# Tiger King - new series on Netflix **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, netflix\ **Created:** [March 21, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966 "2020-03-21T16:57:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/61 "2020-04-02T22:16:31Z")
i havent seen the show its self but is the “big cat rescue” lady the same one who had a longish running show with that name on discovery/animal planet ? if I remember correctly it ended because of some personal weirdness with how the lady did things … ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/62 "2020-04-02T23:42:12Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > And guess who’s got COVID. > > [‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic Under Coronavirus Quarantine in Fort Worth – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth](https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/tiger-king-joe-exotic-transferred-to-fort-worth-federal-medical-center/2343424/) The article just says he’s in quarantine, not that he has it. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/63 "2020-04-03T06:28:51Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I will grant Carole Baskin is a piece of work too, and was after him, but it’s rather clear she had no effect on the popularity of GW Zoo. People were still going to pet the tigers. He could have kept making money from it and just ignored her, but he was an immature idiot. There are few things more firmly indicative of a person’s emotional maturity than their ability to avoid pointless feuds. I don’t disagree with anything you said, except possibly this. My understanding was that Joe made a good bit of money taking the tiger cubs on his mall tours around the midwest, but Carole Baskin’s group put the stop to that by putting pressure on the malls to stop it. Probably cost Joe a good bit of money and he had to replace that money by selling cubs illegally, illegally killing the tigers who got too old to be useful, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/64 "2020-04-03T14:26:31Z")
I don’t understand how this was made. Were they in the middle of filming a documentary when Joe went to jail? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/65 "2020-04-03T14:33:50Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > I don’t understand how this was made. Were they in the middle of filming a documentary when Joe went to jail? Yes, pretty much. That is my understanding, anyway. As I posted above, this film-maker is not first on the scene for Joe Exotic. Louis Theroux was there almost a decade ago and others have been there to conduct interviews. One guy has been there for years for a podcast/radio interview and he answered questions online. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/66 "2020-04-03T14:37:46Z")
> [@melondeca](#): > > Did anyone else get pedophile vibes from Doc Antle? Some of his wives/employees said they had been there for years, but didn’t look old enough to have been legal adults when they started “working” for him. We could open up the “pedo vs. hebe” debate here, but in lieu of doing that I think he didn’t target girls who were THAT young…they seemed to be in the 16-19 range to me. > [@Ashtura](#): > > I don’t understand how this was made. Were they in the middle of filming a documentary when Joe went to jail? I believe so. I think it started to be about Joe Exotic and his zoo, then the lawsuits and the jail and such happened and they just kept rolling (the cameras that is…) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/67 "2020-04-03T15:12:42Z")
> [@melondeca](#): > > Did anyone else get pedophile vibes from Doc Antle? Some of his wives/employees said they had been there for years, but didn’t look old enough to have been legal adults when they started “working” for him. This is Doc Antle’s rebuttal in People magazine if you believe him: > [@](#): > > “I’m a single guy. My wife died 25 years ago, the mother of my son and daughter, my youngest ones, and I’ve never been married since. I have girlfriends, I’m a single guy. This massive judgmentalness [sic] of somehow I’m not supposed to have girlfriends or something is just off my rocker here with how they got to this point,” he said. “They are just looking for something to be outrageous. The girls that they are showing throughout the facility … these are the girls that are the wives of staff who live here, these are my grandchildren, these are my grandchildren’s fiancés, this are my son’s fiancée, this is a variety of ladies who devote their time here that are part of a team. The team is half men. Did you see any men in the series? They cut them all out to make it appear that this is a girl place.” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/68 "2020-04-03T15:18:06Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > I believe so. I think it started to be about Joe Exotic and his zoo, then the lawsuits and the jail and such happened and they just kept rolling (the cameras that is…) I think it was a documentary about the big cat world in general. Doc Antle claims that over a two and a half year period he met with the filmmakers for days at a time. He thought the documentary was about his conservation efforts. He didn’t give any interviews specifically about Joe and Carole. You’ll notice in the series most of his quotes seemed to be off the cuff and in moments he may have thought were off the record. Once the Joe/Carole drama played out they realized what the narrative was going to be. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/69 "2020-04-03T15:20:28Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I don’t get it. > > So, because of all this publicity there’s a push to get Trump to pardon the guy (why?), the sheriff to re-open the case, plus get a new investigation as to what happened to husband #2. > > Now? Do we need these officials to get involved in this side show _now_??? I don’t know if it’s a push to get him pardoned. Joe himself is asking to get pardoned as well as suing a bunch of people. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/70 "2020-04-03T15:27:10Z")
