It's entirely possible that, were it not for the home-quarantine that much of the world finds itself under due to Coronavirus, the series wouldn't get the traction that it does. Maybe it's just too crazy not to be a hit even if three-quarters of the country wasn't on lock-down anyway. When I first heard that this was being made into a miniseries, I was worried that it was going to paint Baskin, founder of Big Cat Rescue (an organization that I'm not terribly impressed with) as some sort of saint and portray all zoo professionals as Joe Exotic. I was not prepared for Joe to be considered the hero by so many people...
In a nut shell, Joe ran a ramshackle zoo (you can see him and his animals interviewed in Morgan Spurlock's Inside Man) with a special passion for breeding and cross-breeding cats. Carole Baskin, a former cat breeder and collector herself, had a Road to Damascus moment years back, decided that keeping big cats in captivity was evil, whether it was a shoddy backyard tiger pen or the world's best zoos, became a vocal opponent of his. The two clashed with multiple accusations of animal abuse flying back and forth. Joe took special delight in accusing Carole of the murder of her husband, who had mysteriously vanished years ago (this side story is perhaps the biggest takeaway that many viewers got from the show). Carole tried to get Joe shut down. Eventually, the feud boiled up to the point where Joe approached what he thought was a contract killer to take Carole out. Turns out, it was an FBI Agent. Awkward...
Baskin has not been thrilled with her portrayal in the series; while Joe's popularity is soaring as a result, with petitions for his pardoning circling around, she has become a meme, a series of jokes accusing her of murdering her husband, and the subject of increased legal scrutiny. It would be a bizarre take if this were to all end with Joe free and her in jail, but weirder things have happened. She had been under the impression that the series would be more about the exploitation of big cats in private hands in the US, and well it might have been... if it weren't for the fact that Joe Exotic is just so damn weird.
Seriously, it's hard to look away. The meth deals. The guns. The straight-lovers-turned-gay. The quixotic quests for public office. Joe Exotic is just such a ridiculous, larger-than-life character that it's hard for people not to root for him. He makes the world more interesting! The only problem is the welfare of the animals.
Animals at Joe's GW Zoo (now in new hands and rumored to be preparing for a new location and new name) were kept in lousy conditions and received bad care. It's that simple. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want this to result in people coming to my zoo to protest how our big cats are housed, to be converted to Baskin's view that no cats should be under human care (except for hers), but it would be nice if viewers walked away with the understanding that animals in zoos require appropriate care, and what they see on this Netflix special isn't that.
The show has prompted AZA (what Joe once derisively mocked as "a country club for zoos") to speak out, highlighting the differences between the ramshackle operation seen on Netflix and quality, professionally run zoos with a mission of conservation and education. I wish more viewers would walk away with that message... or at least without thinking that Joe is some sort of role model.
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