On Nov. 17, “Tiger King” season two dropped on Netflix. Though under the same title as the original series, the show hardly fits the “Tiger King” name.

The show loosely follows the same structure of the first season, which became popular around March of 2020. It uses a basic documentary style of storytelling, with narration, live footage, and interviews spliced in. Though both seasons technically follow the same structure, season two feels much less dramatic and provides a much stronger documentary feel than season one did. The show gained popularity because of how it told dramatic and wild stories about some of the world’s most famous “big cat” people. Season two hardly shows the same enthusiasm and drama. 

Episode one of season two covers Joe Exotic, who was arrested as a result of the events covered by “Tiger King,” though in this episode, it follows his attorney and their journey to release Exotic from jail. This is the only episode in the new series that follows the original star. 

The remaining episodes of the series dive into the mystery of what happened to Don Lewis. Lewis went missing in August 1997 and was legally pronounced dead in 2002. Lewis was allegedly involved in a lot of shady business including ties to gangs and running off to Costa Rica. 

Season two covers many theories about what happened to Lewis and where he may have ended up on the day of his disappearance. Though this part of the show isn’t bad, it makes no sense being tied to the original “Tiger King” title. Season two would have been much better off as a spin off series covering Lewis’ disappearance, or a special that crammed all of the new information into an hour or two. The episodes of season two can be redundant at times and often repeatedly cover the same information, they easily could have been combined together. 

The new season isn’t the worst thing to ever be released on Netflix, and I like the idea of creating an update to wrap up the loose ends from the end of season one, but releasing nearly five hours of new information that only covers Don Lewis and his disappearance seems uninteresting and unwanted. The show would have been better if Netflix had created one episode to update each person from season one, or make no update at all. But the current second season is redundant, boring and unrelated to the first. 

If you’re a die hard fan of “Tiger King,” then season two might be an enjoyable experience, but for the more casual fans, I cannot recommend this show. It felt like a waste of time and a ratings grab on Netflix’s end.