Hulu’s new eight-part biographical drama Mike does not shy away from the uglier aspects of the Mike Tyson story. That has to be one reason why the heavyweight champion, American icon, and convicted sex offender has so loudly denounced the project: in covering 40 years of triumphs in the ring and transgressions committed outside of it, this flashy mini-series avoids the flattering hagiography that often characterizes officially authorized accounts. What it doesn’t avoid, however, is Hollywood’s prevailing weakness for conforming eventful, messy lives to a dramatic blueprint. Even at twice the length of the average big-screen biopic, Mike falls into the common trap of playing connect the bullet points of its subject’s Wikipedia page – of reducing a complicated life story to an alternating series of hills and valleys.
For as much as Tyson may object to someone else telling his story without his input, Mike leans heavily on his first-hand reflections. The framing device of the series, after all, is his one-man Broadway show, the dubiously titled Undisputed Truth, re-enacted here through scenes of a fortysomething Tyson (Trevante Rhodes) wandering a stage, snippets of his monologue triggering flashbacks. It’s all rather “Dewey Cox has to think about his entire life before he plays”.
