Shaye Obgonna’s limited series Fright Night: The Million Dollar Heist is adapted from a 2020 podcast by the same. This fictional account of a factual event takes poetic license here and there, but the bones of this project largely hew to the straight and narrow.
We’ve seen quasi-thrillers before that verge on black comedy. Fight Night crosses the line and doesn’t shy away from providing the viewer the occasional guilty gasp: Did that just happen?
The gist of the story: The boxer Muhammad Ali hasn’t been in the ring in three years due to his stance on serving in Vietnam. It’s October of 1970. Ali has been invited to Atlanta to attempt a comeback.
On the evening of the fight, there’s a party, and along with an assortment of other guests, a fearsome group of mob bosses from major cities around the country have been invited. But there’s a fly in the ointment: A mixed bag of thieves intent on a quick payday hold up the guests – including the underworld d figures. Left holding the bag is the party’s host, known as Chicken Man, an incompetent loser if ever there were one. And Chicken Man is clueless.
This series is made up of an incomparable cast led by Kevin Hart as the bumbling Chicken Man, Taraji P. Henson as Chicken Man’s mistress, Don Cheadle as the tenacious detective tasked with solving the crime, and Samuel L. Jackson as the menacing numero uno mob boss.
Why watch? Several reasons. Kevin Hart gives the series a healthy dose of heart as well as much-needed comic relief. Don Cheadle is well cast as the beleaguered lawman trying to make sense of it all – even as he babysits Chicken Man. Samuel L. Jackson is at his very best here portraying a gangster you definitely wouldn’t want to cross.
Stream Fight Night on Peacock.