Online Series: Tiger King (Netflix)

[Killahpunk]

Cocaine is a hell of a drug. None of the characters were likeable. Poor animals.

 

[chicagoskycam]

I thought the guy with the prosthetic legs was alright.

Anyone else pulling for the Tiger when it grabbed Joes foot ?

 

[hb12xchamps]

Don't know if anyone in here is a Pardon My Take listener, but they had Robert Moor on last week and Robert was a journalist who also spent time with Joe and Carole and did a more journalistic approach to the story. Apparently he has his own Joe Exotic podcast that dives into a lot more detail about their feud.

Starts around the 54 minute mark:

 

[Voight]

Cocaine is a hell of a drug. None of the characters were likeable. Poor animals.

I thought they were more meth guys? I.E. that was the main drug that they did (of course they did like every drug possible)

 

[Crow]

Joe’s head zoo keeper seemed like-able to me.

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

finished watching it yesterday. Was like watching a train crash in slow motion. Couldn't look away.

 

[Osprey]

I just finished it. I didn't find it that crazy, but, then again, I've seen a lot of Dateline and 20/20 episodes with crazy stories, so not much surprises me any more. In fact, this was like a super-long version of one of those, if anyone is wondering what the series is like. It's 7 episodes of about 45 minutes each and just over 5 hours in total.

It picks up in the 3rd episode, so, if you've watched only the first episode or two, it gets more interesting.

I found it to be pretty watchable in that train wreck kind of way. I wonder if it would've been even better, though, if they hadn't shown that Joe is currently in prison for a murder plot literally just a few minutes into the series. It would've been more suspenseful if, all along, we didn't know how far Joe would go.

I feel bad for Lauren Lowe's baby. Jeff is probably going to sleep with the hot nanny (that was disturbing), lose interest in Lauren if she doesn't "hit the gym" (and probably regardless) and then wind up in jail eventually. That kid is likely going to grow up without much of a father.

Edit: This is a small nitpick, but the series is Tiger King, not The Tiger King.

 

[RandV]

I don't think it's ever made clear when that happened. But I also don't think it matters.

Assuming Carole altered the wills (which is also not proven but I'll go along with it), I don't think Carole needs to know or care if or how Don died. State law mandated that a person missing for more than 5 years can be declared legally dead and that's what happened here.

I'm watching it now and just finished that episode. They broke into the office like the day before the husband went missing. And in the 'will' she produced later the husband allegedly wrote 'in the case of my disappearance'. Not death, not passing, but "disappearance". The 5 years she had to wait was because despite the wording you can only collect on a will when the person is legally dead, and the requirement for a missing person to be pronounced legally did was a 5 year wait period.

Also not not knowing the story before hand that was quite the bait & switch the show pulled the bomb the episode before 'and her husband disappeared and we all think she fed him to the tigers', and they coincidentally stopped showing her current big eared husband for the rest of the episode

 

[bleedblue1223]

Watched it with the wife, and I just don't understand the point of it. It just feels like another trash reality show, but Netflix just drags everything out to feel really long instead of just embracing it being trash. I really don't understand why this is that popular. If it wasn't for the wife, I wouldn't have finished it.

They are all garbage people, and all the animals in this are screwed. Wish there was more of a Blackfish element to it.

 

[Mario_is_BACK!!]

I feel bad for Lauren Lowe's unborn baby. Jeff is going to sleep with the nanny (boy, that was creepy), lose interest in Lauren if she doesn't "hit the gym" (and probably regardless) and then wind up in jail eventually. That kid is likely going to grow up without a father.

I don't disagree with your general statement one bit, however I've seen that they're still together and going strong. And she's "hit the gym." It's not great! It could be worse, but it's not great!

 

[Osprey]

I don't disagree with your general statement one bit, however I've seen that they're still together and going strong. And she's "hit the gym." It's not great! It could be worse, but it's not great!

I'm not surprised that they're still together. It's been less than a year and he's smarter than to leave her and a newborn while the series is new and he's about to open a brand new zoo. Whether he'll still be around in a few years, after the attention has died down and he's grown restless, is what I'm wondering about.

Speaking of the "nanny," I just discovered this: Jeff Lowe’s Nanny: ‘I Got Paid’ To Pretend

Maybe it was just a joke and a PR stunt to say that he was going to hire a hot nanny. Even if it was, though, it still strikes me as a bit of a red flag, considering his past.

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

I'm not surprised that they're still together. It's been less than a year and he's smarter than to leave her and a newborn while the series is new and he's about to open a brand new zoo. Whether he'll still be around in a few years (and that includes not being in jail) is what I'm wondering about.

Speaking of the "nanny," I just discovered this: Jeff Lowe’s Nanny: ‘I Got Paid’ To Pretend

Maybe it was just a joke and a PR stunt to say that he was going to hire a hot nanny. Even if it was, though, it still strikes me as a bit of a red flag, considering his past.

