Finally watched Tiger King, and I'm kind of unsettled that most people's reaction has been to just meme it and have a laugh.

It is a deeply unpleasant TV series.

The rampant animal cruelty is addressed in only the most cursory fashion by the film-makers, who are clearly aiming for some kind of amoral, fly-on-the-wall style when they should be confronting what they document. If not in person then at least through editing.

The atmosphere of misogyny is sickening. Almost every person who's given significant screen time engages in it, and it is never called out.

Do you really think Carole Baskin would be so hated if she were a man?

Very little attention - if any - is given to the societal conditions which contribute to the development of the exotic zoos, criminal enterprises and sex cults featured in the series.

The film-makers play all of this for Vaudevillian spectacle.

Several of the protagonists are clearly grappling with mental illness, as well as coming from desperately deprived backgrounds. But no, none of that's relevant when there's Netflix-level money to be made.

There's plenty other stuff that's unsettling about the show, but I can't be bothered going on.

Maybe the one pleasant surprise in the whole thing is how little homophobia there is on display, considering the series' focus is a gay man. It is of course still there, though.

Maybe don't treat deeply bleak situations like a circus show?

That goes for the audience as well as the film-makers.