Heels review – this stunning wrestling drama’s fights feel more Swan Lake than WWE

Whether a character is a story’s villain or hero is down to perspective. In the case of professional wrestling, these choices are made behind the scenes as Netflix’s latest drama explains, with the heroes known as “faces” and the villains “heels”. In terms of this show, the streaming company takes the former role, saving the day for fans of the US series, which was cancelled by network Starz, and distributing it internationally with rumours circulating that a third season could be on the way if the algorithm gods are pleased. It is, however, a bit more Heel-like when it comes to its other wrestling drama, Glow , whose supposedly part-filmed fourth season will never see the light of day after Netflix cancelled it.

Heels is a much more serious piece than Glow and the laughs are few and far between as Jack Spade (Stephen Amell) struggles with inheriting a lower-tier wrestling league from his troubled father. His brother Ace (Alexander Ludwig) is the league’s biggest attraction and seemingly its only hope of solvency. As those in the know about professional wrestling will acknowledge, the athleticism and the injuries are real, but the outcomes of the matches are not, with lines of dialogue and the ultimate victor tightly scripted in advance. This is a task that Jack takes on despite being hugely overstretched by his day job and his loving but frustrating family life. He chooses to write himself as a “heel” while his Übermensch brother is cheered by the crowds as a “face”, but during season one the tensions between the brothers come to a head. Amell puts in a heartbreaking performance as a man increasingly crushed by responsibility, with the hate by design he experiences in the ring weighing heavy on his soul.

There are some interesting meta-textual flourishes, such as when Jack and his business partner, Willie (Mary McCormack), debate the importance of satisfying story arcs – and the unpredictable endings that sustain a fandom’s passion for the story. But the series is a little too po-faced to have much fun with them and aesthetically it feels strangely unspecific. Many episodes could be entirely set in the 80s or 90s and it’s only when a contemporary piece of technology is spotted that the present-day setting is noticeable. But the stakes feel surprisingly high. The series grounds itself in the literal blood, sweat and tears of each of its contenders, really driving home how – despite this being a tale of third-tier wrestlers in a fictional Georgia town – in brief moments in the ring, they feel like gods.

Season two simultaneously comes to Netflix alongside series one and picks up moments after the finale, making the show eminently bingeable. It leans more into character study than its predecessor, delving into unresolved traumas from the many Spade family conflicts: Jack is keen to be closer to his young son than his aggressive, aloof father was to him – even though he “named his own son after the dead dad he doesn’t miss”. But it also broadens its scope, looking into other wrestlers. We find out what makes Wild Bill Hancock (Chris Bauer) continue on in this gruelling field and get some series highlights courtesy of the badassery of Crystal (Kelli Berglund), who finds herself on a road to glory, not least because she’s able to acrobatically take out a man twice her size in two seconds flat with just her inner-thigh strength. Across the board, the wrestling scenes in the second outing are more stunningly choreographed than in the first, with cinematically elegant matches that feel more like Swan Lake than WWE.

Just like Jack, Heels takes a little while to find its footing. It’s only in the second season that you see what this team is really capable of – moving away from the brothers’ conflict to paint a wider portrait of broken hearts, masculine bravado and where the future of wrestling could lie.

The show also gives itself permission to have a little fun. Rival wrestling league head Gully (played by showrunner Mike O’Malley) seems to be having a whale of a time as he stomps into scenes swearing like a pirate, with a wide-eyed scenery-chewing intensity. It’s all building up to his and Jack’s leagues facing off in a gloriously titled “Harmageddon” match, which sees the brothers facing their biggest, most violent fight yet and a season finale (and at present the final ever episode) that crams in so many twists it leaves your head spinning.

It presents a convincing argument that Netflix should complete this act of heroism and bring back Heels for a third season. And while it is at it, maybe it should let me take a little look-see at season four of Glow.

• Heels is on Netflix