Netflix's Tiger King Review: 8 Things We Learned
Netflix has delivered the goods with one of the wildest docuseries to date.
With the current situation leaving millions at home looking for entertainment, Netflix released one of the best docu-series ever to feature on the platform.
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, has topped the Netflix charts since its release and has offered viewers an unprecedented insight into the wild world of exotic animal ownership across the US.
Despite featuring several zoos, menageries, and sanctuaries, the series primarily focuses on the antics of Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage AKA Joe Exotic, the former owner of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma and details his modern-day blood feud with the owner of Big Cat Rescue, Carole Baskin.
The series culminates with Exotic's downfall, as he hands over his ownership of the park, and is ultimately indicted for murder-for-hire after attempting to solicit someone to kill Baskin.
Despite this, Joe has developed something of a cult following on social media since the release of Tiger King, and has even earned the adoration a variety of celebrities since his incarceration.
Will Joe Exotic get an early release from prison? Who knows.
But in Tiger King, Netflix has its best docuseries since the acclaimed first season of Making a Murderer.
8. There Are More Tigers In Captivity In America Then There Is In The Wild Worldwide
Though much of the focus of the series revolves around the personal lives of those documented and particularly the feud between Exotic and Baskin, it also sheds a light on the prevalence of private ownership of exotic animals in America.
A particularly poignant fact that is highlighted during the very first episode is that more tigers exist in captivity in the United States than all the tigers in the wild combined.
Populations of captive big cats have rapidly increased throughout the US thanks to the commodification of the animals that is elaborated on throughout the documentary. Baby tigers can fetch around $2000 so despite the fact that selling an endangered species in the US is illegal under federal law, breeding still takes place for the purpose of commercial gain.
Throughout the episodes, there are references to Baskin's attempts to get a bill passed through Congress that would make the unauthorised ownership of big cats illegal in the US, and prevent zoos from allowing direct contact between patrons and the animals. However, these acts have yet to be passed, and private ownership, often in unsafe conditions, remains rampant in the country.