Tiger King, the 7-episode documentary series on Netflix about the now jailed big cat park owner Joe Exotic, has been debated since he debuted on the streaming service in March. Now, in the wake of its huge success, Netflix has added what appears as & apos; new episode & apos;. The Tiger King and I is a series of post-presentation interviews with people featured in the documentary, presented by Joel McHale of Community & apos;
While we appreciate Netflix's attempts to spread a story that has wowed everyone as they've been trapped inside during a global shutdown, The Tiger King and I feel thrown together and as a result not very good.
Unsurprisingly for something filmed in the past few weeks, McHale is hosting him from his couch and making video calls with key players from the series. They include zoo owner Jeff Lowe and his wife Lauren, memorable Saff Park employee and Joe Exotic's ex-husband John Finlay, who looks fantastic here after a makeover.
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These interviews are consecutive, with McHale asking mostly light-hearted but occasionally insightful questions. He receives an interesting response from Finlay on how he felt the show misrepresented him, and makes Saff share how he now trusts the tiger that attacked him more than he trusts Joe Exotic. We are paraphrasing, there, but it is a great sound.
Otherwise, this is quite light and forgettable. Big Cat Rescue owner Carole Baskin is a notable absentee, which is understandable when you read this Tampa Bay Times interview about her feelings on the show and how she represents it.
To be fair to Baskin, too, McHale gives the Lowes a chance to offer their unsubstantiated opinion on what happened to Baskin's ex-husband Don Lewis, who doesn't seem like a responsible use of his platform.
McHale's presentation style means that interviews change from silly to extremely serious without a pause. In fact, if you want a taste of the tone McHale is looking for in this episode, just watch this video promoting his Tiger King special:
We can't blame Netflix for trying to extend people's interest in Tiger King, and the fact that this special looks so cheap is not something you can have against anyone, given the limitations of TV production on this one. moment.
It's just that it all feels like a separate slapped task: McHale throws up some short questions that sound like they might have been sent to a Google document in about 10 minutes and more; notice, and the resulting program offers less information than articles like "apos; where are they now?" circulating after the success of the show (this excellent New York Times article, for example).
For years to come, viewers will remember Tiger King as the feverish dream of a documentary series we all watched together during an unprecedented global quarantine. There may be more stories to tell some of the people on this show, but Netflix's latest big hit deserves a little better than this forgettable epilogue.
- Tiger King is receiving a series of sequels, but not on Netflix