12 pop culture moments that helped us survive 2020
By Shaun Stacy
Tiger King
Following the success of 2018’s second season of Making a Murderer, Netflix was on the lookout for its next big documentary series. While the streaming platform debuted several throughout the course of 2020, none became part of the pop-culture consciousness quite like Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness.
The series profiled the drama behind the scenes of big cat conservationists, including eccentric zookeeper Joe Exotic and Big Cat Rescue owner Carole Baskin. The rivalry between Exotic’s showmanship and Baskin’s accusations of mistreatment are at the center of the series, with each individual dealing with a multitude of tribulations throughout the course of the documentary.
Flamboyantly gay redneck Joe Exotic is a collector of big cats and runs a tight ship on his zoo in Oklahoma. A feud takes place between Exotic and Baskin as she launches a smear campaign that he abuses his animals; while Exotic retaliates by accusing Baskin of killing her first husband. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, folks. This documentary is a prime example of the truth being stranger than fiction and is a mix of comedy and tragedy that reeled in over 34 million viewers within the first ten days of being released on Netflix.