What do a gang of criminals, Muhammad Ali and the city of Atlanta have in common? October 26, 1970. When a legal loophole allowed the boxer to return to the ring after refusing to perform military service, the night of his comeback fight became a golden opportunity for a gang of thieves to rob the night’s festivities.
Shaye Ogbonna brings this wild chain of events to life in Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, a star-studded Peacock adaptation starring Kevin Hart, Don Cheadle, Samuel L. Jackson, Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard and more. When the post-party brawl in which Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams (Hart) commits armed robbery against high-ranking figures from across the country’s underworld, the victims and the police come after him – while Chicken Man himself (reportedly handing out chicken sandwiches to attractive women) and Detective JD Hudson (Cheadle) track down the real perpetrators.
After the first three episodes, which build anticipation for the big night and then lay out the heist and the fight, “Fight Night” is a little too cautious with its stronger charms. Dexter Darden’s Muhammed Ali disappears from the action, leaving a gap at first that’s just as stark as you’d expect from such a larger-than-life character. It takes a little too long for Cheadle and Hart to come together as an inevitable and ultimately worthwhile team-up, and the middle episodes drag as they tread water before the final confrontation. A six-episode order instead of eight might have solved most of this problem, but the three-episode premiere sets the pace right from the start.
Though Chicken Man and his wayward companions are the initial draw, it’s Cheadle who forms the backbone of the show in a layered portrait of a black cop in a turbulent time. Television likes to present a black detective as a stopgap to address the complex dynamics of race and policing, but that’s just not possible with a real-life character and a show set in 1970. Hudson is portrayed as a hero, but many of his exploits take place outside of his official job — and during his time as a cop, he previously put Gordon in prison, a fact that can’t erase their partnership. Little things like these point to ongoing flaws in a system ostensibly designed to protect the people it harms, and other characters don’t hesitate to tell Hudson this to his face. He’s the show’s de facto sniper and lawman, but it can be fun to play a cliche, like saying things like “If you have a problem with that, take it up with Jenkins” or “Get off my crime scene!” Onscreen, he buzzes with Hart and Jackson; the former gives a stellar performance that’s easy to offset from his gigantic celebrity status, and the latter makes the final episodes a blast (as well he should).
In that sense, Fight Night is happy to borrow from genre, with ’70s imagery in the opening credits and multi-frame editing, an irresistible soundtrack, sequences from crime or heist movies, and the kind of over-the-top characters that modern TV always tries to soften and rein in with realism. It’s lush and sexy and sleek, just as those characters would have been (though in a series that keeps mentioning Atlanta, Atlanta doesn’t get much time to shine). More broadly, the series is committed to the violent intensity of later episodes, but that darkness simmers from the start (and events are largely embellished compared to the story).
“Fight Night” spends much of its running time on the aftermath of major events, so it’s worth watching for viewers who like investigations, cat-and-mouse games, and the way seemingly small events can change — or end — individual lives. And if you want to watch a group of big stars dress up and insult each other, this is a treat, too.
Grade: C+
The first three episodes of “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist” are now streaming on Peacock, with new episodes released every Thursday.
