Hulu’s Mike Brilliantly Lays Out the Complex Story of One of the Most Controversial Figures in Sports
Photo Courtesy of Hulu
Depending on your age and perspective, Mike Tyson is a monster, a has-been, a criminal, a rags-to-riches story of redemption, or the greatest boxer of all time. In truth, Tyson is all those things and more, which Hulu’s eight episode limited series Mike powerfully and sometimes painfully demonstrates.
Created by I, Tonya screenwriter Steven Rogers, the program also manages to examine a wide range of social issues through the lens of a man who once said of an opponent, “I want to eat his children.” It’s a bit unusual to frame social commentary through such a controversial figure, but nothing about Tyson’s life has ever been usual.
Mike, which is unauthorized by Tyson, is essentially a dramatized version of the boxer’s life as told by the man himself during the 2013 Spike Lee produced HBO special, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth. Just like his long-running one-man show, Tyson (Trevante Rhodes) is shown on stage laying out his life for all to see, warts and all, as he looks back through his roller coaster existence in a series of flashbacks. It all begins in 1974, when Tyson is eight years old.
To say Tyson had a rough childhood would be a gross understatement. Born and raised in the tumultuous Brooklyn, New York neighborhood of Brownsville, in hindsight it’s a miracle Tyson wasn’t murdered or jailed for life. With no father figure around (to this day Tyson still isn’t sure who his dad is) he was raised by a single mother struggling with three children. His family moved from one abandoned apartment to another when his mother wasn’t shacking up with abusive boyfriends.
Tyson started stealing at age eight, dropped out of school in second grade, and began breaking into houses at 10. He was arrested 38 times by age 12. As a kid, Tyson felt like he never had any control over his life, so he gained it the only way he knew how: by taking it from somebody else.
When we see legendary trainer Cus D’Amato (an almost unrecognizable Harvey Keitel) ask Mike’s mother Lorna (Olunike Adeliyi) if he can take the young man to live and train with him in upstate New York her response of, “Take him, he’s only going to disappoint you” rings painfully true. You feel for Tyson’s troubled mother, who just can’t control her unruly son. But you also feel for Mike, who seemingly never had a shot at a decent future.
While Mike crafts a sympathetic figure, it’s also unafraid to show that time and again many of Tyson’s problems were self-inflicted. Nature versus nurture debaters will notice that while also going through a hostile upbringing his sister Denise (who died of a heart attack at 24) and brother Rodney (a physician’s assistant) never caused their mother the same difficulties as their younger sibling. Tyson also routinely makes excuses for his behavior. Whether it was a lack of affection, unfair treatment, a rough home life, drugs, his addictive personality or his own ignorance, there’s always a reason something goes wrong.