Eliana Willis

I am a little figure on a big green map.I’m wearing an orange jacket and a luchador-style wrestling mask with pointy ears, the outfit of my avatar in Pokémon Go, the augmented-reality smartphone game in which you catch, collect and evolve tiny monsters for points and prestige.All around me, stretching to the horizon, there are no-go zones. The grocery store I should avoid because of social distancing. The playground where parents are being advised not to let their toddlers touch the equipment. The city park where Brooklynites craving fresh air have been coming too close for comfort.My avatar radiates a small circle around it, denoting the distance at which you can activate in-game features. (Suddenly, the concept of having a circle radiating from your person — six feet to be precise — is universal, and a lot less whimsical.) The figure stands on a single, long rectangle, the house I live in. And that, pretty much, is where I stay.If you’ve ever played Pokémon Go, you know the problem here. Unlike so many video games, this one was designed to get you off your couch, make you move and bring you into the world. If you want to advance and find rarities, you need to wander and explore. To get the balls, potions and eggs you need (I could go into detail; I won’t), you visit “Pokéstop” stations and “gyms” placed at local landmarks.If you don’t go anywhere, you don’t get anywhere. “Go” is in the name, after all. And yet here we are, in the era of Stay.Before Covid-19, my continuing Pokémon Go habit was just a mild embarrassment. It was the ultimate dad move to still be playing a game that became a pop-culture sensation in 2016, when Hillary Clinton joked about getting voters to “Pokémon Go to the polls.”Now the app is one more reminder of what we’ve lost — the casual ability to just go places and have real-world experiences, including the ones mediated by an augmented-reality game.Pokémon Go had been a constant low-key part of my life, an ambient presence in the back of my head as I moved about the world. On city bus rides to school, I would pass off my phone to my son so he could catch Drowzees and Eevees for me on the trip. I do not hand around my phone so casually anymore.I’d open the game while on a morning run or at rest stops on family road trips. When I traveled, it was a kind of alt-GPS that I would use to discover new cities. I collected Pokémon the way other people would collect souvenir snow globes. A trip to Miami for a book fair netted a region-specific Corsola. Visiting Mexico City to give a lecture in February, I went running in Tlalpan National Park and finally nabbed a long-coveted Heracross.The game even has a social aspect of sorts, a “friends” feature that allows you to trade in-game “gifts” with other players. I have friends in New York, elsewhere in America, in Europe and Asia. I hope they’re doing well; the game allows for no communication except gift-giving.Lately I don’t go out and collect many gifts, so I don’t send many. The world, once a delightful bounty of serendipity and lucky finds, is now a scary place to retreat from.One silly game experience, of course, is hardly humankind’s greatest loss at the moment. But this is part of what the pandemic does: It makes even harmless, time-wasting aspects of life into ominous, sad triggers.Before our great sheltering, people would often bemoan that screen entertainments were replacing “real” experience. If anything, this has firmed my belief that virtual experiences are, in their own way, absolutely real. When you lose them, along with the physical world they’re layered over, the loss is undeniable.Once upon a time, the makers of Pokémon Go mainly had to worry about reminding ardent users not to trespass or crash the car while on the hunt. Now, they’re making it easier for us suddenly homebound players to amass a stash of balls, hatch eggs with less walking and lure critters while sheltering in place. A recent news alert in the app promised “updates to Pokémon Go features and experiences that can be enjoyed in individual settings.”It’s nice. It helps. It also helps that there are ways of playing without leaving home, like a “battle league” feature that allows you to pit your Pokémon against other monster teams from around the world.But that’s not the game. The game is catching them all, hunting, exploring, moving. My weekly progress meter — which measures my walking for in-game rewards, in communication with my Apple Watch — would regularly log over 50 kilometers in a typical week. Last week I barely cracked 20. (Mostly, I assume, nervous pacing.)Still, I play. I see what creatures are lurking near my house. Occasionally, I see if the coast is clear and dash down the block to spin my local Pokéstop. In a stressful time, even the attenuated game is a distraction and a comfort.But it’s also a reminder of what Pokémon Go used to give me, and the one thing it can no longer deliver no matter how much it tweaks its code: the whole wide world. More

