Netflix’s Tiger King season 2 repeats the same mistake that they made with the second season of Making A Murderer. Capitalizing on the massive success of its first installment, Tiger King season 2 was hustled into production to capitalize on the buzz around the Joe Exotic brand. However, the truncated production schedule and quick release created significant issues with the second season, issues that were also prevalent with Making a Murderer season 2 for the same reasons.
The second season of Making A Murderer was billed as containing a wealth of new information regarding the case of Steven Avery, a promise that the show largely failed to fulfill. Although the series does offer some bits of evidence that were not covered in its first season, it is largely filled with speculation and dramatizations intended to exonerate Avery in the eyes of the public. The true-crime aspect of the Netflix show that captivated so many people was shifted from the forefront in lieu of celebrating and capitalizing on the series’ success, and Tiger King seems to have in many ways done the same.
The abbreviated length of Tiger King season 2 gives away the lack of substantive footage right from the start. The season is only five episodes long, with the bulk of them hardly featuring Joe Exotic, the eponymous “Tiger King,” at all. The season opens with a lengthy segment dedicated to praising the show’s success, and while it is in some ways relevant to the story, it speaks to the intentions behind its somewhat hasty release. The following two episodes are spent exploring alternative theories regarding Carole Baskin’s involvement in Don Lewis’ disappearance without ever taking a clear stance. From accounts of Lewis being alive in Costa Rica to theories that he’d been killed by his handyman, Kenny Farr, Tiger King season 2 offers little of substance on the matter beyond ad hoc speculation and it’s generated criticisms similar to that of Making a Murderer season 2, which also eschewed actual documented substance over shallow sensationalism. Both follow-up seasons of the hit true-crime series were little more than filler, only existing to capitalize upon temporary buzz.
The entire Tiger King season 2 feels like a trailer for things to come. Little to nothing is resolved in its five episodes, including the new stories and plot points introduced in the season. There is certainly some new and interesting information the show presents regarding the case of Joe Exotic, but the majority of it comes at the very end where it leaves viewers on a rather dramatic cliffhanger. As a result, the season feels incomplete, and its entertaining of speculative theories (as well as its unusual inclusion of a “psychic”) significantly detracts from its narrative as a whole.
Although the second seasons of both Making A Murderer and Tiger King reveal some new details and updates that will be pertinent to the story moving forward, neither feels significant enough to warrant its existence. Their speculative nature, self-congratulatory beats, and departure from their established tones fail to qualify them as true-crimes series. It seems unlikely that these will be the final installments in Joe Exotic’s and Steven Avery’s stories, but perhaps it would have been best to wait until there was more source material available rather than releasing disappointing followups to massively successful series.
Go to Source
Author: Ian Curtis
