Netflix’s success with its latest hit documentary, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness, continues to grow. On Sunday, Rotten Tomatoes revealed the show is currently its most popular series. The film and television ranking website gives the show, which debuted on March 20 and has received much fanfare on social media in the days since, a tremendous 97 percent critics score.
The audience score falls just behind that at 96 percent. The show tops the likes of two other Netflix shows in Ozark (95 percent) and Unorthodox (94 percent). The first season includes seven episodes and features an array of out-of-this-world personalities and storylines that seem too-good-to-be-true for a documentary.
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The series, in its simplest form, is best described on the Netflix media page: “Among the eccentrics and cult personalities in the stranger-than-fiction world of big cat owners, few stand out more than Joe Exotic, a mulleted, gun-toting polygamist and country western singer who presides over an Oklahoma roadside zoo.” Anchored by Joe Exotic, the show features plots that include a murder-for-hire plan, a zoo rivalry, arrests and a bevy of stories of lost limbs and crazy incidents in the park.
While many viewers have jumped on the viral bandwagon, some of the characters spotlighted in the series aren’t exactly thrilled with their portrayal. Carole Baskin has spoken against the show’s message. Baskin is seen in the film as Joe Exotic’s archenemy as she is seeking to shut down his business. She explains the whole thing as being “salacious” and “sensational.”
She mostly did not appreciate how production included what she call “lies and innuendos” from non-credible sources in regards to the rumors that she had her husband murdered.
“There is no short, simple way to refute so many lies,” she explained in a blog post she wrote. “If you do want to know the truth, it requires understanding the history of events in the years before my husband’s disappearance and the roles and behaviors of the people interviewed in the series, which I have tried to do as concisely as I can below but still requires a few pages.”
Along with Baskin, Bhagavan “Doc” Antle was not appreciative of his and the Myrtle Beach Safari’s portrayal in the Netflix series. Seen as the inspiration behind Exotic’s zoo, Antle and the South Carolina zoo are shown early on in the story, which Antle noted that he was “disappointed” in their inclusion because their business is “not representative” of the feud that went on between Baskin and Exotic.
All seven episodes of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness can be streamed on Netflix.
