YOU HAVE TO WATCH ‘TIGER KING’: IT’S INSANE
If Netflix’s docuseries on the underworld of big cat breeding were a work of fiction, you wouldn’t believe it, writes
Murder, madness and mayhem. Seldom has a phrase so accurately encapsulated the events of a documentary. If you’ve not heard about or seen it yet, the new Netflix docuseries, Tiger King, is arguably the best coronavirus distraction anybody could have come up with.
Ostensibly the show documents the wacky life of tiger breeder Joe Exotic, the embodiment of redneck flamboyance, and his descent from mildly successful tiger salesman to US presidential candidate to prison inmate. Along the way it ropes in the insane cast of characters orbiting his life, including an arch nemesis who probably fed her then-husband to her own ambush of tigers, a mentor whose own life is verging on a tiger cult, and a gaggle of Joe Exotic’s meth-addicted husbands, who may or may not be gay. Trying to make out what’s going on in the show is an exercise in hillbilly astrophysics but, good God, it’s entertaining.
It starts out relatively innocuously with the show introducing Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin (the nemesis) and Doc Antle (the mentor). Each of them owns a bizarrely high number of tigers and other big cats.
Joe Exotic, who’s usually seen sporting a mullet and sequined shirt, runs the GW
Zoo, an open-air menagerie where people can interact with tigers, lions and other apex predators. Relying on a bunch of excons, drug addicts and a toothless husband who looks like he has meths with his corn flakes, Exotic operates the zoo with all the flair of a redneck Liberace with a drug problem.
Fighting to bring his operation down is Baskin, a lady more cooked than a burnt steak. On the surface she’s an activist hoping to topple the big cat trade in the US but it very quickly becomes apparent that she’s a tiger-striped rose by another name.
The feud between Baskin and Exotic is spectacular, with murder threats and accusations par for the course in their general interactions.
In short, someone gets an arm ripped off, husbands go missing, condom wrappers get printed with Exotic’s face on them, a con man gets involved and everybody snitches. Oh, and everyone owns at least 10 tigers.
Tiger King is the kind of show that would have failed as a work of fiction because all of it is so epically unbelievable — and that’s what makes it such fun to watch. The real world sucks right now and the world of Joe Exotic is just the kind of escapism we all need. So get the popcorn out (if that’s still legal) and prepare for the wackiest examination of the human condition we’ve seen in a very long time.