It's Already Too Late For Joe vs. Carole | Screen Rant
Peacock's new Tiger King-inspired series is set for a March 3, 2022 release date, but it's already too late for Joe vs. Carole. Created by Shameless writer and producer Etan Frankel, Joe vs. Carole is based primarily on the second season of Wondery's Over My Dead Body podcast, which follows the real-life criminal case of Joe Exotic, a zookeeper convicted for a murder-for-hire plot against his self-sworn enemy Carole Baskin. Joe vs. Carole, however, looks to be re-treading well-worn ground after Netflix's two Tiger King series in 2020 and 2021 extensively covered this story.
Joe vs. Carole has been in the works since Tiger King season 1's overnight streaming success in March 2020, with the Netflix series quickly becoming a huge talking point while many audiences were stuck indoors during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, interest in Tiger King quickly began to wane as 2020 wore on, with those same audiences becoming more aware of how heinous the documentary's primary subjects truly were. Joe Exotic, in particular, went from a meme-able, zany character in the eyes of the public to being reviled for his abuse and exploitation of animals. Netflix's follow-up series Tiger King 2 garnered nowhere near the same level of attention in late 2021, with much of the series' shock factor removed from proceedings.
As a result, it is already far too late for Joe vs. Carole to be released, both in terms of narrative originality and audience appetite. Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin's story has been pored over in minute detail by a swathe of podcasts and Netflix's Tiger King coverage, meaning Joe vs. Carole is bound to lack originality - or indeed a reason for audiences to watch it. Moreover, it feels as if Joe vs. Carole is attempting to cash in on a hype that no longer exists, with contemporary audiences having already moved on from a story that first broke in early 2020.
Netflix's first season of true-crime series Tiger King contains several larger-than-life characters and an intrigue that immediately made it a compelling proposition to streaming audiences. It is not hyperbole to state that in March 2020, Tiger King was the title on most American households' lips, with Joe Exotic's bizarre, gun-toting lifestyle shocking a nation. However, once the shock factor of watching Joe berate Carole Baskin and interact with big cats wore off, Tiger King began to lose its gloss as audiences became increasingly aware of the shocking crimes against endangered animals that Exotic and his cadre of allies were committing.
It seems strange, therefore, that Peacock would choose to release Joe vs. Carole in 2022 after all appetite for the Tiger King story has dissipated. Other streaming services are acutely aware of the lack of demand for more Tiger King-centric content, with rival service Amazon Prime Video scrapping their own Joe Exotic series in July 2021, as they felt the subject matter was no longer relevant. Even Netflix has essentially conceded the time of Tiger King has come and gone, after Tiger King 2 and The Doc Antle Story both failed to garner significant interest or viewing numbers. Ultimately, it seems as if Joe vs. Carole is aimed at an audience that no longer exists in contemporary culture, meaning the Peacock original looks set to be a commercial flop before it has even begun.