''Mike'' is an American television

miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...

created by Steven Rogers. The series is an

unauthorized Authorization or authorisation (see spelling differences), in information security, computer security and IAM (Identity and Access Management), is the function of specifying rights/privileges for accessing resources, in most cases through an a ...

look at the life of boxer

Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1985 and 2024. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "the Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson i ...

, with

Trevante Rhodes Trevante Nemour Rhodes (born February 10, 1990) is an American actor. He won several accolades and achieved recognition in 2016 for his performance as "Black" (Adult Chiron) in the Academy Award-winning film ''Moonlight''. He has since starred ...

as the title role, and co-stars

Russell Hornsby Russell Hornsby (born May 15, 1969) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Edward "Eddie" Sutton on ABC Family's '' Lincoln Heights'', as Luke on the HBO drama ''In Treatment'', as Detective Hank Griffin on the NBC series ''Grimm'', a ...

. Rogers reunites with numerous collaborators from the film ''

I, Tonya ''I, Tonya'' is a 2017 American biographical sports film directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Steven Rogers. It follows the life and career of American figure skater Tonya Harding and her connection to the 1994 assault on her rival Nan ...

'' (2017), including director

Craig Gillespie Craig Gillespie (born 1 September 1967) is an Australian-American film director, film, television director, television, music video director, music video, and commercial director. He is best known for directing the films ''Lars and the Real Gir ...

, and executive producers Tom Ackerley,

Margot Robbie Margot Elise Robbie ( ; born 2 July 1990) is an Australian actress and producer. Her work includes both blockbuster and independent films, and her accolades include nominations for three Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and six BAFT ...

, and Bryan Unkeless. It premiered on

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

on August 25, 2022. The series received mixed reviews from critics, and was criticized by Tyson for being made without his involvement nor compensation.

Cast

Main

Don King Donald King (born August 20, 1931) is an American boxing promoter, known for his involvement in several historic boxing matchups. King's career highlights include, among multiple other enterprises, promoting "The Rumble in the Jungle" and the ...

Recurring

Harvey Keitel Harvey Keitel ( ; born May 13, 1939) is an American actor and film producer, known for his portrayal of morally ambiguous and "tough guy" characters. He rose to prominence during the New Hollywood movement, and has held a long-running associatio ...

Cus D'Amato Constantine "''Cus''" D'Amato (January 17, 1908 – November 4, 1985) was an American boxing manager, boxing Promoter (entertainment), promoter and boxing Boxing training, trainer who handled the careers of Mike Tyson, Floyd Patterson, and José ...

Laura Harrier Laura Ruth Harrier (born March 28, 1990) is an American actress and model. She began modeling at the age of 17 after she was discovered by a Location scouting, location scout. She moved to New York City where she continued modeling and was rep ...

Robin Givens Robin Givens (born November 27, 1964) is an American actress and director. Givens played Darlene Merriman in the ABC sitcom '' Head of the Class'' in 1986, and remained on the series for its five year duration. Her troubled marriage to boxer ...

Grace Zabriskie Grace Zabriskie (née Caplinger; born May 17, 1941) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Sarah Palmer in ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991; 2017) and its film prequel '' Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me'' (1992), Lois Henrickson in ''B ...

as Camille D'Amato *

Oluniké Adeliyi Oluniké Adeliyi (born January 5, 1977) is a Canadian actress. She appeared in the 2010 horror film ''Saw 3D'' and starred as Leah Kerns in the television series '' Flashpoint''. Early life Adeliyi was born in Brampton, Ontario, of Jamaican-Nig ...

as Lorna Mae, the mother of Mike Tyson * TJ Atoms as Barkim, a friend * Li Eubanks as Desiree Washington

Episodes

Eight episodes have been announced.

Release

''Mike'' premiered on

in the United States on August 25, 2022. Internationally, the series was released on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

Reception

Critical reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported a 43% approval rating based on 35 critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.30/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "This unauthorized biopic of The Baddest Man on the Planet is undeniably ambitious as it weighs the legendary boxer's many contradictions, but it ultimately punches itself out with uneven execution."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 54 out of 100 based on 22 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Reaction from Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson publicly criticized Hulu over the production of ''Mike'', claiming Hulu created the project without his permission or compensation. On social media, he accused Hulu of "stealing" his life story, comparing them to "slave masters," and expressed frustration that UFC President Dana White was offered millions to promote the series while he received nothing. Tyson condemned Hulu's decision to announce the series during Black History Month, calling it a prime example of corporate greed and cultural misappropriation. The show's showrunner, Karen Gist, addressed the project's unauthorized nature, stating it aimed to challenge public perceptions of Tyson.

Accolades

The series was one of 200 television series that received

the ReFrame Stamp The ReFrame Stamp for Gender-Balanced Production certification is awarded by ReFrame to corporations and media that show progress toward gender equality and greater representation of women in key roles. History On June 8, 2018, the ReFrame Sta ...

for the years 2022 to 2023. The stamp is awarded by the gender equity coalition ReFrame and industry database

IMDbPro IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

for film and television projects that are proven to have gender-balanced hiring, with stamps being awarded to projects that hire female-identifying people, especially women of color, in four out of eight key roles for their production.

References

External links

''Mike''
on

* {{Authority control 2020s American television miniseries 2022 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings American English-language television shows American biographical series 2020s American sports television series Boxing television series Hulu original programming Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series based on actual events Cultural depictions of Mike Tyson