7 Netflix documentaries to watch if you liked Tiger King

When Tiger King came out, viewers branded it as “absolutely bonkers” and the “craziest show ever”. “I am a connoisseur of nuts documentaries,” said one fan. “The wackier the better, and lemme tell ya, just two episodes in, this Tiger King on Netflix is just on a whole different level of nuts.”

The documentary tells the story of Joe Exotic, a tiger trader embroiled in a rivalry with animal rights activist Carole Baskin. Their feud escalated so much it ended up with Exotic being sentenced to 22 years in prison for crimes including trying to hire someone to murder Baskin.

The eccentricity of Tiger King’s subjects made the show extremely bingeable, so if you’ve finished the series and are craving more wackiness, check out our list of other bizarre documentaries available on Netflix…

Wild Wild Country

This hit documentary shares two of Tiger King’s key ingredients: it has an exceptionally unusual man at its centre, and it chronicles a fierce rivalry. Wild Wild Country tells the story of how Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his right-hand woman Ma Anand Sheela led a group of followers to a small town in Oregon and founded a cult. Clashes with local residents evolved into a full-blown war involving threats, fraud, and even bioterrorism.

Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened

Before Joe Exotic became a household name, the team behind Tiger King made Fyre. This documentary charts the spectacular failure of Ja Rule’s “music festival” in the Bahamas, which made headlines worldwide after guests who had paid as much as $100,000 for tickets turned up to a ramshackle site with limited shelter and food. Like Tiger King, it introduces us to fascinating characters – most notably event producer Andy King, who became a meme after admitting he nearly performed fellatio in order to convince Bahamian customs authorities to give water to attendees.

Tell Me Who I Am

This is another documentary that matches Tiger King on the “bonkers” scale. Tell Me Who I Am revolves around Alex, a man who has lost his long-term memory after a bike accident. The only person who can help piece Alex’s life back together is his identical twin brother and, incredibly, the pair let cameras into the room to record the tragic story of their childhood being revealed.

Three Identical Strangers

When three teenagers meet by chance and discover they are identical triplets separated at birth, they are over the moon. But, as this documentary reveals, their adoption was far from normal, and what starts out as a joyful reunion story quickly turns into something much more sinister. If you’re missing the twists and turns of Tiger King, this series has got plenty of those.​

Abducted in Plain Sight

This unsettling documentary tells the story of Jan Broberg, a child who was kidnapped from her family by their friend, Robert Berchtold, twice. Somehow, Berchtold was able to manipulate the religious Broberg family, effectively grooming them, which enabled him to abduct and abuse Jan.

Don’t F**k With Cats

A documentary that will fill that feline-shaped hole in your life is Don’t F*** With Cats. When it came out, viewers branded it the “most disturbing” series they had ever seen. It centres around a Canadian murderer, Luka Magnotta, and the amateur detective work carried out to catch him after he posted a graphic video of himself killing two kittens online.

Blackfish

Tiger King’s Carole Baskin claims that, when she was being courted by Netflix to take part in the documentary, it was pitched to her as the “big cat version of Blackfish”. While it didn’t quite turn out that way, the two shows do share some major similarities. Blackfish, once described as being “as gripping as a serial-killer thriller”, exposed animal abuse at SeaWorld.