Lowe's a textbook narcissist and I can almost guarantee he will not be a stable father figure in that poor kid's life.

 

[hb12xchamps]

Watched it with the wife, and I just don't understand the point of it. It just feels like another trash reality show, but Netflix just drags everything out to feel really long instead of just embracing it being trash. I really don't understand why this is that popular. If it wasn't for the wife, I wouldn't have finished it.

They are all garbage people, and all the animals are in this are screwed. Wish there was more of a Blackfish element to it.

The creators of the Documentary said from the very first episode that they pretty much fell into this story. They mention how they were actually investigating an illegal (I think) reptile dealer in Florida when they stumbled upon the Leopard in the van. It's implied that seeing the Leopard sparked them to investigate the big cat breeding/selling game. From there I'd assume that they met half these people (Joe, Doc, Carole, etc.0, realized they are pretty insane, and realized their story was too good not to tell.

 

[Osprey]

I'm no fan of Joe, and he deserves his charges, but I think that his defenders do have a point about him being set up. Jeff wanted the zoo and Joe out of the way, so I think that he nurtured the murder idea (that Joe already had) and offered up his trusted pal, Allen, to do it for him. Jeff appeared to have nothing against Carole and he certainly didn't need the money, since he had more than Joe. Allen couldn't have really needed the money, either, since he had steady employment from Jeff. They both just acted like they were interested to incriminate Joe. Jeff probably told Allen to go to Florida and have some fun for a few days, which is why all that Allen did was party there. He didn't "chicken out." No tough guy with a teardrop tattoo would admit that with cameras rolling unless it was part of selling a story. He had no intention of killing Carole. That does raise the question of why he didn't just admit that, but I guess that incriminating Joe was more important to him than denying his own involvement, or more important to Jeff, who was probably the one telling him to say that he "chickened out" because he didn't really care if Allen got himself in hot water just as long as Joe went down. Anyways, none of this excuses Joe, but it does seem to me that he got played by Jeff (and Allen).

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

I'm no fan of Joe, and he deserves his charges, but I think that his defenders do have a point about him being set up. Jeff wanted the zoo and Joe out of the way, so he nurtured the murder idea (that Joe already had) and offered up his trusted pal, Allen, to do it for him. Jeff appeared to have nothing against Carole and he and Allen certainly didn't need the money (in Allen's case, employment by Jeff was worth more). They just acted like they were interested to incriminate Joe. After initial payment, Jeff likely told Allen to go to Florida and just have some fun, which is why all that he did was party. He didn't "chicken out." No tough guy with a teardrop tattoo would admit that with cameras rolling unless it was part of selling a story. He had no intention of killing Carole. That does raise the question of why he didn't just admit that, but I guess that incriminating Joe was more important to him than denying his own involvement, or more important to Jeff, who was probably the one telling him to say that he "chickened out" because he didn't really care if Allen was arrested just as long as Joe was. Anyways, none of this excuses Joe, but it does seem to me that he got played by Jeff (and Allen).

Well said. Furthermore, Allen's loyalty was to Jeff (who got him the job in the first place) and he admittedly hated Joe . So the idea that Joe could've arranged for Allen to carry out a contract killing without Jeff's involvement is pretty ludicrous.

 

[Huggy43]

I don’t even know where to begin.

Florida, man....

 

[CreamOfTheCrop]

I don’t even know where to begin.

Florida, man....

Most likely Oklahoma base.

 

[Deadpool8812]

Guess what, motherf***er?

When started to watch this about 2 weeks ago, I went to his YouTube page. I noticed I Saw a Tiger had about 500k views, and Here Kitty Kitty had about 800k. Just checking it now: 2.3m & 4m.

The power of Netflix

 

[hb12xchamps]

Anyone else also think that the Feds made the trial less than fair as well? Everyone admitted how they were pressured and I think the head zookeeper said he was told, "It's either Joe's side or the government's side." To me that's a pretty threatening statement and made everyone turn on Joe.

Regardless, he should still be in jail for the animal charges. He still shot and killed multiple big cats that didn't need to be shot and killed.

 

[bleedblue1223]

The creators of the Documentary said from the very first episode that they pretty much fell into this story. They mention how they were actually investigating an illegal (I think) reptile dealer in Florida when they stumbled upon the Leopard in the van. It's implied that seeing the Leopard sparked them to investigate the big cat breeding/selling game. From there I'd assume that they met half these people (Joe, Doc, Carole, etc.0, realized they are pretty insane, and realized their story was too good not to tell.

