Netflix Documentary Reviews

Tiger King Review (NETFLIX)

 The Tiger King is a documentary that was released onto Netflix on the 20th of March 2020. The show consists of two main characters named Joe Exotic and Carol Baskin. The disagreement between the two is due to Carol Baskin claiming that Joe Exotic is not treating his animals (tigers) correctly while Joe Exotic disagrees. Through out watching the documentary one starts to loose respect for both people as you slowly start to realise that they are both hypocrites and what they are doing is exactly the same (making money by owning captivated tigers). 

This documentary is not fiction based. It is based on true events which happened and were filmed in 2014 before the arrest of Joe Exotic. Exotic was arrested on suspicion of hiring a contract killer to kill Carol Baskin as-well as illegally killing endangered tigers in-order to make space for more exotic animals.

The production itself is estimated to have had a budget of around $2 million / episode and had it not been released in the middle of the worldwide lockdown due to COVID 19 it is estimated that the production would have made around $300 million in the first 10 days after release.

The filming quality for the program is fairly standard and its clear to see that a vast amount of the production was filmed on a hand held device (i am able to tell this by the the frequent shaking of the camera) 

The audience this production targets seems to be older and more mature audiences as it often uses profanity and commonly references gun violence. There seems to be a reoccurring theme of threats from Joe Exotic towards Carol Baskin almost always including death or harm. Throughout the documentary a very large part of the theme seems to be legal figures (lawyers etc) and the law enforcement. 

 I personally believe the reason this production was so popular was because it is an extreme representation of what is seen everyday in day to day life amongst other humans. What one views in this documentary is simply just human nature and its unpleasant ways. I personally enjoyed this documentary very much and was saddened when it came it an end. i believe the documentary highlighted what was wrong in these big businesses dealing with endangered animals, they only care about the money and not the animals.

Sunderland Till I Die (NETFLIX)

The documentary 'Sunderland Till I die' is about the northern football club Sunderland FC. The production looks at the history, present struggles and possible futures for the club. The over all tone of the documentary is a fairly negative one as during the time of the filming the club was facing relegation (being moved into a lower league)

The documentary goes on to talk to fans, players and senior members of the club asking them how they feel about the current situation that the club finds itself in. Most of the filming is done in the stadium and around the local area in pubs where it would be easy to find the fans. From watching the production i think it is very safe to say that the target audience of this production is boys/men who preferably are football fans as well.

People Just Do Nothing

"People Just Do Nothing" is not actually a documentary but more of a mockumentary (a fictional story in the format of a documentary) which is based in West London borough of Brentford. The main focus is on a group of teenage boys who run an illegal radio station that mainly plays early 2000s garage music.

The producers show the fact that these boys are living in a less affluent area of London by doing lots of the filming in a council estate. The characters filmed are almost always wearing tracksuits, trainers and caps. This is a very stereotypical way of portraying a character as a "chav".

throughout the documentary the mood varies and changes and the main way the producers decide to show this is through the music that is being played. For example when DJ Beatz has his first born the music is happy and uplifting, while on the other-hand when MC Grindah finds out he needs to move to Essex the music choice is very slow and sad. I personally think that the music chosen by the directors is phenomenal and they do an extremely good job at portraying emotion to the audience.

I believe it is pretty safe to say that the target audience is definitely teenage boys/young men as the documentary has components (car racing, custom cars, DJing, recreational drug use, illegal raves etc) which would be more likely to interest males rather than females.