I’ll admit it. I watched it out of curiosity and ended up binging it all within 24 hours. But I won’t lie, it made me more and more uncomfortable as I kept watching.

I think a key problem to the entire marketing of the show is that it dresses itself up as an investigation into animal welfare. Which it kiiiinda explores…before quickly turning into a biographical drama about delusional people and their cults of personality. So as an audience member who originally clicked on it to learn about mistreatment of big cats, I felt lied to, but by the time I realized I was being lied to, I was already way too deep to abandon ship. The documentary sucks you in and I was definitely not morally strong enough to leave it after that. It was kinda similar to Don’t F*ck With Cats—title advertises one premise, actual premise is not that premise.

One of my best friends in the veterinarian community deplored how the documentary missed an enormous opportunity actually explore important issues in animal welfare and husbandry.

I do hope that at least one good thing comes out of this documentary, that is, it casts a dark net over the zoo industry and will make people more choosey when it comes to visiting animals in captivity. I hope that when they see this parents will re-think the assumption that all zoos are family-friendly, safe, and humane.

Thank you for mentioning Saff. He was one of the few mature voices of reason in the show. He seemed to possess insight others didn’t, like knowing that John and Travis only married Joe for the drugs. I wish there was more of Saff.