Review: The Mayhem and Madness that is “Tiger King”

Savannah King

In a time of a global pandemic where millions of people are stuck in their homes, Netflix decided to grace us with something none of us thought we needed. The “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” docu-series.

After hearing about how bizarre this series was from not just my friends but also my family and pretty much the whole internet, I decided to give it a watch. Within the first five minutes of the first episode, I was transported to a world of mullets, animal activism, polyamorous relationships and of course tigers.

The series is centered around a group of tiger owners/collectors, mainly focusing on the rise and fall of Joe Exotic. While the series does mainly follow Joe, it also takes a look at his other competitors and how they compete against one another.

While it was an interesting look into the life of Joe Exotic’s journey from running for governor and president to him ending up in prison, it also closely follows his biggest competitor Carol Baskins.

By now you have probably heard of the infamous Carol Baskins, but if you haven’t I’ll save you the spoiler on why she is. Baskins is Exotics’ biggest competitor and he does the most bizarre thing to wreck her reputation.

While his tricks and antics are funny and entertaining to watch, it is also one of the shows fatal flaws in my opinion. The series, maybe not intending to do this, made it feel like Carol was the main and only antagonist of the show.

Truth be told, no one in this series is a good person. In my opinion, they’re all attention driven, money-hungry people. The fact that Carol is seen as the only negative person in this series is upsetting.

Another flaw that I noticed was how I felt Netflix really glazed over the animal abuse in this series. There were a lot of upsetting actions that took place within the show that I felt were glossed over and not focused on.

At the end of the day, it is an exciting docu-series. This is the kind of series that will have you accidentally watch the whole thing in one sitting without you realizing. If you haven’t seen the madness and mayhem that is “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness” then I recommend you watch it. It might just take your mind off the madness and mayhem going on in the world right now.