texas and the tiger king

Beastly Netflix sensation Tiger King boasts several Lone Star State links

Joe Exotic — aka the Tiger King — has many links to the Lone Star State.

Netflix

Why is the world of pop culture suddenly all about Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness?

Since its debut on Netflix earlier this month, the seven-part docuseries has become all the rage with the self-quarantine scene, igniting discussions all over social media — even celebrities have been joining in on the binge-watching action.

Houston writer and podcaster Oz Longworth, Jr. says it’s pure trainwreck TV. “It's backwater white people tearing each other to pieces and failing at life — The Sopranos on meth,” he says. “What's not to love?” Austin-based scribe Mason Lerner considers it comfort food in this time of terror. “It’s like eating cotton candy,” he says. “No nutritional value, but you just can’t stop until suddenly you realize you’ve eaten too much. But it’s too late because you’re already sick.”

Meet Joe Exotic
In case you’ve been streaming other things and you don’t know what the deal is, the show is about Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Exotic, the flamboyant owner of a Oklahoma private zoo that supposedly housed the largest collection of tigers in the country.

Yes, "housed." As the series progresses, viewers discover how this now-incarcerated king’s animal kingdom crumbled. Of course, there are oh-so-many sketchy players involved in this tale: the two men he had a polyamorous relationship with, an animal trainer who basically had a sex cult, a business partner with a history of domestic violence, a reality-show producer with a history of smoking crack, employees with missing limbs, etc.

But the most prominent player is Carole Baskin, an animal-rights activist whom good ol’ Joe considers his sworn enemy — and who also may or may not have killed her first husband. (It was recently announced a limited series on Baskin is in the works, with Kate McKinnon starring and executive producing.)

Lone Star State links
It turns out there are several Texas connections to the Joe Exotic story, thanks to this Texas Monthly story that was published last year. He grew up in several locations, with Pilot Point — which is north of Dallas — being one of them. He also married his first husband in Dallas and they, along with Joe’s late brother Garold, bought their first pet store together in Arlington.

As CultureMap Dallas reported, a Dallas attorney, Carney Anne Nasser, who specializes in animal law, helped start the fire that sent Joe Exotic to prison. Nasser found a window of opportunity to help end Joe Exotic's exploitation of big cats while working on the case of Tony the Tiger, an unfortunate creature who was confined to a cage at a Louisiana gas station for all 17 years of his life before he was euthanized in 2017. Countless animal advocates worked for years to get him moved to a sanctuary.

What about the animals?
There are many who aren’t fans of the show, particularly people who don’t like the animal abuse and cruelty that is captured on film. Katie Jarl, southwest regional director for the Humane Society of the United States, is one of those people.

“We have spent the last four legislative sessions trying to prohibit the private ownership of tigers and other dangerous wild animals in Texas,” she says. “Just like the tiger found in an abandoned Houston home last year — who is now living at our sanctuary in Murchison — so many of these wild animals of all species continue to suffer in substandard conditions because the ‘Joe Exotics’ have gone unchecked in our state for too long.”

Yes, this saga of caged animals and the power-mad, self-centered people who own them (and should be caged themselves) may be difficult to watch for some animal lovers. But like so many true-crime shows Netflix has previously dropped, it’s difficult to turn away from the figurative/literal carnage.

Nashville film critic Jason Shawhan sums it up perfectly: “It's '80s soap opera aesthetics and contemporary reality clichés mixed up with an obscene blend of contempt and envy. But I'm watching, because I love being part of discourse, and also because I'm interested in how society metabolizes this kind of gay man, because Joe Exotic demolishes a stereotype for each one that he fulfills, and he complicates any discussion that emerges about him.”

tv pets celebrities

Movie Review

The Social Reckoning takes a swipe at Facebook in the modern era

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White in The Social Reckoning.

The 2010 film The Social Network — about the early years of Facebook after Mark Zuckerberg created the social media site — was a landmark movie in many ways. But given the time it was made — just four years after it went public beyond colleges — the impact Facebook had on society was minimal compared to what it is today (the film’s tagline references 500 million users on Facebook; there are now over 3 billion).

All of which is to say that there's plenty of fertile material for a follow-up film to explore, which writer/director Aaron Sorkin does quite well in The Social Reckoning. Zuckerberg (played this time by Jeremy Strong) is an important but supporting character in this story, which focuses on Wall Street Journal investigative reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White). Horwitz is in pursuit of anyone willing to spill dirt on the inner workings of Facebook, which leads him to Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), who works on the Civic Integrity team at the now-giant company.

While at first reluctant to disclose much, Haugen gradually gives Horwitz access to internal files that show that Facebook engaged in behind-the-scenes work to boost engagement on the site with little regard for how it would affect the well-being of its users. Their story, which takes place over the course of two years between 2019 and 2021, is intercut with scenes in which Zuckerberg is being prepped for testimony before Congress by Raya (Wunmi Mosaku), Charlie (Bill Burr), and others.

The key to Sorkin’s success in Hollywood has always been his fast-paced, overlapping dialogue, and there’s much of it to enjoy in this film. Most of the film is just people talking in rooms, so the script needs to have Sorkin’s signature style to keep the story compelling. He achieves that goal through lines that indicate the righteous indignation, quirks, and sense of humor of the characters, feelings that easily translate over to the audience.

Sorkin is clearly on one side in his storytelling, and it’s not the side that doesn’t seem to care that its users are being harmed by its product. Sorkin gilds the lily multiple times throughout the film in big and small ways, and your enjoyment of the movie may lie in your ability to roll with his choices instead of nitpicking details (like the fact that Zuckerberg didn’t testify before Congress in the crucial year depicted in the film).

Still, there’s the unshakeable feeling that the movie is too little, too late. Even though it’s set just five to seven years ago, the advances in technology and the division of the country in the years since make it feel like a completely different world. The Social Network had the advantage of showing things that most viewers didn’t know well. The basics of this film played out in headlines around the world, and the issues the characters debate in it seem positively quaint compared to what’s happening now.

White has been hit-and-miss as a movie actor, but he’s in his sweet spot in this film, rattling off lines with ease and making Horwitz alternately cocky and empathetic. Madison does well in her first film since winning an Oscar for Anora, playing on Haugen’s passion and eccentricities effectively. Strong plays Zuckerberg as literally stiff — his neck and body movements are almost mechanical — a choice that works for the most part.

The Social Reckoning is not as good as The Social Network, but it manages to be gripping in its own way. Through Sorkin’s writing, better directing than he has delivered in other films, and committed performances by all of the actors, it becomes a story worth telling, even if its ideas have become antiquated.

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The Social Reckoning opens in theaters on October 9.

film mark zuckerberg movies the social network the social reckoning