Muhammad Ali was the greatest. Thankfully, this thoughtful series does him justice

The Greatest ★★★★

The champ, once again, is here. Muhammad Ali’s life is an irresistible narrative. The American boxer was a 20th century icon, the finest heavyweight boxer in history, a colossus of popular culture and a figure of contradictory wonder. He did what virtually no-one – apart from the buoyantly boastful Ali himself – imagined possible, whether that meant becoming the heavyweight champion of the world at the age of 22, or soon after publicly converting to the separatist Nation of Islam.

To make a television series about him is to wrestle with countless existing books and documentaries, plus Michael Mann’s exemplary 2001 biopic Ali, with Will Smith in the title role. Muhammad Ali, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 74, remains an industry.

The easiest way to frame his life is headlines and triumphs, and both are certainly present in The Greatest, an eight-part limited series that spans the years 1960 to 1964. But even with a time-frame that has obvious markers – it begins with 18-year-old Cassius Clay Jr, Ali’s birth name, returning from the Rome Olympics with a gold medal, and ends with him winning the heavyweight belt in Miami – the show’s defining quality is how thoughtful it is.

Created by Ben Watkins (Cross), in official collaboration with Ali’s estate, The Greatest is not afraid to dig into the circumstances and people that shaped Cassius. Some parts of his life are partitioned – this is a chaste young man – but as played by Jaalen Best, this protagonist is at the centre of a complex, interlocking web that includes family tension, the discriminatory realities of a racially segregated America and spiritual tumult. Winning comes easily in the boxing ring, but not so much outside it.

The storytelling has the time for small, telling details: the glances of strangers, favourite foods and nicknames. Cassius is a mamma’s boy, dedicated to his loving mother Odessa (Dana Gourrier). She calls him “G”, he calls her “Bird”, and both of them navigate a demanding patriarch, Cassius “Cash” Clay (Omari Hardwicke). Cash is an obvious figure for Cassius to rebel against, but the first episode takes care to show the systemic flaws that warped an aspiring artist into a simmering, often bitter, sign painter.

Even with Cassius as the compelling focus, underpinned by a fine performance by Best as a young man who takes strength from his certainty, The Greatest has time for its many surrounding characters. Cassius’s boxing nemesis, the hulking Sonny Liston (Amin Joseph), whom he beats in Miami, is first seen winning an off-the-books fight in prison. But this Liston, while remaining a brutal puncher, is softly spoken and privately vulnerable. Much of an episode is dedicated to the painful compromises Liston had to make.

Liston hears the slurs of a white media that talks down to African-American subjects. He is, like the rappers of decades later, not worthy of his success. These expectations entangle Cassius as well, especially when his rise through the ranks of contenders is paralleled by his conversion from Christian to Muslim. The Greatest understands that it is about a heroic American, but part of that mantle is about defying American convention and the ever-present racial discrimination.

As the show unfolds the training montages with coach Angelo Dundee (Giovanni Ribisi) are matched by conversations about faith and expectation with Nation of Islam lieutenant Malcolm X (Michael Ealy). Everyone wants a piece of Cassius, albeit for vastly different reasons. Cassius is not blind to this, but believes that – as ever – he can transcend any limitations.

That is a powerful bind, and it’s the kind of biographical complexity The Greatest is thankfully capable of alongside those headlines and triumphs. This impressive limited series deserves a rare accolade: make a second season.

The Greatest streams on Amazon Prime Video from November 4.

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