So it sounds like there’s good news and bad news for Joe Exotic. If you’re already saying ‘who?’ don’t worry too much about it, a lot of people are doing that these days since even though Joe became something of a household name thanks to Netflix, his star is fading very quickly. The fact is that Joe Maldonado-Passage has become a running joke at this point, but he might be getting out of jail before the end of the year instead of sometime in the next two decades. Apparently Joe’s lawyers convinced a panel of judges to try him for just one murder-for-hire case instead of two. The conviction hasn’t been tossed out, but instead of serving two decades in prison, which would kill him, according to the celebrity, he’ll be getting out much earlier. On top of that, he’s already looking for another husband it sounds like and is even holding a contest for it. Yep, that’s who people are looking at as a worthwhile celebrity these days, a mullet-wearing individual that made a mockery of himself and everyone around him. Even if half of the things that were said about Joe weren’t true, the other half would be more than enough to bury him under the deluge of public opinion, since he hasn’t been shy about telling people who he is.
A bit of news that’s not so great for Joe however is that his show on Amazon is a no-go at this point, as the streaming service has decided to hang it up and simply say no more. Peacock appears to be going ahead with their own project, but at this point, one has to wonder if anything that comes along is going to be anything other than a dramatized soap opera that won’t have much, if any, real bearing on what is said to have happened. Between Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, it’s easy to think that no one is telling the whole truth, since the fact that they’re both calling each other out for mistreating their animals, and that they continue to discredit each other on every front, supporting either of them is kind of a waste of money and attention. One thing can be said for Carole though, she wasn’t foolish enough to offer up any threats concerning Joe to her audience, either because he wasn’t worth the time and effort or because she railed against him in private. Calling both of these people crazy is too easy, and kind of insulting to crazy people really. Calling them foolish, sad, and severely misguided individuals is pretty easy though.
One thing is evident, their feud and the issues they deal with have taken the spotlight off of many of the other individuals who were shown in the documentary that Netflix displayed. The fact that people are allowed to buy and possess wild animals is a bit disturbing, not to mention dangerous to the animals and the people who want to come and see them and pet them, and generally disregard the overall safety of the animals and themselves. It might sound like a lot of preaching, but wild animals don’t necessarily lose that wild streak that allows them to survive in the wilds, at least not unless it’s trained out of them, which is a damned shame.
But back to Joe, the idea that he’s seeking a husband from prison is kind of ridiculous, but the idea that the judge who will be presiding over his case is a good friend of one of the witnesses that will speak on his behalf is kind of appalling. Not only does this feel like a conflict of interest, but it’s likely that the judge should recuse him or herself in regards to the case if it is true that they have any type of personal relationship with anyone attached to Joe’s case. I don’t know that much about the law, obviously, but one of the last things that should happen is to allow a judge to preside over a case in which they happen to personally know anyone that might be involved with it. But that’s for another person to decide, and to be honest, it’s kind of funny that Amazon just decided to tank the Joe Exotic story.
As a comedy, a drama, or even as a suspense movie it might have been something to laugh at and enjoy for what it was, a bit of fiction and not much else. But as the real-life mess that it’s been made into, Joe Exotic’s story is something that is better being shelved and released years later when people have forgotten all about him. Oh, it’ll happen eventually, at least until Joe decides to do his best to pull his ‘look at me, I’m someone’ routine again. Hopefully this experience will have taught him to keep his head down a little more, but I doubt it.
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