‘Mike’ Is a Retelling of the Tyson Myth That’s Too in Love With Its Subject: TV Review
variety.comDaniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticMike Tyson is a figure with unusual voltage, a celebrity who fought for his spot in the firmament with a weaponized charisma.
The champion boxer is relentless even by the standards of the sport, with the famous incident in which he bit the ear of Evander Holyfield casting a shadow over his achievements.
Outside the ring, he’s simultaneously known for a surprising soft-spokenness that makes the listener want to lean in and for a tendency toward violence — including a 1992 conviction for the rape of Desiree Washington — that repels.A serious reckoning with Tyson’s place in our culture, in the currently on-trend format of dramatized retelling via limited series, would deal with both sides of the Tyson image, and the complicated ways they feed each other — the fact that the allure of Tyson is bolstered by our sense of him as threatening.
This is not the path that Hulu’s new series “Mike” takes. Starring Trevante Rhodes as the fighter, the series doesn’t let Tyson off the hook.
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