There Are No Good Guys: My Take on Tiger King

So I just finished up Netflix's Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. It's quite the experience, a labyrinthian tale of vendettas, betrayals and big-ass exotic cats. At its center is Joe Exotic, an eccentric (that's putting it MILDLY) zoo owner and online media star who is the kind of compelling, engrossing character Hollywood couldn't create in six lifetimes. Throw treacherous shitbags who hang Joe out to dry and one of the best antagonists in a TV show or movie since Hans Gruber, and you've got seven episodes worth of drama, tigers, mullets, legal entanglements and more tigers.

Rather than writing a standard review of Tiger King, I think I'll jot down a few thoughts about this show, what it's about and what I got out of it.

Be Careful Who You Trust

The show sure makes it look like Joe chose the wrong people to bring into his fold. But it doesn't stop there. Think of all the people Joe who trusted Joe with providing them with jobs and a source of financial gain. So many of them got shafted by Joe's war with Carole Baskin (more on her later) or by him bringing in the likes of Jeff Lowe and James Garretson, two scumbags brought in to be money men for Joe's operation but who end up helping to sink him.

TLDR: If someone seems super enthusiastic to help you, be wary. They may end up shoving a long, shiny dagger in your back.

Making A Living Doing What You Love Drives You Crazy

Everyone in this show claims to be doing what they're doing career-wise out of their love for big cats. Yet the only people who get major screen time who don't seem like they're fucking bug-nuts are the reporter from the Oklahoma news outlet and the stick from PETA that Joe starts ratting people out to.

I see a connection. When doing something you love becomes how you earn, something fundamentally changes and if you're not in the right headspace, it can break you. 

How does this apply to me? Well, I love writing. I'm trying to figure out how to make a living as a writer and I struggle with depression and anxiety. If I end up with a mullet wrestling with tigers while trying to win political office, you'll know why.

There's Something Wrong With Carole Baskin.

Tiger King dedicates a whole episode to the strange circumstances surrounding the disappearance Baskin's late husband, Don. The whole time, I had what felt like a cold lead ball in the pit of my tummy. This woman may not have killed her husband, but there's total emptiness, a lack of soul behind her eyes. 

That lack of a soul makes it impossible to find credibility in anything Baskin says. It's almost as if thing shit that she's done has so shocked her, she's had to switch off her humanity just to function. I don't know if Baskin killed her husband, but if it comes to light that she did, I won't be a bit surprised.

There Are No Goods Guys, Except For The Cats

One of the first things you hear in Tiger King is about how all the people in the big cat community are enormous pieces of shit. That is an understatement if I've ever heard one. Almost every major player in this show is a narcissistic, manipulative, backstabbing slimebag. None of them seem to be in it for the love of big cats anymore. They're all just trying to be the last person standing. Not one of them is worthy of sympathy and there're all shocking devoid of self-awareness.

That's sad because something Tiger King also does is establish that big, exotic cats, regardless of size and age, are beautiful, magnificent animals and they don't deserve to be stuck in enclosures or hanging out in some rich asshole's living room. In the end, there are no good guys. In the end, everyone, especially the cats, lost.

Overall, I was a little underwhelmed by Tiger King. All the chatter online painted this show was "literally the most fucked-up story you will ever see." I didn't find it to be that. It's several shades less disturbing than, say, Abducted in Plain Sight (this show is the KING of fucked-up). It's also less thematically powerful than something like Making a Murderer. 

That said, Tiger King is still pretty fascinating and Joe Exotic is eminently watchable. You can binge the whole show in like a day and you won't be bored for a second. It's not as flat-out disturbing or crazy as it's being advertised. But you're gonna want to see it, if only so you understand all the memes.