Sure, I get that they fell into the story, but they really didn't highlight any animal abuse until the last 10-15ish minutes of the last episode, so I wouldn't say that was a focus of the documentary. It was essentially just a trash reality show, and how much of it can we really believe to be 100% accurate? They really didn't even go that much into the breeding/selling side of it. I was just disappointed that there wasn't more time spent on the abuse of the animals.

All it would've taken was 1 full episode going all in on the abuse and lack of expertise/training of the people handling the animals to make a big push to shut this stuff down like Blackfish did in the Orca world.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Anyone else also think that the Feds made the trial less than fair as well? Everyone admitted how they were pressured and I think the head zookeeper said he was told, "It's either Joe's side or the government's side." To me that's a pretty threatening statement and made everyone turn on Joe.

Regardless, he should still be in jail for the animal charges. He still shot and killed multiple big cats that didn't need to be shot and killed.

Eh, I think that's just how the filmmakers made it seem. Reinke and Cowie said he deserved to be in jail. The murder for hire plot might have been a 50/50, but he definitely wasn't innocent in it either. I'm sure prosecutor's play like that to get people to testify on one side or the other.

 

[hb12xchamps]

Sure, I get that they fell into the story, but they really didn't highlight any animal abuse until the last 10-15ish minutes of the last episode, so I wouldn't say that was a focus of the documentary. It was essentially just a trash reality show, and how much of it can we really believe to be 100% accurate? They really didn't even go that much into the breeding/selling side of it. I was just disappointed that there wasn't more time spent on the abuse of the animals.

All it would've taken was 1 full episode going all in on the abuse and lack of expertise/training of the people handling the animals to make a big push to shut this stuff down like Blackfish did in the Orca world.

It wasn’t the focus of the documentary and it wasn’t set up like Blackfish on purpose. Clearly the focus was the crazy ass people in the Exotic Pet/Big Cat Game.

There also is a lot more to the story that they couldn’t jam into 7 episodes and there already are rumblings of a part 2 coming out since there’s more story to tell. I’d assume they get more into the breeding game and the allegations against the Big Cat owners in the part 2 after the ending of part 1 has Joe throwing everyone under the bus.

 

[bleedblue1223]

It wasn’t the focus of the documentary and it wasn’t set up like Blackfish on purpose. Clearly the focus was the crazy ass people in the Exotic Pet/Big Cat Game.

There also is a lot more to the story that they couldn’t jam into 7 episodes and there already are rumblings of a part 2 coming out since there’s more story to tell. I’d assume they get more into the breeding game and the allegations against the Big Cat owners in the part 2 after the ending of part 1 has Joe throwing everyone under the bus.

That's my point. It's just trash tv where every episode ends with the next episode supposed to be more crazier than the last. It makes me question how much of the buildup is just for show and what's actually accurate and not just tv tricks. I'm saying it would've been better and more beneficial if they shown more of the animal abuse that I'm sure they have record of.

The people at the end of the last episode said that Joe last his way and that they should've been about the animals. I'm saying the same thing about the filmmaker. Eric Goode is just a Rick Kirkham, who himself regretted the whole thing because he had to make Joe look good for his show. While Goode didn't exactly make Joe look good, he didn't even come close to showing how bad he is, and he made him sort of a sympathetic character with the murder for hire setup.

 

[TD Charlie]

The creators of the Documentary said from the very first episode that they pretty much fell into this story. They mention how they were actually investigating an illegal (I think) reptile dealer in Florida when they stumbled upon the Leopard in the van. It's implied that seeing the Leopard sparked them to investigate the big cat breeding/selling game. From there I'd assume that they met half these people (Joe, Doc, Carole, etc.0, realized they are pretty insane, and realized their story was too good not to tell.

to me, that’s the best part lol. This whole thing was one absurdly happy accident

 

[JetsWillFly4Ever]

That's my point. It's just trash tv where every episode ends with the next episode supposed to be more crazier than the last. It makes me question how much of the buildup is just for show and what's actually accurate and not just tv tricks. I'm saying it would've been better and more beneficial if they shown more of the animal abuse that I'm sure they have record of.

The people at the end of the last episode said that Joe last his way and that they should've been about the animals. I'm saying the same thing about the filmmaker. Eric Goode is just a Rick Kirkham, who himself regretted the whole thing because he had to make Joe look good for his show. While Goode didn't exactly make Joe look good, he didn't even come close to showing how bad he is, and he made him sort of a sympathetic character with the murder for hire setup.

The show isn't meant to be Blackfish though. You would have to make it a completely different show, and while it would probably be better morally to make it a criticism of the big cat industry, it would make it a lot less entertaining and sell less. I think they showed the animals weren't being treated right. Hell neither were the humans, they all ate old meat from Walmart and the workers were paid $100 a week, doing meth and working 12 hour days.

Nobody should have came out of that thinking anything going on there was a good thing.