The only good thing that could come out of Peacock’s abysmal “Joe vs. Carole” is if it’s the tipping point to a crisis in the TV industry regarding bloated, over-hyped, truly mediocre mini-series based on controversial stories that we already know. It is Exhibit A in the case against this kind of television in how little it justifies its existence (and especially its length). A decade ago, the true story here might have been an interesting piece of investigative journalism in a major magazine, and then, if luck prevailed, a 90-minute Sundance movie. Now, it’s a Netflix docuseries (with sequels), a podcast or two, and an 8-hour mini-series. The sense that every fascinating true story needs to be over-saturated until all potentially profitable angles have been drained from it is not good for any of these forms—journalism, television, podcasting, and entertainment in general.
Netflix’s “Tiger King” was a massive hit early in the pandemic when everyone was suddenly at home in March 2020 and looking for something distracting to watch. It created an industry at the streaming giant with a second season released in late 2021 and a spin-off called “Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story” that really should have proven to everyone that this conversation was dwindling to a close. All of these docuseries focused on the quirky personalities of Big Cat Rescue, especially the mulleted Joe Exotic and slightly unnerving Carole Baskin. The battle between Joe and Carole reached such heights that the former is in jail for trying to have her murdered, while some still suspect the latter of having one of her husbands killed. It’s insane, but even the subsequent installments of the original series proved significantly less interesting. Two years later, it feels like this story has been drained far too dry for an 8-hour Peacock dramatic retelling of it. And yet here we are.
“Joe vs. Carole” casts the great John Cameron Mitchell (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch”) and Emmy-winning Kate McKinnon, who also produces, in the title roles, bouncing back and forth in their tumultuous saga. Using the “Over My Dead Body” podcast as its base, it hits all of the main characters and plot points of the Netflix series while ostensibly taking a more serious, character-driven tone. It would be more accurate to say that it never settles on a tone at all. There was clearly a desire to humanize these people instead of turning Joe and Carole into caricatures again. After all, the memes and outrageous behavior couldn’t really hold interest for eight hours (although at least a more showman TV creator like Ryan Murphy could have tried), but creator Etan Frankel, directors Justin Tipping and Natalie Bailey find too little to replace them. These are the mundane versions of Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, clearly trying to “normalize” them but in a way that makes them deadly boring. Hours of this show consist of Carole bickering with her husband (played by Kyle MacLachlan) or Joe juggling his multiple husbands in a way that’s about as dramatically thin as Saran Wrap.
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It doesn’t help matters that poor Mitchell and McKinnon are stuck trying to ground characters who only became interesting in the first place because they were ungrounded. Mitchell is at his best when he’s allowed to lean into Joe’s eccentricities, strutting the grounds of his Oklahoma facility like, well, a King. Less effective are the scenes of his managing the men in his life, which feel like they really needed more bite. There’s a very shrouded sense that Joe controlled the people around him—employees, lovers, and those who were both—like he controlled his cats. He saw them not only as possessions but as disposable. That alone could have made for a dark, psychosexual character drama, but it feels only shallowly considered here.
By the same token, there’s a clear drive to redeem Carole Baskin here, who is portrayed more as the hero of this battle. Yes, she became obsessed with Joe to an unhealthy degree, but she did it because of something she believed in. And if you’re looking for anything juicy about the murderous rumors around Carole, look elsewhere. Again, it’s noble to take someone whose life was turned into tabloid fodder and make it three-dimensional, but that can’t sustain eight hours of television. People will come to “Joe vs. Carole” for the battle in its title, and there’s no fight in this show.
It only comes to life in fits and starts through supporting performers who seem to know what kind of show this should have been. For example, William Fichtner shows up as a former “Inside Edition” producer who smoked all the crack for a story he was doing on that show. Hard-drinking and wide-eyed at where life has led him as Joe’s new online producer, Fichtner brings depth of character that everyone else lacks, especially the bland personalities around Joe in Oklahoma, all of whom were more interesting in the docuseries. At least when Dean Winters shows up halfway through the season, he comes with a mischievous glint in his eye. He knows this story could use a little Mayhem.
“With Joe, you learn pretty quick that what’s weird out there ain’t so weird in here.” And yet “Joe vs. Carole” never feels weird enough. It’s like they softened Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin into the bland NBC versions of themselves, making them into a collection of dull tics and quirks to fill out an unbelievably bloated run time. Carole Baskin bounces in her car to Maroon 5 in a moment of happiness and there’s no sense that anyone asked why that’s on camera. It’s not funny. It’s not an interesting detail. It’s just something to pad a potential movie script into an 8-episode series. Later in the season, Joe yells, “Nobody watches ‘Duck Dynasty’ for the ducks!” This show is all ducks. [D]
“Joe vs. Carole” debuts on Peacock on March 3.