It's inevitable that any documentary about a soccer team will be compared to Welcome to Wrexham, so to get it out of the way: No, it's not as good. But it's not bad at all. It's also doing something different. Sure, Angel City is executive produced by one of the subjects (Natalie Portman), just like Wrexham is produced by its owners, but the mission of Angel City's ownership group isn't to rebuild a storied team or rejuvenate a Rust Belt town- it's to change the very nature of professional sports in America. The stakes feel bigger, and the pressure on everyone involved is greater. And while it's not a true documentary in the sense that it's not providing a dispassionate, objective retrospective of the team's first season, it does a great job of capturing the emotions of everyone involved... up to a point. I was thoroughly entertained and by the end was happily rooting for A.C.F.C. & the entire NWSL. At the same time I wish that the media savvy ownership group had been confident enough to provide full access to a filmmaker they didn't control to document their story. It would have resulted in a more complete film that didn't feel like an airbrushed highlight reel. Founding a startup is messy. Founding a startup within a floundering, scandal-ridden, twice-folded, third-tier sports league is an epic potential-disaster-waiting-to-happen that I couldn't help feel like I wasn't really being told about. At multiple points I could tell that something was being glossed over here, or a major conflict was merely hinted at over there; it gave the series a hollowness that all the great production values and heartfelt earnestness of the athletes couldn't mask. Like A.C.F.C.'s inaugural season, this series was nice to watch but I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed by it at the same time.
Review by Mike ShawVIP EP 2BlockedParent2023-06-04T07:48:27Z— updated 2023-06-17T21:07:20Z
It's inevitable that any documentary about a soccer team will be compared to Welcome to Wrexham, so to get it out of the way: No, it's not as good. But it's not bad at all. It's also doing something different. Sure, Angel City is executive produced by one of the subjects (Natalie Portman), just like Wrexham is produced by its owners, but the mission of Angel City's ownership group isn't to rebuild a storied team or rejuvenate a Rust Belt town- it's to change the very nature of professional sports in America. The stakes feel bigger, and the pressure on everyone involved is greater. And while it's not a true documentary in the sense that it's not providing a dispassionate, objective retrospective of the team's first season, it does a great job of capturing the emotions of everyone involved... up to a point. I was thoroughly entertained and by the end was happily rooting for A.C.F.C. & the entire NWSL. At the same time I wish that the media savvy ownership group had been confident enough to provide full access to a filmmaker they didn't control to document their story. It would have resulted in a more complete film that didn't feel like an airbrushed highlight reel. Founding a startup is messy. Founding a startup within a floundering, scandal-ridden, twice-folded, third-tier sports league is an epic potential-disaster-waiting-to-happen that I couldn't help feel like I wasn't really being told about. At multiple points I could tell that something was being glossed over here, or a major conflict was merely hinted at over there; it gave the series a hollowness that all the great production values and heartfelt earnestness of the athletes couldn't mask. Like A.C.F.C.'s inaugural season, this series was nice to watch but I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed by it at the same time.