphere and energy that is hard to capture on camera.
Yet, the docuseries, as you know, is just as much about community as it is about football. Having grown up in Western New York as a Buffalo Bills fan, I know exactly how the fans of Wrexham AFC feel — being a fan of their hometeam is practically a birthright.
Welcome to Wrexhamn, no matter the season or how far the club progresses, never ceases to capture that sentiment.
You can watch the third season of Welcome to Wrexham on FX and the next day on Hulu.
6/10
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