We all enjoy a good heist flick, but stretching one into a limited television series is a gamble that is as risky as the heist our characters try to pull off. The eight-part Peacock miniseries “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist” from showrunner Shaye Ogbonna and “Dolemite is My Name” director Craig Brewer spins a real armed robbery that took place in the heart of Atlanta, just miles away from Muhammad Ali’s historic comeback match with Jerry Quarry, into an intense crime drama. Weird sentence to say with a cast that includes comic titans like Kevin Hart, Don Cheadle, and Taraji P. Henson, but its talented ensemble helps the Soderbergh-meets-blaxploitation eventually find the right combo of blows to entertain.
1970, Atlanta: Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams (Kevin Hart) is a fast-talking hustler who uses his talents to scam people out of their money and seduce women into sleeping with him. He has a wife, Faye Williams (Artrece Johnson), and several mistresses, including a former stripper turned businesswoman Vivian Thomas (Taraji P. Henson). They’re all aware of each other but keep it pushing.
At the time of Muhammad Ali’s (played by an exuberant Dexter Darden) comeback match against Jerry Quarry at Atlanta’s Municipal Auditorium, Chicken Man gets word that many gangsters, pimps, and drug dealers from across the nation are coming to watch the game. He plans a party at his place, complete with private invites to all the no-names in his town.
While at the match, he’s on the ground floor swindling every notable face he can find to come back to his party. But in reality, the party was a front for an armed robbery—as partygoers approached the front door, they were greeted by masked men with guns who had them go downstairs, where they’d rob them of whatever cash or jewelry was in their possession and make ’em strip to their underwear.
In the second episode, which resembles the same intensity as “Uncut Gems,” Hart spins his fast-talking charisma to great effect to gain the attention of his white whale, crime boss Frank Moten (Samuel L. Jackson), colloquially known as the “Black Godfather.” Jackson plays Moten as an unpredictable, no-nonsense wild card, a man of principle who will kill on sight if you simply look at him wrong. The fact that Terence Howard is relegated to playing one of Moten’s goons should indicate the level of star power we’re talking about.
Eventually, Chicken Man persuades Moten and his henchmen to attend the after-party, where he is also robbed. But to make sure Chicken Man doesn’t become a prime suspect himself, he too is robbed and forced into the basement like everyone else. Following the completion of the heist, the investigation is assigned to J.D. Hudson (Don Cheadle), who served as Ali’s bodyguard during the infamous fight night.
Within the series’ first four episodes, “Fight Night” does a fairly decent job of doubling as a period piece rooted in engaging history, while lovingly evoking the style of the Black-led films of that era. Quick zooms and split screens, flourishes endemic to the 1970s crime and Blaxploitation genres, align perfectly with the throwback heist structure and the show’s darkly comic tone
The show suffers from some formulaic beats and struggles to introduce so many participants before the crime unravels. Plus, the character writing leaves more to be desired, primarily Cheadle’s Hudson and P. Henson’s Thomas, who feel pretty thinly drawn. Despite that, the series quickly finds its footing and delivers on some honest, well-earned intensity.
From the half of the season screened, I found “Fight Night” an engaging crime series that builds on a solid foundation of style and tone, even as its greatest opponent is its own formulaic nature. It features a strong ensemble, with Hart and Jackson at the height of their talents, and an entertaining narrative that leaves you wanting to see how this dramatized look on a moment in Black history unfolds. Hopefully, by the time the remaining episodes air, the VFX team will do something about the horrendous wigs; they make the whole thing look like something straight out of “Drunk History.”
First three episodes screened for review. Episodes are streaming on Peacock.