I know that it's adapted from the original podcast, and not from Netflix's all conquering "Tiger King" documentary, but it's still unfortunate that the documentary exists rendering this series, despite its good performances, largely unnecessary.
Carole Baskin (Kate McKinnon) owner and operator of Big Cat Rescue is campaigning against the ownership of Big cats by private owners. She targets the operations of Joe Exotic (John Cameron Mitchell) a hot tempered and charismatic zoo operator. As the feud extends to personal insults, accusations and lawsuits, Joe eventually decides on a desperate plan to rid himself of Carole once and for all.
As a person that has seen the documentary, what I can immediately say is that everyone is doing a decent impression of the real-world nutcase that they are playing. Both Carole and Joe are both such big characters impressions of them are, I'd imagine, relatively easy for skilled performers like McKinnon and Cameron Mitchell. My favourite performance then was Kyle MacLachlan, who plays Carole's husband, Howard and who receives a more prominent role than Howard has in the documentary.
The trouble is the obvious one though, I know this story as I watched it not that long ago. So, I knew when the horrible moments were coming, and conversely, what wasn't going to happen, as the show ran on. There was no genuine drama, because I know where everyone is right now. Though I do think that the "Tiger King" series has flaws, mostly to do with keeping a decent handle on the timeline, it's much more thorough than this, and, if anything the real Joe is even more extreme than his portrayal here. The CGI work on the animals, whilst an understandable choice, isn't very good.
I watched it all, it was entertaining enough - but there is a better version of this story readily available.
