Last week, Hulu dropped Mike episodes five and six. Now we are at the dark part of Mike Tyson’s life and the writers did a good job portraying these times. Despite my criticism of this show in the previous two weeks, this week’s episodes were much better done.
Reader beware! Spoilers for Mike on Hulu lie ahead!
Mike on Hulu: Dark times make for good television
We are starting to see some of the reasons why Mike Tyson wasn’t happy with Hulu for showing his life story. While it isn’t a good thing that Tyson wasn’t paid on his life’s story and he wasn’t even consulted, Mike on Hulu pulls no punches and isn’t afraid to make Iron Mike look bad.
Mike shows how bad and how dark rape can be. Regardless of what you think about Tyson’s conviction for rape in the 90’s, the scene itself set out to do a job and executed. Li Eubanks nails this as she’s screaming in the background, pleading for mercy, and narrating just how awful the experience was.
In addition to that, these two episodes, which were the best of the show so far, had zero boxing scenes in it. The directors did a good job to show the turmoil in Mike Tyson’s life and how it affected everyone around him. There weren’t many good people around Tyson at the time and it was depicted well.
Still Struggling
While these were the best and actually branched into good television instead of below average like episodes one through four, the show really feels like it is not going to deliver on the series finale.
We’re going to see Mike Tyson back in the ring. We’re going to hear the “My style is impetuous” line. We are going to see Evander Holyfield get his ear bitten off. But it seems like this should be the buildup and not the climax of the series. But we cannot say for certain the writers of the show won’t pull off the Hail Mary and make the last two episodes great. Only time will tell.
Double Hammerfist 