The Greatest Review: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5)
The Greatest has a star-making lead, great fight scenes, and a strong family drama at its core. It is also heavy-handed and plays it too safe for a life this famous.
Rating: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5)
Genre: Biographical Sports Drama
Language: English
Creator: Ben Watkins
Cast: Jaalen Best, Omari Hardwick, Dana Gourrier, Kai Parham, Amin Joseph, Michael Ealy
Episodes: 8
Playing Muhammad Ali is a scary job for any actor. Every move and every word of the man has been copied for decades. Prime Video gave that job to Jaalen Best, a young actor few people knew, and The Greatest is built on that big bet. The eight-episode series starts streaming today, 4 November.
Creator Ben Watkins, who also made Cross for Amazon, starts the story in 1960. Cassius Clay wins Olympic gold in Rome and returns home to Louisville with a huge dream. He wants to become the youngest heavyweight champion ever. His father, played by Omari Hardwick, has his own ideas about who should train him.
His mother, Odessa, played by Dana Gourrier, thinks he is too young to fight grown men. Cassius goes pro anyway, but finding the right team is not easy. His loose, showy style goes against old boxing rules, and the story waits for the right man to let Clay be Clay. That man turns out to be trainer Angelo Dundee, played by Giovanni Ribisi.
The season builds toward his first title shot against the feared Sonny Liston. Along the way, Cassius grows closer to the Nation of Islam and to Malcolm X, played by Michael Ealy. Watkins also spends real time on Liston, played by Amin Joseph, which gives the story a second heart.
The best thing here is Best. He moves Cassius from a soft-spoken Kentucky boy to the loud, poetry-spouting showman the world remembers. Yet he also shows the quiet man at the dinner table or in a prayer hall. His bodywork is even better.
He copies the famous poses and the fancy footwork, and the fight scenes look as good as any boxing drama on TV. If you compare them with real footage of the Liston fight, they line up well.
The supporting cast is strong too. Hardwick plays Cassius Sr. as a loud, hurt, and jealous man stuck between old failures and his son’s rise. Joseph makes Liston fierce in the ring and sad outside it. One talk show scene, where Liston tries a joke to seem friendly, is a real highlight. Some actors look much older than the real people they play. It feels odd at first, but it works as the series goes on.
Now for the problems. The Greatest is made with the support of the Ali estate, and it shows. It loves its hero and rarely looks at him with a hard eye. The show also hits its points with very little subtlety. Repeated shots of Whites Only signs are a good example. A modern music score clashes with the old-time look, and the women in the story feel like types more than real people.
Cassius’s brother Rudy is also reduced to a loyal sidekick. Even the famous tale about the gold medal in the river is told as fact, though many believe it was made up. Some critics also ask why we need this story again, since Ali’s life has been told in books, films, and a long documentary.
Still, the show works best as a family drama, and the slow pace suits a man who took years to become a legend. It leaves you wanting a second season.
If you are building a watchlist, read our The Greatest release date guide for everything about the series. For a very different kind of legend, our Bass X Machina review covers an animated steampunk western. And if you want something light after all the punches, our Stick Season 2 review is a warm and easy pick.
The Greatest is not a perfect fight, but Jaalen Best wins it on points.
The Greatest is now streaming on Prime Video.