'Mike's' knockout performance doesn't pack enough new punch to go the distance

Mike Tyson's story hardly suffers from a lack of media exposure, so an effort to create a new limited series around the former heavyweight champ entered the ring facing a high bar. Despite a knockout performance by Trevante Rhodes, "Mike" doesn't consistently clear it, offering an episodic, occasionally too-irreverent tone in seeking to portray not just the boxer but those who passed through his orbit.

Created by Steven Rogers ("I, Tonya"), "Mike" represents an unauthorized depiction of Tyson's life that has drawn the ire of the man himself, culling from not only upon the reported record but Tyson's one-man biographical show, "Undisputed Truth," using Rhodes replicating that material as a kind of interstitial glue to hold the production together.

The device proves a little too meta for its own good, creating an uneven drama that even with Rhodes' impressive footwork at best delivers a split decision.