Of course he is. He’s the sort of guy who’s going to file a million lawsuits until some just slaps a ‘vexatious’ label on him and he’s forced to calm down. Dear lord, this thing is a train wreck. There’s not a single sympathetic main character in this. It’s a documentary filled with villains. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/71 "2020-04-03T16:01:28Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Of course he is. He’s the sort of guy who’s going to file a million lawsuits until some just slaps a ‘vexatious’ label on him and he’s forced to calm down. > > Dear lord, this thing is a train wreck. There’s not a single sympathetic main character in this. It’s a documentary filled with villains. Agreed. However you do get the sense that deep down, and I really mean deep, deep down that Joe is a decent guy. But then you see the approximately 1 million terrible, awful things that he does and you don’t think so. But then you do. I have no doubt that Joe tried to pay someone to have Carole Baskin killed, but the show leaves you with a sense of unfairness. As you said, everyone in the show was a total piece of shit, but the government laser-focused on Joe because of his antics. How many serious felonies or other bad acts did it ignore or plea bargain away just to get at Joe? And I have real problems with a justice system in which the government uses the types of witnesses they used against Joe and says with a straight face that you can believe them. And that aside about adding the tiger-killing charges to the murder for hire to get a jury conviction was spot on and terribly prejudicial. I have owned dogs my whole life and enjoy them, but juries and judges have lost their mind. I say only partially joking that you have a better chance in court if you are accused of child abuse than you are of cruelty to an animal. People have lost their minds over that stuff and it was terribly prejudicial in his trial. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/72 "2020-04-03T16:18:08Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > I say only partially joking that you have a better chance in court if you are accused of child abuse than you are of cruelty to an animal. People have lost their minds over that stuff and it was terribly prejudicial in his trial. Don’t F\*ck with Cats on the Internet. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/73 "2020-04-03T16:36:53Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Dear lord, this thing is a train wreck. There’s not a single sympathetic main character in this. It’s a documentary filled with villains. Depends on how you define main. I think at the end the three employees Saff, Reinke and Cowley genuinely cared for the animals. I am also leery because I know how editing can completely change the perception of a person. An offhand remark in an hours long interview can give you a false impression when it’s isolated. String a few of those together taken out of context over multiple interviews you can make them a villain, hero or sympathetic. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/74 "2020-04-03T23:56:35Z")
It’s such a trainwreck that one of the most likeable people was the basis for Scarface. He was one of the most sane, rational, reasonable person on there and we know he actually did horrifying things. (My actual favorite person was the lady in Iowa who escaped the Antle cult.) ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/75 "2020-04-04T00:02:26Z")
The double amputee was pretty sympathetic. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/76 "2020-04-04T00:05:23Z")
My wife and I still can’t understand why there is this cult-like atmosphere in these zoos. I understand that Joe was plying his workers/boyfriends with meth to get them to stay, but why the thing in Myrtle Beach? Why are women coming in to work at slave wages, prohibited from leaving, expected to sleep with the boss, etc. to get a chance to work around tigers? Yes, it is a cult, but usually with cults there is the promise of greater rewards in the afterlife. This is just working with fucking tigers. Why the obsession? Is it some sexual thing? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/77 "2020-04-04T00:13:09Z")
Myrtle beach guy says they only showed a few people and there are other women there who are there because they are married to guys who work there. That’s his explanation. ---
**Author:** ![planetcory](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/planetcory/32/1032_2.png) [@planetcory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planetcory)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/78 "2020-04-04T00:15:47Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > My wife and I still can’t understand why there is this cult-like atmosphere in these zoos. I understand that Joe was plying his workers/boyfriends with meth to get them to stay, but why the thing in Myrtle Beach? Why are women coming in to work at slave wages, prohibited from leaving, expected to sleep with the boss, etc. to get a chance to work around tigers? > > Yes, it is a cult, but usually with cults there is the promise of greater rewards in the afterlife. This is just working with fucking tigers. Why the obsession? Is it some sexual thing? I got the sense that there was a spiritual element too. His upbringing was shaped by some form of Eastern mysticism. So beyond fucking with tigers (and Doc), I’m sure they anticipated a higher reward. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/79 "2020-04-04T22:30:04Z")
part 2 is on Carole Baskin and her missing husband ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966/80 "2020-04-05T01:26:35Z")
and next week they are adding another episode to this series , they are filming it now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-king-new-series-on-netflix/849966.md?page=5)