In Louis we trust. But Netflix? Not so much
Shooting Joe Exotic BBC2
Louis Theroux must be a bit miffed. A decade ago he met the now infamous Joe Exotic and a host of similar reprobates who put together often cruel and always tacky roadside zoos.
His was a fine documentary but it was blown away last year by streaming behemoth Netflix. They gave Joe – and the assorted characters in his life – the full Making A Murderer treatment in last year’s fortuitously timed lockdown hit Tiger King. Joe, now languishing in prison where he’s serving 22 years for hiring a hitman to kill an animal rights activist, invited Louis for a catch-up following Tiger King and he duly obliged.
It’s great catching up with old friends, isn’t it? Louis’s documentary looked at the reaction to Tiger King, which was as bizarre as the story itself.
Support for Joe flooded in from around the world and even then-president Donald Trump weighed in and considered pardoning Joe. He became a cause celebre while his rival, Carol Baskin, who merely seemed only guilty of being a bit odd, became a hate figure, and received murder and rape threats.
Was this a consideration of those who made Tiger King?
The long cast of people these true crime series delight in pointing the finger at would be a fascinating focus of a future documentary. Ideally by Louis rather than Netflix.