I don't think I've ever known true chaos before this. I have no idea how to start this review, but since they say a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll start with a gif of how I felt instead. Tiger King is like nothing you have ever seen before. The documentary focuses on the dark world of privately-owned zoos, more specifically into the wild (no pun intended) personalities of big cat owners themselves. There's a lot of them out there, but none of them is like Joe Exotic. He has a bleached mullet, totes around guns, self-proclaimed redneck, and oh - did I mention Joe's a gay polygamist too? Apparently owning big cats and having private zoos is big business and attracts many to its game - ranging from conmen wanting to cash in and former drug kingpins to name a few. Things turn crazy when Carole Baskin, owner of a rival big cat sanctuary, wants to shut down Exotic's private zoo and will do anything to do so. This starts a bitter war between Baskin and Exotic that involves lots of name-calling and taunting, protesting each other's businesses, and even a few lawsuits. It all comes to a head when Exotic gets arrested for a murder-for-hire plot against Baskin. This begs the questions of who's more dangerous - a big cat or the person who owns one? Not once did this show stop delivering. You would think at one point the crazy would eventually die down, but it never does. I mean, there's literally FIVE crimes explored here. Every episode was like watching a car crash in slow motion - you want to look away, but you just can't. Learning that this documentary came to be because there's an underbelly of exotic animal breeding and trading in America is actually the most underwhelming thing about this series. Goode and Chaiklin prove that you don't need Hollywood magic or an insane budget to make something truly captivating. They let the cast and kooky characters speak for themselves (or capturing their insane actions on camera). Whether it was intentional or by accident, Goode and Chaiklin created the perfect case study. You could go on forever trying to break down the concepts of morality, people's actions and intentions, and how music montages make everything better. This is one of those rare shows that you genuinely have to fight yourself from binging it straight. I told myself I was going to space this out and take my time with it... Yeah, I finished it in one day.
Not sure when I will ever get "I Saw a Tiger" out of my head, but it's not today!
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