Documentary Review: Bug Out

It's been said that fiction has to make sense.  Reality doesn't.  That was my main thought as I watched the true crime documentary Bug Out, which aired last year on IMDbTV.  The four-episode series tells the strange story of the Philadelphia Insectarium & Butterfly Pavilion.  When the museum's president John Cambridge came to work one day in 2018, he found himself surrounded by empty tanks, as a reported $50,000 worth of insects, arachnids, and other animals were missing from their enclosures.  It was a robbery which made international news, primarily for the shock value. Bug Out is the story of the resulting police investigation of this mystery.

Alright, so the trick for the rest of this review will be not giving away any of the details.  Suffice to say, I found the show to be very engaging and was completely taken aback by the twist ending, which I absolutely did not see coming.  If you enjoy a good mystery, here's your endorsement.  The show is worth watching if for no other reason than that.

Taking a step beyond the case, I really appreciated what a great piece of educational programming Bug Out was.  It very easily could have focused just on the shock value, and that really is what I expected from it after the trailer.  (The footage of the guy pulling a live tarantula out of his mouth made me cringe a little bit).  Instead, the viewer is treated to a surprisingly informative yet entertaining expose of the insect pet trade - where animals come from, who takes care of them, and the legal and ethical implications of it.  Some of the permit aspects of it almost made the nerd in me gasp out loud, especially the segment pertaining to an unfortunate African giant land snail.  Even if you aren't a bug person, the drama that unfolds surrounding the staff of the museum - past and present - has more twists, turns, and back stabs than a season of Game of Thrones.

The show reminds me very much of the book Stolen World, which describes the scandals of the reptile-keeping community, both private and institutional, which got me thinking that would also make a compelling series.  It's worth noting that Insectarium CEO Cambridge has recently filed a defamation lawsuit against the producers of this show, so some of the information in this series should at least be taken with a grain of salt pending the legal process.  Still, this show, while very engaging and educational, does leave the viewer with a somewhat bad taste in the mouth concerning many of the players... and the taste isn't a tarantula.