Pick of the week
Welcome to Wrexham
There is an inbuilt flaw to a so-called rags-to-riches football story such as this one. Namely, that Wrexham AFC ceased to be a true underdog club the moment Hollywood backers arrived and cameras started rolling. All the same, it’s hard to be churlish about the involvement of actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny in the affairs of this spirited, tatty club – the pair seem sincere, albeit at times amusingly bewildered by the job they’ve taken on. This documentary series is at its most emotionally convincing when it jump-cuts from McElhenny and Reynolds’s luxury lives to the reality of a working-class British town full of fans to whom Wrexham AFC evidently means everything. Phil Harrison
Disney+, from Thursday 25 August
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Mo
This comedy-drama from Ramy Youssef (of Ramy fame) and Mohammed “Mo” Amer (who also stars) is modern urban America in a nutshell. It’s a flurry of languages, religions and cultural traditions, all together, all at once. Palestinian Muslim Mo is living on his wits in Houston while waiting to be granted asylum. In the meantime, his life is marginal; he’s a natural salesman but loses job after job because of his immigration status. There’s real heart and soul in Amer’s performance – Mo is surviving in a country that is only half open to him – and that’s a high-wire act that takes its toll. PH
Netflix, from Wednesday 24 August
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Lost Ollie
A unashamedly sentimental live-action animation series dealing with the profound childhood trauma of losing a soft toy – and a touch of innocence into the bargain. Ollie (voiced by Jonathan Groff) is the stuffed rabbit in question – the comforter of Billy (Kesler Talbot) but chucked away by heartless bullies and now on a mission to be reunited with his heartbroken owner. His odyssey leads him through thrift stores, forgotten cupboards and dark forests, but will he find his way home? A strong voice cast also includes Mary J Blige. PH
Netflix, from Wednesday 24 August
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Running With the Devil
Who would have thought that the computer programmer behind McAfee antivirus software led a life involving murder, cartels and being a fugitive? John McAfee is the subject of this wild documentary, which – 10 years in the making – tells the story of what happened after he became a person of interest following the murder of his neighbour Gregory Faull in Belize. What ensued was a bizarre run of attempting to become president, getting arrested in Spain for tax evasion and eventually dying in a prison cell (which was ruled as suicide). Hollie Richardson
Netflix, from Wednesday 24 August
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Selling the OC
Just in time to warm our cockles this winter, while we’re deciding whether we can afford to stick the central heating on for half an hour, comes the latest perma-sunny spin-off from the absurdly hardy, real but also essentially fictional world of Selling Sunset. Jason Oppenheim is opening a second branch of his ultra high-end real estate brokerage in Newport Beach, Orange County. And, controversially, his roster of agents now includes a few men – which raises the prospect of some sexual tension to heighten the already feverishly competitive atmosphere. PH
Netflix, from Wednesday 24 August
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See
It has been said that the third world war will be fought with nukes and the fourth world war will be fought with sticks. So it was for the first couple of seasons of this inventively preposterous future-primitive drama set in a sightless world. But now, the Trivantians have developed a new weapon that can destroy entire cities and Baba Voss (the magnificently hairy Jason Momoa) must return from his troubled forest wanderings to protect his tribe. It’s silly and cartoonishly brutal but the show’s world is built with complete conceptual conviction. PH
Apple TV+, from Friday 26 August
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Untrapped: The Story of Lil Baby
“America has a system in place,” says Dominique Jones, AKA Lil Baby. “And it’s designed for us to fail.” A decade ago, Jones himself was well on the way to failing. He was selling drugs on the streets of Atlanta – a path that led to a prison sentence in 2014. This film charts his subsequent rise, both in terms of his burgeoning music career and increasing social conscience. Jones’s story is told as a standard started-from-the-bottom tale, as wariness about systemic exclusion jostles for space with boilerplate aspirational homilies about the American dream. PH
Prime Video, from Friday 26 August
