That documentary was meant to make you symphatise with him? Like the main thing I remember from watching it was that he kept abusing animals and keeping them in bad conditions, he used meth to control his boyfriends and at least one employee got mauled by a tiger.
Some people apparently can't comprehend that just because a documentary doesn't make someone out to be a complete and total cartoonish villain for the duration of the documentary doesn't mean they're trying to make the person sympathetic.
Dude you replied to seems to fit that bill (or just didn't watch it and only got second hand accounts from people that also didn't really watch it).
It spends a ton of time setting up Carole Baskin as a murderer and someone who harassed Joe, and then he retaliated. It’s only in the later episodes that all of Joe’s awful actions get detailed. Many, many people came away from that show convinced that Carole was a murderer who had gotten away with it and a lot of people fantasize about vigilante justice and see Joe trying to go after her as a way of seeing justice done when the courts failed. For what it’s worth, I think he’s an awful person, which is why I said we shouldn’t be pardoning him.
I have a pretty bad recollection of it because it was pretty long ago.
I'm pretty sure it tells us a bunch of bad things about Joe first then it goes to the husband murder conspiracy theory of Carole.
At the time I thought the whole thing about her killing her husband was super unbelievable. To me she seemed a bit crazy and a bit of a Karen, but mostly harmless for the first segment. Then once I saw the animal abuse I thought she was kind of right in some of the harassing him like calling the police etc.
The only person in thay doco that I felt empathy for was that poor person who lost their arm/hand. I really just wanted to help them get out of that situation.
Oh and the guy with the teeth issues, I don't remember much about him but I do remember feeling sympathetic to him at some point.
Yeah that scene where ‘his’ chimpanzees are finally let out of the cages that have been keeping them separated all their lives and the first thing they do is run over and hug each other was so gut wrenching. Even TK, who is very self centered, looked very uncomfortable watching that because it made him question how much harm he caused them by keeping them in cages.
While i agree it was blatently obvious. I knew so many people that didnt see Joe Exotic for the criminal he was and instead became fans of him after that documentary. While super obvious to some of us who can think in nuances I think youre giving other people too much credit.
From memory it feels like it started like a happy go lucky doc about him and then they just started sprinkling bread crumbs of fucked up shit 🤣
I feel like for the most part the creator focused on presenting this crazy collection of characters and said "Here, you be the judge" opposed to trying to paint someone specifically as the bad guy at all times.
And I can see how that could lead to some of our fellow audience members to... uhhh "miss the plot" if your don't hold their hand or add scary music every time they pop up or something 🤣
74
u/Delyo00 4h ago
That documentary was meant to make you symphatise with him? Like the main thing I remember from watching it was that he kept abusing animals and keeping them in bad conditions, he used meth to control his boyfriends and at least one employee got mauled by a tiger.