Content Warning: The following article contains discussions of suicide
Peacock's Joe vs. Carole is a dramatized retelling of the feud between abusive zookeeper Joe Exotic and animal rights activist Carole Baskin. The eight-episode miniseries, based on season two of the true-crime podcast Over My Dead Body, stars Kate McKinnon as Baskin and John Cameron Mitchell as Exotic.
Naturally, one side of the animal rights debate has more likable characters than others. With that being said, every side has empathetic people, they're just not the type who shoot tigers.
8 Joe Exotic (John Cameron Mitchell)
Joe Exotic has done some truly awful things with his life, and Joe vs. Carole rarely strives to make him relatable. He's the type of man who will use and abuse animals, all the while pushing crocodile tears to show how much he cares about them.
Then, when someone tries to take away his supposed legitimate business, he'll do everything from drunkenly calling her a slew of expletives to hovering a helicopter over her preserve, causing one of her lions to have a seizure. And, of course, there's the whole "paying money to have a human being's one life ended" thing. Nothing about Exotic inspires anything besides contempt.
7 Jeff Lowe (Dean Winters)
Joe vs. Carole isn't the first TV show made by SNL alumni that Dean Winters has appeared in, having had a recurring role as Dennis Duffy in 30 Rock. In the Peacock series, he plays Jeff Lowe, the only man in the same contemptible, cruel league as Exotic.
Lowe was the man who took over The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, phrasing it to Exotic in the series like it's a favor. The idea is to circumnavigate the law, forcing the Baskins to file a second suit. He's a devious man, and Winters's likability as an actor can't save him from being stomach-churning.
6 Travis Maldonado (Nat Wolff)
Tiger King was one of the best TV shows that premiered in 2020 because it combined crime and drama in a way that only real life can provide, and the Peacock dramatization is no different.
Exotic's husbands, John Finlay and Travis Maldonado, are major sources of drama. Some of it is devastating, including Maldonado's potentially accidental death. He was a troubled kid who Exotic found at a gas station. No one else was offering him a home, so he ended up being highly susceptible to Exotic's high-powered influence. But Joe vs. Carole also hints that he started to see through Exotic, which could have led to his drug abuse, depression, and recklessness with the gun.
5 John Finlay (Sam Keeley)
John Finlay, one of Exotic's husbands and an employee at the zoo, is yet another individual who's fallen under the spell of the "Tiger King."
However, Finlay starts to catch on fairly early that Exotic is unhinged and has the propensity for cruelty. He has a good heart and wants to share it, but it's not going to be with Exotic, but he plays along for the sake of the documentary. Finlay ends up leaving Exotic and the G.W. Zoo, settling down and raising a child with a fellow zoo employee. But it's his attempted warnings to Maldonado as he's on his way out of the group that makes Finlay likable. He didn't want to see the young man get hurt, which is exactly what happened.
4 Jamie Murdock (Marlo Kelly)
Jamie Murdock is Baskin's daughter from her first marriage, to Michael Murdock. She's a fiercely loyal and loving daughter who sticks with her mother through several major life-changing events.
The first is when Baskin's second husband, Don Lewis, goes missing. Details were never clear on the situation, and crueler neighbors blame Baskin for it, despite the police stating that there was no evidence pointing her way. Then, Murdock sticks with her mom through Exotic's harassment, death threats, and murder plot. She could have been in the series a bit more, but Baskin's daughter is a great partner for her at Big Cat Rescue, and a great ear to open up to.
3 Howard Baskin (Kyle MacLachlan)
As one of Kyle MacLachlan's best recent TV roles, his Howard Baskin is a comfortable presence, and one of the series' overall better human beings.
He's a little odd, like when he dresses up as a caveman for his wedding to Carole in an attempt to show her that he isn't boring. But strange or not, he's a friendly person who doesn't have a bad word to say about anybody unless they threaten to murder his wife.
2 John Reinke (Brian Van Holt)
Like many of Exotic's employees at the Greater Wynnewood Animal Park, G.W. Zoo manager John Reinke cares more about big cats than the "Tiger King" himself. Compared to some of the more volatile people around him, Reinke is grounded.
Reinke lost both of his legs in a tragic zip-lining accident, and Exotic ended up giving him a job when few others would. It was also a job Reinke held enthusiasm for, so his continuous presence at the pseudo-zoo can be chalked up to mitigating further animal cruelty.
1 Carole Baskin (Kate McKinnon)
The fact that Baskin devotes her life to animal rights activism automatically makes her one of Joe vs. Carole's most likable characters. McKinnon plays the role fairly straight, never striving to make her seem larger-than-life. That grounding helps her likability because both Tiger King and the Peacock series are filled with large personality individuals.
She also takes her work very seriously, which can be both sweet and silly. She makes a volunteer stand until she hands him his Big Cat Rescue red shirt, signifying that he is now trusted, and no longer a volunteer. She wants a tight-knit group and has no issue hastily putting together a makeshift induction ceremony.
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