It’s less fun for Tiger King when you actually think about the victims

It’s a pleasure to watch the bigger personalities of Netflix’s hugely popular documentary series The tiger king, Most are documentary topics obviously wrong, but that’s part of the reason people participated in the show. Still, there is a certain sticky feeling after watching it, and it’s hard to release that feeling.

Tiger King: Murder, Wounding and Madness premiered on Netflix on March 20 and has since been a sensation on social media. Following the titular tiger king Joe Exotics, owner of a touring zoo in Oklahoma, the series dives into the world of the big cat trade and the disgraced people in it. The tiger king it was the perfect storm of sensationalism, sweeping the nation at a time when looking at just what was far chaotic was a welcome escape.

Weeks later, all I can talk about is Joe Exotic (real name: Joe Maldonado-Passage); his nemesis Carole Baskin, who may or may not have killed her husband; zoozer Doc Antle, who recruits a young woman to work at his zoo and forces them to have sexual relations; and the intrigue of Jeff Lowe, who may or may not have placed Joe on the murder charges of hiring him.

But while the public watching Netflix is ​​focused on the show’s other acts and personalities, the documentary’s true victims – the people who worked under Joe and the animals still in captivity – didn’t have nearly as much media. In that direction, The tiger king an echo of the 2019 Fyre Fest documentaries, who took advantage of the sensationalized lies of fraudster Billy MacFarland but spent some time exploring how the Fyre Fest organizers made full use of their Bahamian employees. They offered their anecdotes, but their story was not in the spotlight. It was they who flourished to make the MacFarland fire even more beautiful.

At least in the case Fyre and Fyre fraud, And GoFundMe raised money for Maryann Rolle, the owner of MacFarland Restaurant never paid. There is no same catharsis with The tiger king, because victims cannot be financially compensated The damage done to zoo employees and people drawn into the Maldonado-Passage sphere is not monetary. Both private zoos are featured extensively in the documentary, Maldonado-Passage’s G.W. The Zoo and Dof Antle, Myrtle Beach Safari, are still running. The breeding and trading of large cats continues. It’s similar to a lot of real crime movies, like the 2019 Ted Bundy movie theater Extremely wicked, shockingly evil and wicked, focus on the glittering elements and leave a little to say about the victims. It might be fun and wild for joy, but in the end, viewers at home have the luxury of turning off television. Humans and animals didn’t really make an impact.

Image: JoeExoticTV

Documentary author Eric Goode has started The tiger king a project that will initially focus on animals, smuggling, and the dark realm of exotic wildlife, with an emphasis on reptile craft. Goode, who runs the reptile and amphibian sanctuary, had an “entrance” to the scene. The way the project looked instead of looking at a circus show seemed like an unintentional meta-commentary on Goode topics, which similarly may have started with good intentions before turning to self-restraint. An old recording of Joe Exotich saying he wants to stop breeding animals seems to imply that he used to passionate about animals, but once he tasted the glory and rag that comes with the big cat world, he wanted more. The tiger king goes the same way. His completed work is not a documentary about the pitfalls of animal exploitation, it is just about watching the alien people that surround them.

The tiger kingFinal episode the focus is temporarily on animals, on the workers at the Joe Zoo who have spent a huge part of their lives working for him. It’s emotional. As the zoo’s Erik Cowie looks through old photos and recounts how much he cared about his animal fees, but couldn’t defy Maldonado-Passage for mistreating animals, he tears up. Joe’s first husband, John Finlay, who was forced into a relationship at a young age, gets a tattoo to cover up an old man with Joe’s name, and says Joe is now “nobody” to him. Maldonado-Passage himself gives an anecdote about how he first saw two of his chimpanzees embrace, and it seems almost even now is Jesus’ moment about the way he treats animals for years. Then the credit rolls over, and the opposite of the sentimental moments of the awful Netflix promotional image for the show, which portrays Joe in the American flag position and featuring two tigers, starts to laugh. The scope of the bigger picture of who hurt all these sensational acts makes it less than an entire episode of the series, the bandage hits a shackle wound.

Enjoying the sensationalism of Tiger King in no way makes fans become bad people. It’s easy to swallow in Joe Exotic’s music videos, jokingly theorize about Baskin killing her husband, and staying in all the places in the story. Nobody defends Joe Exotich, Caroline Baskin, Doc Antle or Jeff Lowe, except they joke in their favor. If nothing else, everyone who looks at the documents seems to agree that they are all bad guys and that the big cat breeding world is toxic. But the focus is still on the dazzling names, not the humans and animals they used.

The tiger king streaming on Netflix.

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