The Tiger King may have been dethroned, with a new docuseries from HBO telling another bonkers story about owning potentially dangerous exotic animals debuting with a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Titled Chimp Crazy, the four-part series comes courtesy of Eric Goode, the director behind Netflix’s pop culture phenomenon Tiger King, and tells the story of former nurse-turned-exotic animal broker Tonia Haddix, who spends her days caring for animals in captivity. However, her limitless love for one chimpanzee in particular spins into a wild cat-and-mouse game with authorities and an animal rights group…
The series sounds just as intriguing as the bizarre tale of Joe Exotic, and the first reviews for Chimp Crazy have hailed it as the next “must watch” series surrounding the outlandish world of exotic animal owners and, in this case, so-called “chimp moms.” Margaret Lyons of The New York Times found Chimp Crazy to be an improvement on the Tiger King.
“Everyone in this documentary is suffering, and some of them are ridiculous. And others of them are chimps. “Chimp Crazy” is more textured than “Tiger King,” partly because of its closer attention to the plight of animals.”
Daniel Fienberg of THR, meanwhile, felt that it was “at once better and worse than Tiger King,” but praised the less sensationalized, more mature approach.
“Much more so than in his breakout Tiger King, Goode is able to build out a clearly articulated thesis in Chimp Crazy — namely that private, domestic ownership of chimpanzees is a bad thing and should be regulated on a federal level for the good of both the chimpanzees and their owners, who are rarely prepared for the risks inherent in thinking you can domesticate animals that are often very large, very strong and very much not identical to humans in their behaviors.”
Nick Schager of The Daily Beast, though, calls Chimp Crazy “the Bananas New ‘Tiger King’ You’ve Been Waiting For.”
“A worthy, wacko successor to the gonzo pandemic blockbuster series, “Chimp Crazy” is another startling circus exposing a new, wild corner of the exotic animal trade.”
Chimp Crazy Offers Something More Profound Than the Absurdity of Tiger King
In contrast, The Cut’s Michel Ghanem praised director Eric Goode for depicting the same “gray areas” as seen in Tiger King with more focus on the welfare of the animals rather than the eccentric humans.
“It seems likely that Goode’s experience making Tiger King informed the decisions he made during Chimp Crazy, particularly in prioritizing animal well-being and avoiding an exploitative depiction of his subjects.”
John Anderson of The Wall Street Journal felt similarly, commending Goode for confronting the ethics of the exotic animal trade alongside the sensational story.
“The horror stories about full-grown “pets” gone rogue are not for the squeamish. But there are also ethical questions involved in Mr. Goode’s project — although, to his credit, he confronts them throughout.”
Finally, Nina Metz of the Chicago Tribune found something surprisingly profound at the center of Chimp Crazy, with the series promising to be far more affecting than the typical binge-watched streaming smash hit.
“I found that the docuseries stayed with me for days after I watched, and it has affected how I think about all our interactions with animals, both domesticated and wild.”
The HBO Original Documentary Series
Chimp Crazy
premieres August 18 on HBO and
Max
.
You can check out the trailer below.