JOE Vs CAROLE
PEACOCK/NOW, STREAMING EARLY MAR CH
It’s strange to think that Tiger King only came out two years ago – such was the impact of its cast of eccentrics, narcissists, criminals and lost souls. News of this dramatisation of the infamous feud between Joseph Allen Maldonado passage, aka Joe Exotic, and Carole Baskin broke soon after the docuseries had become a global phenomenon, and there was an immediate buzz, thanks to the involvement of Saturday Night Live and Ghostbusters star Kate Mckinnon, who plays Baskin and is also listed as an executive producer and writer. With a solid cast, including Sex And The City’s Kyle Maclachlan as her husband Howard, and John Cameron Mitchell (The Good Fight) taking on the role of Joe Exotic, all the ingredients were there for a great companion piece to the original. However, in the intervening time,
Netflix have rushed out a second docuseries – which has been met with mixed reviews – and Baskin has heavily criticised the documentary makers for speculating that she was involved in the disappearance of her second husband. Coupled with the endless memes and Joe’s failed attempt to get a pardon from Donald Trump – plus an old Louis Theroux documentary that he made about Joe being reshown – there is a danger that we may have reached saturation point with the subject matter. But, free from the constraints of the documentary format, this series really has fun with the more baroque aspects of the story, pushing the humorous elements to the fore and depicting the more surreal aspects. Carole also gets a more sympathetic treatment, while John Cameron