Boomer TV: Tiger King

"I'm Joe Exotic, Otherwise Known As The Tiger King, The Gay, Gun-Carrying Redneck With A Mullet."-From the Netflix show ‘Tiger King’

There have always been people encountered over the years who seem to take great pains to let people know they don’t watch much, if any, TV.
I’m here to admit that not only do I consume copious amounts of time staring at the tube but it’s done without even a small shred of guilt. 

And now we are in the midst of an extended period of mostly homebound days and though here at N3WH time on the telly has been restricted to evenings, finding watchable fare has become tantamount to the much needed sense of contentment required to ease the ennui associated with this prolonged sequestration.

With Netflix there is a veritable abundance of selection although, in truth, a relatively small percentage are found to be personally intriguing.
LSC Lil and I have been through a few trial runs with a few found worthy of continuing on, a couple that just stalled out awaiting further contemplation and a bunch that were given the heave ho after a watch or two.
Then we started hearing about Tiger King. 
We saw the opening show and afterwards whether from fatigue (it was a late night...meaning past 10pm) or merely lack of interest in the format neither of us were anxious to move on to episode 2.

The next couple of days after a bit of exploring around other shows, each found to be wanting when it came to holding our interest, Lil mentioned giving the Tiger King another shot. We tuned it in early then proceeded to binge watch beyond our usual capacity for late night wakefulness.
Yes we were adequately intrigued.

With a cast of characters who seem to spring from the pages of an Elmore Leonard novel the docuseries or whatever genre this might be labeled is compelling watching to be sure and it doesn't take long to assess the reasons for its popularity. It is the proverbial train wreck,where one might be  repulsed on so many levels and yet a measure of pure fascination keeps you watching if only to see what comes next.

Well, we finished it as I am sure many of you have. It ate up some quarantine time, sparked a number of interesting conversations between us and reaffirmed to me  that even Leonard and his contemporaries could not match the level of freakishness in the real world.

Around the time we were watching Tiger King Newaygo PD’s Officer Rood had shared on social media the ‘bear hunt’ idea he had heard about from other communities and neighbor Mary Spicer passed along the post, encouraging Hess Lake folks to put teddy bears in the windows.
Lil and I were on one of our daily walks (weather permitting) and as we passed houses noted those who had gotten into the bear hunt spirit with the fuzzy creatures peeking out from windows here and there.
Then we passed one place  with a pair of cute little bears flanking a homemade sign in the middle of the window identifying a household of Tiger King watchers.

“Honk if you think that bitch Carole Baskin killed her husband” 

-Ken DeLaat, N3

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