This series is based on the same sequence of events as was used for the more-famous Netflix series ’Tiger King’ but Wondery spoils the fun by inserting ads every now and then that completely wreck the feeling of continuity you should have with a podcast. It’s hard enough while driving to stay on top of all the characters and events without dumb ads and if anything might push me away from the company’s products these obnoxious intrusions would be it..
Apart from that gripe – did I say how annoying the ads for other programs are while listening to ‘Joe Exotic’? (You see when I mean …) – Wondery’s producers tell a compelling story centred around the keeping and breeding of big cats. It’s wonderful how America storytellers are able to remove the strength from pronouns like “they” and use the resources at their disposal to paint – in vivid colours, but in auditory form – the delineations of desire that abide in that multifarious country in North America.
Do not read the Wikipedia page about the Netflix series as it contains spoilers (you don’t want to know what happens to Joe Schreibvogel – aka Joe Exotic the “Tiger King”) but Wondery’s story is not only focused on one person. There’s also Joe’s nemesis – one Carole Baskin – a woman from Florida who also has an interest in big cats.
In Baskin’s case this interest takes the form of operating a sanctuary, whereas Joe is an entertainer. The clash of wills that ensues is epic in scale but also – despite the rarity of the issues at stake (not everyone is passionate about big cats) – emblematic of contemporary society, where people become polarised in the public sphere around certain trigger ideas, for example climate change or the rights of African-Americans (it’s also symptomatic of Donald Trump’s effect on the country). For boomers Schreibvogel and Baskin, big cats came to dominate their lives. Their singular focus is one of the things that turns them into good material for a podcast and a Netflix series.
The other thing that makes Baskin and Schreibvogel compelling subjects for this kind of dramatic treatment is that they are otherwise so ordinary. We have such false ideas about what makes someone interesting – fame deriving from some form of expertise, or wealth – so the Wondery show acts as a corrective, demonstrating how it’s possible to reinvent yourself without recourse to totemic categories of career. Where we imagine someone turning their life around by coming from a childhood of penury and abuse to graduating from university, then becoming a doctor or a lawyer, in ‘Joe Exotic’ Baskin goes from being homeless to operating a wildlife refuge in Tampa, Florida.
Baskin’s animus vis-à-vis Joe Exotic is a symptom of a love of big cats both of these individuals share, and if you can bear the ads for shaving products you will learn, near the end of the series, about the court case during which Joe Exotic is tried for crimes the show details. If you can tolerate also the tawdriness of the drama and Joe Exotic’s odd voice – he sounds a little like the late comedian Jerry Lewis – Wondery’s show will help to pass the time you need to spend in traffic near where you live.
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