REVIEW: ‘Welcome To Wrexham Season 5’ Rings In Big Changes

Welcome to Wrexham Season 5 returns to the titular town in Northern Wales for a fifth year. The show follows Wrexham AFC, the football team at the heart of the community, which is owned by the executive producers of the documentary, Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds. After three straight promotions, the Red Dragons find themselves in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Just as high as Wrexham have ever been. But there is more glory in their mind, a fourth promotion to the Premier League.

A major change is evident very quickly at the start of Welcome to Wrexham Season 5. Even though they have just entered uncharted waters, a league to which the staff and players are so new, there’s instant talk of promotion. There is a grandiose nature to the club, enjoying their celebrity status.

Welcome to Wrexham Season 5 continues to be an incredibly personal and intricate series.

The global tours and the pressure that comes with fame ignite excitement, whilst highlighting a key theme permeating the show as their success continues. Wrexham is moving quickly and is a far cry from the struggling team and town that the Hollywood team initially bought. And the start could incentivise those views, with new star signings and other visions of grandeur. 

However, Welcome to Wrexham Season 5 continues to be an incredibly personal and intricate series, exploring topics that are never seen in other sports documentaries. It checks in on specific families, talks about incredibly serious and emotional events in their lives, and how it all connects to the club.

Each episode has its own story and conversation. Even with the directors and owners looking at the future, the show, fans, and even those at the top love to recognise and acknowledge history. This includes everything from the town of Wrexham itself to the club and the players who have represented it

New staff and players mean a whole new era for the Red Dragons.

Welcome to Wrexham Season 5 sees perhaps the biggest change in the entirety of the run. Several levels up from the leagues where they started, the players who got them there are all moving on and being replaced with figures of a higher stature and quality. These outgoing players are some of the most important characters in the whole show, as they have been there from the early stages and have become revered club legends.

The whole squad is being revamped, and it can be emotional to see the players depart. The show does give the most elite and important figures a send-off, but it’s hard to do them true justice. Others don’t even get a mention. Wrexham does a great job of looking after former players, and perhaps the show could cover that further.

The new arrivals in the playing staff do provide opportunities for fresh stories and personalities. This documentary has always adds humility and perspective to the lives of professional footballers, showing their humanity and grounding them. This is especially important in Welcome to Wrexham Season 5, given the new players’ higher status.

Many of those coming in have had established careers, playing in the Championship and Premier League, and even for their national teams. They’ve represented England, Wales, and other nations. It’s a different calibre of player from the lower-league journeyman. But Welcome to Wrexham Season 5 still presents them as humans.

Welcome to Wrexham Season 5 still presents its subjects as humans first.

The women’s team doesn’t have as much of a presence this season as others, which is a shame because many familiar faces remain. It’s had just as many shifts as the men’s team, but there’s certainly a change in attention. There used to be whole episodes dedicated to the women’s squad, but the show has unfortunately shifted to just briefly checking in before moving on to the men’s team within the same episode.

It’s not just the players that the audience has built connections with. There are people within the community who have become side figures. The pub landlord at the hotel attached to the stadium. A photographer who suffers from depression and anxiety. They bring real voices, with genuine thoughts, struggles, and conversations. There are some who have been uplifted by the fame, but most are just regular Welsh people who have worked incredibly hard for years before the money ever arrived.

The production continues to be of a Hollywood quality. The editing of the football matches is extraordinary. The build-up, the crowd, and the football action itself all have a phenomenal sense of drama. They are perhaps made even more intense than the actual games themselves.

Welcome to Wrexham Season 5 remains the gold standard of football documentaries.

A drab draw is given so much more emphasis in the show than in a broadcast. The interviews and behind-the-scenes adventures are also superbly crafted, really digging into the private lives of people you don’t usually see. Staff members, from the director level to the cleaners, are all found on camera. 

Welcome to Wrexham Season 5 remains the gold standard of football documentaries. The episodes terrifically ensure that there is an existential crisis within the soul of the team and how it is seen and sees itself, but still tries to be grounded and community-driven. Every action and moment connects to the people who attend the games and support the team.

What sets the show apart from any other documentary of its kind is the time it spends with ordinary people, because that’s where the real stories are. The football drama and celebrity garnishes are unique, but these people had lives before the takeover, and the team had legends before the cameras rolled in. Reynolds and Max have always respected and understood that, and that always shows in the series.

Welcome to Wrexham Season 5 is available weekly on FX and Hulu starting May 14 and on Disney+ internationally.

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