Welcome to Wrexham Season 5, Episode 2, “Joey Jones,” calculates the cost of the Championship while mourning a football icon. This episode has much better pacing than the first episode. There’s more dialogue between the documentary and the people involved. The less exposition, the more that “Joey Jones” can slow down, and Welcome to Wrexham is always best when it does that.
That said, there is still some version of playing catch-up as the series continues to welcome new players and say goodbye to others. That sustained period opens up reflection about who or what needs to improve at the football club. It – and the continued comparison to Sheffield Wednesday – also supports why “Joey Jones” works as the second part of a two-episode season premiere. Now, there are only six more episodes left in this eight-episode season. Ideally, Welcome to Wrexham will continue to do what it does best with that limited time.
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Mickey Thomas Remembers Mr. Wrexham
This episode’s heart – and its biggest strength – is Mickey Thomas, a former Wrexham AFC player, who is grieving his best friend. This documentary series’s ability to pull back to co-owners Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds meeting Joey Jones in October 2021 is incredible. It’s special that Welcome to Wrexham has access to archival footage of Thomas and Jones on the football pitch, enjoying the game with each other. It’s impactful to hear Geraint Perry, a Wrexham AFC historian, explain the cultural significance of Joey Jones.
Still, nothing comes close to Thomas’s first-person account of what Jones means to him, the town, and the club. It’s impossible not to be moved to tears when Mickey says, “He’s my heartbeat, isn’t he? He has been my heartbeat for my whole life.” They met when they were 14 and stayed best friends for 50+ years. That’s a beautiful, significant love story strengthened by Wrexham AFC. The magnitude of that is not lost on Welcome to Wrexham. The episode also reflects how loved Joey Jones is by the number of people who show up to pay their respects at his memorial service at the Racecourse.
This documentary series always handles grief and loss with care. The first episode does so with Bailey’s story. I still think about the episodes dedicated to Arthur Massey in Season 3 and Season 4. Welcome to Wrexham could use its time differently, but it rightfully knows that everyday people make this club.
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How Will Wrexham AFC Bounce Back?
Wrexham AFC’s Championship turnover continues with the exit of Ollie Palmer. He describes the departure as “tough but inevitable,” and it’s a relief that Welcome to Wrexham even gives him the time to say that goodbye. Then again, after the show has gotten to know him over the last four seasons, it would have been entirely disappointing not to spotlight Palmer in some way. That connection also highlights where it lacks elsewhere, which Rob Mac’s father, Bob, voices in these two episodes. The edit doesn’t do the episode many favors.
Josh Windass pops in to talk about Sheffield Wednesday, with Welcome to Wrexham only mentioning that he got injured for Wrexham AFC in pre-season. Therefore, as far as the documentary series is concerned, Windass has a stronger on-screen connection to his former club than Wrexham AFC at this point. Alternatively, Kieffer Moore is scoring big goals early in the season, but neither episode takes a few seconds to introduce him properly. Danny Ward only talks to the camera after an injury, which emphasizes how Welcome to Wrexham should have heard more from him beforehand. Ward says that the club “is the tonic I needed at the right time of my life.” Sadly, the documentary series doesn’t have much to show to support that yet.
Of course, with more than a dozen players in and nearly two dozen out, Welcome to Wrexham can’t possibly communicate with everyone. However, this documentary series is so skilled in telling emotional, human stories. If any show can do it, it’s this one. “Joey Jones” proves it by making Katrina Jones, a Wrexham caretaker, an MVP in a singular episode.
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