There’s no getting around it: Most of us won’t be traveling for a good, long while. There are certainly more pressing concerns — personal health, supply lines, stocking the pantry, caring for the children — but the anticipation and inner peace of an upcoming vacation, a family gathering, or a trip abroad have now disappeared, and who knows for how long. It’s neither safe nor (increasingly) possible to visit Norway or Brazil or France or anywhere else when you’re stuck in your home.But maybe it is. One of the genuine delights of the streaming era is the degree to which it has made international television available, and readily too — with scores of shows streaming on Amazon, Hulu, HBO and (especially) Netflix. Sprinkle in an assortment of travelogues and you can go all over the world, from the comfort (and confines) of your couch. Here are some of the best shows for treating cabin fever:‘Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations’Streaming on Hulu.Any respectable world television tour should begin with Anthony Bourdain’s globe-trotting food and travel docu-series, in which the late, great celebrity chef visits places large and small, from Singapore to Saudi Arabia to Sweden, taking in the local cuisine, culture and citizens. (And he doesn’t slouch on the scenery, either — the series twice won the Emmy award for Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming). Over the course of its nine-season run, it became clear that Bourdain wasn’t just out to see sights or swipe recipes; the show seemed like his personal mission to correct the Ugly American stereotype, and to remind us that when we’re abroad, we should aim to be travelers rather than tourists. (Read The New York Times review.)‘Somebody Feed Phil’Streaming on Netflix.“Food is the great connector,” says Phil Rosenthal, “and laughter is the cement.” This Netflix original often plays like a comic riff on “No Reservations” (though that show is frequently funny itself), as the nebbish “Everybody Loves Raymond” creator travels to Lisbon and Buenos Aires and other places around the globe, in an attempt to “go to the source” of some of his favorite foods — and take in the world in the process, with most of the show’s laughs generated by the incongruity between his markedly urban American persona and the kind of “roughing it” often required by these locales.‘Travel Man: 48 Hours In …’Streaming on Hulu.There’s a long, rich tradition of British comedians “presenting” travel programs, from Michael Palin’s marvelous BBC docu-series (“Around the World in 80 Days,” “Pole to Pole,” “Full Circle,” etc.) to the ongoing “Trip” series (to northern England, Italy, Spain and Greece) with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon to this Channel 4 treat, in which the comic actor and director Richard Ayoade (“The IT Crowd”) visits the great cities of the world for 48 hours with a celebrity guest. The results are enjoyable as both a travel series and a parody of them; Ayoade and his friends hit the must-see sights and capture the beauty of these hot spots, but also detour to goofier locations, indulging in wry commentary and awkward interplay.‘Our Planet’Streaming on Netflix.Narrator David Attenborough and the team behind his acclaimed BBC series “Planet Earth” spent four years crafting this eight-part Netflix original with two purposes: to celebrate the world we inhabit, and to note the disruptions and dangers that have entered its ecosystems. That message remains vital, but the show’s sense of wonder and powerful visuals are not to be denied and, as the entire series was shot with 4K cameras — taking in images of Indonesian jungles, Central African Deserts, the forests of Madagascar, the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic on a big flat screen — this is about as close as you’re going to get to the real thing. (Read The New York Times review.)‘Sense8’Streaming on Netflix.From “The Matrix” trilogy to “Cloud Atlas,” the Wachowskis have never lacked in ambition, and their two-season Netflix series has exotic locations built into its premise, which connects eight strangers in eight cities with each others’ lives and worlds. In telling that story, they covered as much ground as any travel show, with breathtaking photography in Mumbai, London, Seoul, Nairobi, Mexico City, Berlin, Naples, Malta, Amsterdam, São Paulo and many, many more places. (Read The New York Times review.)‘The Night Manager’Streaming on Amazon Prime.When the screenwriter David Farr and the director Susanne Bier adapted John le Carré’s 1993 spy novel for television, they not only updated the time period, but tweaked the locations — shooting the sleek, glossy tale in Switzerland, Marrakesh and Spain (of particular note: a gorgeous Spanish villa for the villain Hugh Laurie). The le Carré purists may object, but the rest of us will be too busy luxuriating in the Continental flavor and sun-soaked photography. (Read The New York Times review.)‘Killing Eve’Streaming on Hulu.Spy shows and films generally hopscotch around the globe, which makes them especially ripe for wanderlust viewing, and though the smash BBC America adaptation of Luke Jennings’ “Villanelle” novels is, in many ways, a subversion of the spy series conventions, one must often embrace those tropes to send them up. So the MI6 agent Eve Polastri must trek from London to such locales as Tuscany, Berlin, Bucharest, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome and other places in her pursuit of the high-level assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer). (Read The New York Times review.)‘Wallander’Streaming on Hulu and BritBox.Henning Mankell’s series of detective novels, previously adapted into films and a series for Swedish television, are here dramatized by British TV with the quintessentially British actor Kenneth Branagh in the role. But the series keeps the original Swedish setting, and to great effect; Times critic Mike Hale praises the show’s use of “the stark, flat expanses of the southern Swedish coast, with their shimmering fields and lonely trees outlined against big blue-gray skies.” (Read The New York Times review.)‘Occupied’Streaming on Netflix.And from here our world tour takes us to Norway, for this ongoing series from the minds behind such archetypal Scandinavian crime films as “Insomnia” and “Headhunters.” This fast-paced political thriller, in which high-minded Norwegian government officials cease production of oil and gas in the face of climate change, only to find their country occupied by Russian forces, offers up not only the snowy landscapes we’ve come to expect, but plenty of urban portraiture as well. (Read The New York Times review.)