Tiger King – Joe Exotic Documentary on Netflix
I have had numerous friends recommend me watching this show Called Tiger King on Netflix. When I first heard of it, I wasn’t too thrilled about the premise of the show. Being stuck at home and having nothing to do changed my mind and decided to give the show a watch, and what a popcorn eating adventure has it been. I have watched 3 Episodes so far and it has been an interesting experience.
Joe Exotic (The Tiger King)
Joe Exotic is a big cat lover, gun-toting paranoid, and cannot stand Carole at all. He owned 1200 tigers, lions, and monkeys. This is guys is a seriously interesting and entertaining character. He has a very colorful mullet, has a beaten down crew that is very much loyal to him as he gave them a second chance at life. He is very charismatic, and seems quite business savvy. He ran these animal shows throughout malls in America where people could come in and pet these big cats, and would make money by charging people for it. Who wouldn’t want to take pictures with cute tiber or lion cubs?
One of the things that really stunned me was when one of this co-workers got her arm torn off by one of the big cats. She was admitted to the hospital, and there was a very memorable clip where he thinks out loud “This is going to financially ruin me, and I would never recover from this”. This individual who got her arm torn off, elected to have her arm amputated and return to work rather than go through 2-year reconstructive surgery. The loyalty he has cultivated among these individuals is incredible.
Further, the employee wages are so low that these guys get their primary food for themselves from the meat donated from local groceries consisting of expired food for the big cats.
Carole Baskins & Murder Conspiracy Theories
The head of Big Cats rescue and ex-breeder of big cats. She is an expert at running private zoo of Big Cats and getting people to donate to her cause of rescuing Big Cats. One of the most chilling things alluded in the episodes is that she may have “allegedly” murdered her 2nd husband and probably fed him to her big cats. When you look at the narrative of the episode 3, it seems almost believable. The secretary of her husband tells us how he was going to divorce Carole and also attempted to get a restraining order against her as feared for his life.
Bhagavan “Doc”
The sophisticated version of Joe Exotic. One of the defining features of this gentleman in the show is that his zoo is sort of “cult” and he has multiple wives/girlfriends.