There are no shortage of true-crime stories in popular media. Yet “Tiger King” belongs to a genre of its own
ERIC GOODE and Rebecca Chaiklin, the directors of “Tiger King”, could not possibly have predicted that their creation would be such a hit. The docuseries has a 94% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a review-aggregator site; according to Netflix it is currently the most-watched show on the streaming service. Mr Goode is a conservationist; his past films have mainly been conventional nature documentaries.
It is not hard to see how they came to that conclusion. Just two minutes into the first episode of the series, the audience is introduced to the Tiger King himself, Joe Maldonado-Passage. “Joe Exotic”, as he prefers to be known, is a gay, gun-loving libertarian in Oklahoma with a bleached-blond mullet and a penchant for seducing young, heterosexual men.
Making ends meet at a private zoo packed with large predators is no easy feat. Mr Maldonado-Passage pulls it off by attracting visitors with his distinct form of charisma. He also cuts costs by feeding his cats expired meat from Wal-Mart. His competitors have similarly creative business plans. For instance, Kevin “Bhagavan” Antle, the proprietor of The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species , runs his park with the help of a cadre of young, female “apprentices”.
The primary source of tension in “Tiger King” comes from Mr Maldonado-Passage’s interactions with Ms Baskin. She thinks he is mistreating his animals, while Mr Maldonado-Passage is convinced his rival murdered her second husband, who disappeared without a trace . The situation escalates quickly. Mr Maldonado-Passage records a hilarious—and unexpectedly decent-sounding—insinuating that Ms Baskin fed her husband’s remains to tigers.
Thanks in part to the success of “Serial”, a podcast series about the murder of a teenager in Baltimore, there are now no shortage of true-crime stories in popular media. Yet “Tiger King” belongs to a genre of its own. At no point in the series does it feel like the directors have run out of material. Each of the seven episodes contends to be the craziest of the bunch.
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