If you’ve been on Twitter or Facebook in the past couple of weeks, you’ve heard about it. You’ve probably watched it. You’ve weighed in on some of the more outlandish theories, and created or shared ridiculous memes based on it. And you know what I’m talking about. Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is a seven-episode true crime documentary series on Netflix about owners of Tigers and other large cats, most of whom own and operate private zoos in the southern United States. It’s fairly salacious and completely impossible to turn off. It reminds me of a Christopher Guest mockumentary, in many ways, with the same impeccable editing and unrealistic cast of characters – except, of course, that this is theoretically real life. It was released on Netflix on March 20th, about 5 days into many people’s self isolation period due to COVID-19. And so, even considering that original Netflix series do have a history of entering the collective online zeitgeist (as seen with The Circle and Love Is Blind, but before that as well with Stranger Things and Russian Doll) and would have been a hit regardless, Tiger King is now everywhere. And as more and more movies are having their release dates pushed back (like Ghostbusters, No Time To Die, and Black Widow, among others), it seems that there won’t be new media releases to dethrone Tiger King.
Which is a shame, because I think that the urge to collectively accept Tiger King as quarantine’s great watch does a disservice to some of the people who were victimized by the creation of this documentary. Personally, I know that I watched the first three episodes in one sitting, texting my friends that they had to watch it with me. But once I watched the fourth episode, I found the tone to be more off-putting, as the subject matter grew more serious. The documentarians seemed to be making light of the alleged animal abuse, sexual abuse, and the murder-for-hire plot that becomes central to the back half of the series. If you’ve seen the series, you’ll know that there’s an extremely disturbing death that happens off screen. Having said all that, it’s hard for me to know what to do with the series. I can’t deny that it was extremely entertaining, and is undoubtedly a cultural phenomenon – but I no longer feel inclined to take part in some of the more humorous memes. What can I say? Self isolation has turned me into a bit of a downer.
After all that, you may be looking for a palate cleanser, or perhaps a deeper dive into some of these topics. With that in mind, I’ve created a list of 5 movies, documentaries, or books that you may be interested in once you’re done watching Tiger King. All of the following titles are available for free on Vaughan Public Libraries electronic databases – you’ll just need a library card to check them out.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Pi Patel and a tiger named Richard Parker coexist on a lifeboat for 227 days. This novel was chosen for CBC’s Canada Reads in 2003, and spurred many debates about what aspects of the story were supposed to be truth and reality, and what was metaphorical.
