NETFLIX’S ‘TIGER KING’ CAPTURES AUDIENCES

To watch Netflix’s newest documentary binge hit, “Tiger King,”is as though peering into the abyss of a swampy, humid chaos.

It’s a world of topsy-turvy able to be faithfully described only by the likes of Lewis Caroll.

To present the industry of live exotic-animal buying and showing as inherently devious and immoral is an approach that, while respectable – let’s face it – has been done a million times before.

This is evidently not the aim of Tiger King.

Though very sympathetic to the creatures’ plight in the series, the producers of Tiger King pay far more specific attention to the human characters these questionable acts are being performed by. Performed, as the main players of Tiger King’s narrative cannot possibly more flamboyantly express their values and principles in every scene of the show.

Just as tigers (the species) exude power and confidence in each step, so, too, do their captors, without a question in their minds that what they could be doing may not be the best thing for everybody involved.

Or, perhaps they do know, and they simply do not care.

Tiger King mostly follows the exploits (at times, quite literally) of two key individuals: Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, or “Joe Exotic,” and Carole Baskin – the former being a private zoo owner and animal trader, responsible for “Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park” (or G.W. Zoo), the latter an avid animal rights activist and owner of Big Cat Rescue, a rehabilitation center primarily for the care-taking of large exotic cats, such as lions, panthers, and tigers.

Though these descriptions may appear to reflect a clear moral border separating the two, a journey deeper into the series will reveal the blurrier edges that may have seemed invisible before.

Of course, as Tiger King is still very much a mass-audience targeted program, one will be sure to notice the shimmering rays of sensationalism that bounce from the screen. The show exists primarily to entertain you; make of this fact what you will.

Nevertheless, in their individual ways of expressing their love for these noble beasts, the people whose lives Tiger King documents clearly breathe their own truths, and display an outlook in which their own perspective is not only correct, but reigns over that of all others.
Should we be satisfied in a shattering of their schema? Or should we mourn the potential death of their unique outlook?

In the end, the choice lies in the lens through which you choose to enjoy Tiger King, but rest assured, the rambunctious journey to your conclusion will not be a boring one – not in the slightest.

(4/5)