Genre: Documentary
Number of episodes: 7
Year: 2020
Starring: Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin, Bhagavan Antle, Jeff Lowe, Howard Baskin, John Finlay, Rick Kirkman, John Reinke
Description: A rivalry between big cat eccentrics takes a dark turn when Joe Exotic, a controversial animal park boss, is caught in a murder-for-hire plot.
Review: Don’t expect an informative series about the dark world of exotic animal trading. “Tiger King” is the hit documentary series now streaming on Netflix, with crazy individuals and surprising plot twists.
“Tiger King” follows an ongoing feud between eccentric zoo keepers in the South of the US. Joe Exotic breads tigers and animal rights activist Carole Baskin wants to stop him. The taunted Joe Exotic has to find a way to end her actions.
Joe Exotic is a ‘character’ that any TV creator would dream of, so the words are from a local presenter. Blech blond hair with a mullet, glittery cowboy outfits, emotional, gunslinging and openly gay. This last must have not been too easy in conservative Oklahoma. And he is the owner of a zoo which mainly has big cats, that he breads himself and he cuddles with them a lot.
His opponent Carole Baskin is, at first sight, a bit more conventional: a cat lady wearing cat prints and working hard for her cause. But when you look closer, Carole isn’t that different from Joe. She claims to be an animal rights activist, be she also keeps her big cats in cages and makes money of visitors. All the staff works there voluntarily and doesn’t get paid. And she has her own dark little secret, since Carole’s rich, adulteress husband has been missing for years.
Joe and Carole could have filled this documentary series easily. But directors Rebecca Chaiklin and John Goode managed to find even more eccentric cat lovers and they form the ‘supporting cast’. Most of them have a criminal record and a drug addiction. And they all start out as lovers of lions and tigers, but eventually exploit their animals for money, sex and love. One uses baby tigers to lure pretty women in Las Vegas and another uses them to lead his cult-like life with his harem. We even see one moment were a tigress is giving birth to cubs and as soon as the cub is born, its taken from the mother and shown to the public. And not only the animals are exploited, the people that work for them as well. Who is the bad guy in this scenario? Well, they all are. All the zookeepers and even the so-called animal rights activist use their animals as a form of entertainment without thinking about their well-being.
The series gets a strange twist, when Joe is caught up in a murder-for-hire plot. And it almost seems like a bad written script created by someone who was drunk. That makes this series even more crazy.
This is not a balanced, informative documentary about the dark trades in felines. This is not a balanced, informative documentary about the dark trade in felines. “Tiger King” first wants to amuse with spectacle, crazy individuals and strange plot twists. And it’s a silly, weird and startling series.
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