Over the past couple of weeks while people have been confined to their homes, no other new arrival to Netflix has gotten as much media attention as the limited documentary series “Tiger King”. This series follows Oklahoman private zoo owner Joe Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic, and the murder-for-hire story that sent him to jail.
It explores the world of big cat breeding and the bitter rivalry that private zoo owners like Joe Exotic have for animal rights activists like Carole Baskin, whom he tries to kill. The main reason Joe wanted Carole to die was because she was trying to get a bill passed through Congress that would take the animals away from him.
This not only follows Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, but the employees who worked for him at the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, Joe’s husbands, and Doc Antle, another private zoo owner.
Although this sounds fairly normal at first, this story is anything but. Polygamy and politics also become intertwined with big cats and hitmen schemes, and everything makes up this bizarrely fascinating story.
I think that this series is an absolute must-watch. In the midst of all the strangeness, the watcher can feel a sense of normalcy for themselves, and especially when we live in stranger times than ever. While you’re stuck at home for the next few weeks, I think you should find the time to watch this. It is a really well-made series and you will definitely not be able to stop thinking or talking about it.
For right now, I think this is the perfect thing to watch because it will definitely get you to stop thinking about everything going on and get your mind off of anything that may be causing you stress. We live in such weird times, but Tiger King will make you ask yourself, “Is it as weird as this?”
Just for a fair warning, this series does have a lot of cussing and explores themes like suicide and animal abuse/harm, so I would go into watching this with caution if any of those are sensitive to you.
