As Joe Exotic sits in prison, the crew surrounding the tale of big cats, hit men, years-long feuds and love, carry on in the wake of the first season. Carole Baskin's continuing story has been playing out in the headlines. Netflix has heeded the call, and we continue the story of Joe Exotic and his exploits. Tiger King 2 trailer has arrived.
The Netflix official synopsis reads, "With Joe Exotic behind bars and Carole Baskin closing in on ownership of his disreputable zoo, the Emmy-nominated saga continues its twisted course with Tiger King 2 as newfound revelations emerge on the motivations, backstories, and secrets of America's most notorious big cat owners. Old enemies and frenemies, including Jeff Lowe, Tim Stark, Allen Glover, and James Garretson return for another season of murder, mayhem, and madness. Thought you knew the whole story? Just you wait."
If you chose not to partake in viewing the spectacle amidst lockdown, you were one of the few. The series main focus is "Tiger King" Joe Exotic (Joseph Maldonado-Passage), an eccentric owner of the G.W. Zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. It recounts his ugly years-long feud with Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida. The series culminates with Exotic's conviction under federal murder-for-hire statutes, when it's revealed he hired a hitman to murder Baskin. His convictions also included violations of the Lacey Act and Endangered Species Act, and resulted in a 22-year federal prison sentence. Later the courts would lessen his sentence, based on a error in the counts for murder for hire.
"Maldonado-Passage hired two different hitmen on two different occasions, though his 'end, goal, or purpose,' was the same. Thus, the acts or transactions of the two counts shared a common criminal objective-Baskin's murder," the court said. "The district court erred by not grouping the two murder-for-hire counts."
In the time that has followed Carole Baskin has tried to make a deal with the court system and Joe for an earlier release on the terms that he supports legislation that would ban the breeding of big cats.
Joe took them up on that offer telling Entertainment Tonight, "It is time for Carole and Howard to put up or shut the hell up because I'm accepting their offer," he said. "And I'm gonna take it one step further than that, OK? It is time to get on the phone to President Biden or whoever they need to that they've got in their little financial pocket and say, 'Hey, Joe is willing to support a big cat bill to help protect cats in America from being exploited. But we need to keep our end of the deal and get Joe a pardon because this wasn't really about murder for hire or shooting five tigers - this was about exploiting Joe to support Carole's agenda.' So, there's the offer on the table, all right?"
To be completely transparent, after endless shocked responses to having not viewed the series, I finally pushed play. I didn't make it through 15 minutes. I fully understood the story was compelling and needed to be brought to the attention of the powers that be, but coupled with the lockdown and political turmoil, I decided I could sit this one out. The audience clamored for a second season, as the players continued to make news. Clearly, just like the series of Making a Murderer, when you're dealing with real people in real time, the story is not over. The real-life saga continues. Tiger King 2 premieres on Netflix November 17.