Butler's Cinema Scene

Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney

“WELCOME TO WREXHAM” (Hulu):

I’ve long been aware of the buzz surrounding “Welcome to Wrexham,” the documentary series that follows Yank actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney as they navigate their recent ownership of a Welsh soccer club.

But I’m not much of a sports enthusiast and, anyway, soccer?

Well, color me convinced.  Like its fictional counterpart, “Ted Lasso,” “…Wrexham” is only superficially about sports. Its real subject is the human condition, especially the need to be part of something bigger.

Over three seasons (I hear a fourth is on the way) we see the Wrexham soccer club — the oldest in the world — rise from the ashes of long-festering mediocrity to become a force to be reckoned with.  In part this is due to an influx of cash from the two new owners, equally important is the enthusiasm of Wrexham fans.

The city of Wrexham — once a center of mining and brewing — has been in long decline. A winning team not only gives the locals Monday morning bragging rights but provides an economic kick in the arse that promises to lift the region out of the doldrums.

Okay, that sounds too wonky to be enjoyable. Here’s the thing: Reynolds and McIlhenney are a hugely amusing  duo (actually they make only periodic visits to the U.K., but show up in every episode, if only via Zoom), but what makes the show so brilliant is the way it eavesdrops on the lives of the locals.

The pub owner. They guy who runs the video rental store. The girl on the spectrum whose heartfelt enthusiasm for the team makes her a local celeb. The semi-pro photographer with crowd phobia who specializes in documenting what goes on outside the stadium on game day.

There are the players themselves, whose few moments of glory on the pitch are backed by weeks of grueling practice, debilitating injuries and the same sort of domestic issues common to people in all corners of life.

There are the employees of the club. My fave is Humphrey Ker, an owlish, bearded executive who exudes comical world-weariness. (I call him Eyore.) It is Humphrey’s job to explain to soccer-clueless American viewers the sport’s labyrinthine machinations.

Series director Bryan Rowland casts a wide net.  One entire episode is devoted to the subject of soccer hooligans…young men (usually) who view the matches as an excuse to engage in  bloody brawling with the opposing team’s fans.

Several half-hour segments celebrate the accomplishments of the club’s unpaid women’s team, whose members are arguably more successful than the guys.

Anyway, after watching “…Wrexham” I will never again look down my nose at the small-town folk who live for Friday night high school football.  Now I get it. 

Tobi Bamtefa, Jeremy Renner

“MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN”( Paramount+):

“Mayor of Kingstown” — yet another Taylor Sheridan-penned series — is like a mashup of the prison drama “Oz” sprinkled with the fixer mentality of “Ray Donovan.”

In other words, it’s suspenseful, grotesquely violent and matter-of-factly profane.

Jeremy Renner (quite excellent) stars as Mike McLusky, whose family has long been the power behind the scenes in the fictional city of Kingston, Michigan. With the murder of his older brother, ex-con Mike finds himself assuming his sibling’s role as fixer-in-chief. 

People come to him with problems that cannot be taken to the authorities; he finds solutions. Sometimes the solutions are legal.

As a former jailbird Mike knows his way around the prisons that are Kingstown’s main industry.  From beyond the walls (and sometimes inside them) he keeps tabs on the various prison gangs,  tracks the movement of drugs and other contraband, tries to mediate between inmates and the guards.

Two relationships make “Mayor of Kingstown” particularly memorable.  First there’s Mike’s sometimes shaky alliance with drug lord Bunny Washington (Tobi Bamtefa), a character half crook and half philosopher king.  

Then there’s Iris (Emma Laird), a baby-faced call girl sent by a criminal mastermind (Aiden Gillen) to seduce Mike; instead he ends up becoming her surrogate father and protector — although not even a cloistered nun could fail to see the unfulfilled sexual tension between the two.

The setup is perfect for a classic hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold romance; it’s to the show’s credit that it doesn’t go there.

Toss into the mix Dianne Wiest as Mike’s mom (who teaches inmates at a women’s prison), Sheridan regular Hugh Dillon (as a seriously compromised detective), and Taylor Handley (as Mike’s policeman baby brother) and you’ve got an engrossing crime melodrama.

Keeping it all held together is Renner, whose Mike is a roiling cauldron of moral contradictions.

“UNSTABLE” (Netflix):

Gotta be honest…relatively few comedies make me laugh out loud.

“Unstable” does. A lot.

Rob Lowe is having the time of his life playing Ellis Dragon, an  inventor and tech mogul  (think a less loathesome Elon Musk) whose usual idiosyncrasies have gone into hyperdrive with the death of his wife.

The only thing keeping Ellis even halfway grounded is his son Jackson (Lowe’s real-life son John Owen Lowe), who reluctantly comes for a visit and ends up being sucked into his Dad’s business and personal dramas.

(Father and son Lowe pretty much created the show, coming up with an idea that would allow them to work together.)

“Unstable’s” primary dynamic is between the rich, privileged eccentric who can indulge his every whim, and the straight-man son who only wants to live his own life. 

They’re surrounded by wonderful characters: Sian Clifford (she was the sister in “Fleabag”), oozing Brit emotional reticence as Ellis’ second-in-command; Aaron Branch, Rachel Marsh and Emma Ferreira as nerdy lab rats; and finally Fred Armisen as Ellis’ shrink, whom the wacko billionaire has imprisoned in the basement.

Anyone remember the short-lived sitcom “Better Off Ted”? “Unstable” offers the same gleefully jaundiced view of the American workplace, populated with wise-cracking individuals.

Full disclosure: There are two seasons of “Unstable” and in the second the series has fallen into the rut of repeating itself.  But watch Season One…and refrain from drinking anything during the show to avoid involuntary spit takes.

| Robert W. Butler