Tiger King season two was quite a surprise to many, including myself. I personally was expecting another gung-ho season following Joe Exotic or another “tiger king.” However, this season goes in a very different direction, taking a turn toward an investigative show.
Although this season doesn’t follow the life of specific people, it gives insights and breakdowns of people, investigations and allocations from season one. Starting the season was background on Exotic’s life, starting in Garden City, Kansas.
Moving from episode to episode, the season covers the disappearance case of Don Lewis, follows Jeff Lowe and Tim Stark as they took over Exotic’s GW Zoo that was showcased in much of season one, shows the steps that have been taken to get Exotic out of jail as well as information on where many of the rescued big cats have gone.
Unlike season one, you were able to watch, step away and come back to the next episode while still being thoroughly interested. Did this stop me from watching within a matter of days? No, not at all. While many of my friends and I were not able to walk away or stop watching season one — thinking it couldn’t get any crazier, but needless to say, it would.
Much of this season takes the focus off of Exotic and more on the effects after the show was released on Netflix in March 2020. Exotic still makes appearances through quotes in season one or prison phone calls as well as the touch of his own music, including a personal favorite, “I Saw a Tiger.”
At the beginning of season two, we get to see a sort of jail FaceTime with Joe which is used throughout the new season to get his thoughts and ideas.
This season brought in a lot of new characters, from people like Exotic’s brother, co-workers, an ex-fiancée, lawyers, outside investigators and even more “crazy cat people” who personally know Exotic or the famous Carole Baskin.
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Many parts of season one touched on the mysterious disappearance of Baskin’s Husband, Don Lewis, but this season uncovered many details that have been lurking in the shadows. Despite Baskin’s attempt to prevent season two from airing, this season unveiled many details from interviews within the new Netflix season.
These interviews included people who worked with Lewis in the United States as well as in Costa Rica, investigators working on the case and even one of Baskin’s ex-boyfriends and his son post-Lewis’ disappearance.
This season, much like the past couple of years, was quite politically heavy and even spoke on Exotic’s hope for a presidential pardon from the president at the time, Donald Trump. Although he did not sign the pardon, there was still a lot of work and a lot of people involved in getting Exotic released from jail. The team working to get Exotic out even have a social media campaign #FreeJoeExotic.
As I watched, I was shocked at who all has been working with Exotic’s lawyers to help free him and how some stories from season one and in court have started to change two and a half years later.
Although Exotic has not been released from jail yet, he is still getting a lot of attention from fan mail and even men wanting to court or marry him once he is released. The season touches on Exotic’s love life behind bars as well as before to show the husband and fiancé he had at a younger age who were not talked about in season one.
Needless to say, this season was just as interesting — if not more — as some questions were finally answered. Although many questions were answered, many more have arisen since finding out information that had not been previously released.
The season two trailer is available on YouTube.
