Starz’s Underrated Wrestling Drama Heels Takes Things to the Next Level in Season 2

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that the “sports” part of sports dramas is often the least important aspect of the stories those series are telling. From Friday Night Lights and All American to GLOW and Ted Lasso, a show’s particular premise doesn’t matter nearly so much as the characters at its center, and how the larger culture and framework of that specific world helps shape the people they become. 

Starz’s Heels is, technically, a story about professional wrestling. And, to be fair, it has quite a bit of wrestling in it, complete with cool aerial flips, devastating kicks, and guys getting hit with chairs on the regular. But it’s also so much more than that—a family drama, a superhero origin story, a girl power anthem, a meditation on the long-tail effects of trauma, a complex depiction of male friendship, a realistic exploration of the tough choices made by working class people struggling to get by in small towns. Yes, some of those things involve characters who go to work wearing colorful spandex, but the stories are so affecting precisely because they’re so deeply human. 

Season 2 picks up right where the first left off: In the aftermath of the ladder match at the Georgia State Fair that essentially became a real-life brother-on-brother brawl between Jack (Stephen Amell) and Ace (Alexander Ludwig) Spade, and saw former valet Crystal Tyler (Kelli Burgland) save the day—and the Duffy Wrestling League—by throwing herself into the ring. Despite the fairytale feel of Crystal’s triumph, not everything is going so great for the DW. The wrestling community is questioning the validity of her win since she technically crashed the championship match, Ace has disappeared without a trace, Jack’s wife Stacy (Allison Luff) has moved out and taken his son with her, and the wealthy and obnoxious Charlie Gully (showrunner Mike O’Malley), head of the Florida Wrestling Dystopia league, poses a dangerous new threat. 

Thankfully, Heels isn’t interested in dragging out the Spade brothers’ separation unnecessarily, though both men do take some time to recenter themselves and recalibrate their life goals across the season’s eight episodes. Amell, best known for his performance as the relentlessly stoic Oliver Queen on Arrow, gets to play the consummate showman, even as he continues to grapple with his complex feelings about his father Jack (David James Elliott), and the legacy he left behind. But it’s Ludwig who gets the chance to really shine this season, uncovering the gentle heart of the young Spade brother who’s always been positioned as little more than a big, beefy meathead. and his growth over the course of the season—both in and out of the ring—is deeply satisfying to watch.

Heels Season 2 ultimately succeeds by doubling down on its most unexpected elements. Sure, the choreography and physical stunts that comprise the season’s various wrestling matches are thrilling to watch, but the heart of this show is the surprisingly complex relationships between its characters, an eclectic collection of small town dreamers and scrappers who are all aching for something more. Season 2 smartly broadens the roles of several supporting characters, including Wild Bill (Chris Bauer), Bobby Pin (Trey Tucker), and Diego Cottonmouth (Robbie Ramos) allowing the world of Duffy and the DWL to feel much much larger and more integrated than the series’ first season, which focused primarily on the various issues in Ace and Jack’s relationship.

And—perhaps most importantly—Season 2 reaffirms its commitment to the show’s women, who are undoubtedly the glue that holds the rest of Heels together. While a series about an independent Southern wrestling league might not be the first place you would think to look to for depictions of complex, three-dimensional female characters, the women of Heels repeatedly steal the show out from under the men at its center.