Carole Baskin’s Cage Fight is a two-part documentary that not only sees Baskin battling filmmaker Tiger King. Which Baskin says is unfairly portrayed but also defeats one of Joe Exotic’s foes. Jeff Lowe, for his attitude towards big cats and other animals he owns.
He received some photos from Tiger King directors Rebecca Chayklin and Eric Good:
Without calling her name – to trick her into being interviewed for a documentary about considerable cat abuse. And to criticize people who, in her opinion, came up with conflicting theories. About her role in the death of her first cat, Ludwig.
But most of what he does in Episode 1 is aimed at two “old friends”. As Howard calls them: Exotic and Lowe. As Netflix viewers found out early in the pandemic, Exotics is serving a prison sentence. Among other things, for paying someone to kill Baskin for speaking out publicly. Against his breeding and treatment of tigers and other big cats.
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On the other hand, Lowe operates a new roadside zoo along the Oklahoma City freeway, where GW Zoo is located. When Baskin won the zoo in the lawsuit against Lowe and Exotic. Lowe still owned the animals and moved them to a new zoo.
The Baskins sold the property to the GW Zoo. But before the new owners took over the company. Carole and Howard wanted to see if they could find evidence of animal abuse and the tiger trade. With the help of an exotic investigator and his niece, Chealsy Putman.
They investigate the burning pile and dig what Chealsy calls the Dead Hole. A large area where Exotic and his colleagues bury dead animals. If they find bones that have been dead for less than two years, they are also entitled to Lowe’s death.
But they also got help from Steve Hindi, founder of an organization called SHARK; he flies drones over Lowe’s new zoo to gather evidence of animal cruelty. Lowe – and Eric Cowie, a former GW Zoo employee who died earlier this year. Who went to where the Hindi man was stationed and threatened to stop him. Relentlessly, he sent the drone further up.
Whatever you think of Carole Baskin:
Your enjoyment of Carole Baskin’s Cage Fight depends on how much fun you found it the first time. Weird, of course, and fully admits that he kept a big cat before he “saw the light”.
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But he also seems to be an Exotic obsessed with a yin for yang. Which saves neither the time nor the money to save as many big cats as possible. We view his mania as royalty, but it’s still a mania.
But he wasn’t close to the Exotics, Lowe, or the people on the opposite page of the book. A show focused on Baskins’ attempts to meet Exotic and Lowe, produced by Baskins, is a recipe for a program that goes to nothing.
Carole and investigators search the destroyed Exotic home for evidence of the tiger trade. Then Carole uses an excavator to drop her into one of the cells. There’s a lot of Carole giving Exotic too much time and brain space. Along with theories about her involvement in Louis’ death.
And then Carole sees a burning pile where she (literally) can’t make heads or figure out what she sees. Several times she cried and thought about the poor little children. And how badly they and their mother had been treated. And that’s it.
The part where Hindi flies a drone over Lowe’s zoo is a little more interesting. But that’s only because of the empty threat Lowe Hindi makes when he goes to Hindi’s residence. Most of what they found was a tiger running scared in its cage. Not great, of course, but nothing to get Lowe straight to the point.
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So if you think Baskin is the unsung hero of Tiger King:
You may want to see him and Howard return to those who believed they had been wronged. But if you are “moss” to them, you will be “moss” for this show.
Unless you’re looking for the little Tiger King title before setting up next week’s Tiger King 2. Carole Baskin’s Cage Fight doesn’t tell much about Carole or tell stories about her and her wonderful cat sanctuary.