Washington (AFP)

"In the kingdom of wild beasts" is the series to watch for many Americans, confined because of the coronavirus, and captivated by the story of a whimsical zoo owner condemned for having wanted to kill an animal activist with a troubled past .

This documentary in seven episodes, leading the most watched works on Netflix in the United States since its release on March 20, is a mixture between "Animal Planet" and "Breaking Bad".

It traces the life of the eccentric "Joe Exotic", 57 years old and his real name Joe Maldonado-Passage, lover of big cats and owner of a zoo in Oklahoma where he raises tigers, lions and other panthers.

The man who calls himself "King of the Tigers" (Tiger King, original title of the series) sports a peroxidized mullet cut, a horseshoe mustache and multiple earrings.

Openly homosexual (he "married" two men during a ceremony for three), he amassed a small fortune thanks to his zoo opened in 1999, his breeding and the not always legal sale of his animals, before losing everything in a tangle of lawsuits, fires of unknown origin and failed political campaigns. Until fomenting the assassination of his intimate enemy Carol Baskin, animal advocate who has sworn to bankrupt the zoo.

- Anti-hero? -

"In the kingdom of wild beasts" begins and ends in an Oklahoma prison, where Joe Exotic was serving a 22-year sentence. He was transferred last week to Texas, where he was placed in solitary confinement after contracting the Covid-19, according to her husband Dillon Passage.

But his story, followed like reality TV with its explosions of violence and his reversals in the middle of the wild beasts, made Joe Exotic a kind of national anti-hero.

His fans copy his haircut and post photos of them with their pets - live or stuffed - on social networks. The singer Cardi B had a time to raise funds to reopen the file, before saying that she was joking. But "I love it," she said.

Several actors have offered to embody it, but according to the directors of the documentary, Joe Exotic would like to see Brad Pitt or David Spade play his role.

Former basketball idol Shaquille O'Neal also had to defend himself after an appearance in the series.

"I don't hurt tigers," he said, explaining that he had only visited Joe Exotic Zoo where tourists pay to pet the wild animals.

- "Eaten by tigers" -

Around the boss gravitates a gallery of characters, like a toothless husband from drug abuse, an employee who wears prostheses on both legs, another amputated forearm after being attacked by a feline. Not to mention a former supermarket manager who became Joe Exotic's campaign manager for the White House.

In the other camp, Carol Baskin, also in love with big cats, runs a refuge in Florida where she collects wild animals seized by the authorities or saved by her foundation. She married a millionaire over 20 years older than her, which she inherited after her mysterious disappearance in 1997.

In 2011, she launched a battle, first online then legal, which put Joe Exotic on the straw.

But for him, behind the 58-year-old activist with long blonde hair and leopard clothes hides a greedy business leader: visitors pay to see animals penned in shabby enclosures and she takes advantage of her volunteer staff, he says. -he.

Joe Exotic also believes that the husband - missing after announcing he wanted a divorce - has been murdered. "We think she made him eat the tigers," he says.

The zoo owner will finally fall while physically trying to silence his rival.

In 2019, he was charged with offering $ 3,000 to a hired man to kill Carol Baskin, and sentenced to prison in January 2020. He appealed, claiming that the charge was based on false testimony.

And despite the absence of television in prison, he knows that he is now famous.

"Joe always wanted to be a star, so he's very happy to have caught the attention," co-director Rebecca Chaiklin told Hollywood Reporter.

© 2020 AFP