Critic Reviews

McKinnon and her co-producers must be credited for conveying the tale in as serious-minded a fashion as possible. In so doing they have achieved something the original Netflix documentary had little interest in attempting. Pushing past hillbilly cliches, they’ve succeeded in portraying Exotic and Baskin as living, breathing human beings.

McKinnon embodies a down-to-earth but quirky version of Baskin, totally selling the idea that a woman this committed to saving tigers could find herself involved in a bizarre death match with the likes of Joe Exotic. Mitchell is equally convincing.

John Cameron Mitchell and Kate McKinnon own “Joe vs. Carole” from the start. They turn middling and well-worn material into a deeply engaging human (and feline) drama.

If Tiger King was your version of the tale, Joe vs. Carole feels more like your parents' version of the story, sanitized and surface-level.

“Joe v Carole” is a victim of its own timing. Even in the hands of this skilled group of actors and behind-the-scenes personnel, it just feels … unnecessary.

Joe vs Carole is a lot to take in, as might have been expected. You can hardly call the source material understated. But it is bracing, fun and surprisingly measured. If the Tiger King saga has not lost its shine for you, there are worse ways to dip into its staggering twists and turns once more.

Joe vs. Carole simply doesn't contain enough fresh insight to justify its existence today — despite game performances by the stars.

It isn't shocking or sensational any more, and it isn't that funny either. Why is it worth your while going over this well-trodden ground once again, and is it even fair to the show's real-life subjects to give them this black comedy treatment?

“Joe vs. Carole” is competently made and entertaining enough but having already sat through the first season of Netflix’s bloated “Tiger King,” “Joe vs. Carole” can’t help but feel like a rerun of something I already saw.

Mitchell is commanding enough to make his half of the series worth the while. Even if “Joe vs. Carole” doesn’t have much new to say about Joe, Carole, or why the two of them tangled to such catastrophic ends, Mitchell does so much to flesh out his role that you can almost — almost — forget the incredible overexposure that’s otherwise made its origin story so rancid.