‘Babylon Berlin’Streaming on Netflix.Next stop: Germany, for this extravagantly mounted, neo-noir series, set during the city’s pre-Hitler, Weimar Republic era. The production — reportedly the most expensive in German TV history — leans heavily on a giant, permanent standing set at the Babelsberg Studio, but also uses copious locations throughout the city (and country), including the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, the Berlin City Hall, the Protestant Church of the Redeemer,and the Bavarian Railway Museum. (Read The New York Times review.)‘Dark’Streaming on Netflix.On the other hand, if you’d like to visit small-town Germany in the present day (sort of), we can pay a visit to the forest village of Winden, the setting for this dizzyingly complicated and moodily atmospheric Netflix original. Winding together four families and three generations of tragedies — kidnappings, suicides, murders — that often converge in the dark and scary woods, this one is frightening enough to make you feel all right about staying indoors. (Read The New York Times review.)‘Call My Agent!’Streaming on Netflix.The French film industry gets the “Curb Your Enthusiasm”/“Extras” treatment with this inside-showbiz satire, mixing real stars of their big and small screens with the fictional exploits of a rapidly splintering and highly dysfunctional talent agency. The takeaway is that the machinery that keeps things running behind the scenes is far from glamorous (it’s petty, gossipy and back-stabbing), but there’s still plenty of screen time for the glam, and many opportunities to gawk at the Parisian scenery and high-powered red carpets. (Read The New York Times review.)‘My Brilliant Friend’Streaming on HBO.Some series float through their locations, only making fleeting connections. But HBO’s ongoing adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels isn’t just set in Italy in the 1950s; it’s dug in there, intimately aware of every stairwell, courtyard and apartment in its working class neighborhood. It’s a setting, James Poniewozik writes, “where everyone is packed close and prying eyes and whispers are inescapable.” But the series also offers gorgeous glimpses of the world outside that neighborhood, of an upper-crust area of Naples, or a resort island. It’s a welcome reminder that even when things are bleak, escape is still possible. (Read The New York Times review.)‘Kingdom’Streaming on Netflix.And on we travel, both around the globe (to South Korea) and back in time (to the 16th century) for this Netflix original, gleefully mixing historical drama, zombie horror, swordplay, political satire and (gulp) contagion thriller — and mounted on a grand scale, with big, colorful action sequences carefully choreographed in gorgeous forests and rolling vistas. Mike Hale picked it as one of the best international shows of the decade, and praised the “rousing” series for its “rich production values.” (Read The New York Times review.)‘Giri / Haji’Streaming on Netflix.And we land in both London and Tokyo for this recent Netflix addition (a pickup from BBC Two), a cross-cultural story of a Tokyo detective (Takehiro Hira) attempting to track down his gangster brother in the criminal underworld. Aiding him in the search — as best she can — is a London police detective (Kelly MacDonald), whose perpetual mood seems to take its cues from the city: cold and gray. But the show also beautifully captures the neon glow of these cities at night, when the respectable citizens clear the streets, and things start getting interesting.‘Outlander’Streaming on Netflix and Starz.There’s a strange circularity about watching (or, likely, rewatching) Starz’s adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s books for the scenery — since a fair number of its enthusiastic viewers have gone to central Scotland for the primary purpose of visiting its locations. And they’re gorgeous, rolling hills and venerable castles and foggy marshes and leafy forests, offering even more escape than we were already enjoying from this tale of a 1940s woman inexplicably zapped into 18th-century Scotland. And she does what we’re all trying to do: she makes the best of it. (Read The New York Times review.)‘Black Sails’Streaming on Hulu.By the time this thing is over, we may not even want to be landlocked anymore — and there’s no better show for taking to the high seas than Starz’s four-season pirate adventure/drama, presenting the origin story of Long John Silver. Though set in the West Indies circa 1715, the series was shot in South Africa, which convincingly doubles for the region; the blue waters are crystal clear, and the beaches would be irresistibly inviting were it not for all those pesky pirates. (Read The New York Times review.)‘Fortitude’Streaming on Amazon Prime.And finally we land at the top of the world — well, close to it, on the Arctic island of Fortitude, setting of this Sky Atlantic mystery/thriller series. Fortitude, however, is a fictional location (that’d be just a bit too nice and neat), so the three-season series was shot in Iceland and Norway; its icy glaciers and snow-capped mountains could come in handy if we’re still indoors this summer. (Read The New York Times review.)Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. More

SYDNEY, Australia — Joe Brumm’s daughter was 3 when she was first admitted to a hospital with an asthma-like illness. She spent a week in intensive care.“When she gets a cold, her lungs shut down,” said Brumm, the creator of “Bluey,” a wildly popular Australian children’s cartoon for 5- to 7-year-olds.In “Bluey,” Brumm, 41, has turned moments from his own family life into a series of seven-minute episodes. These range from mundane squabbles, chores and playtime to more troubling situations, like his daughter’s hospital visit.The difference is, onscreen, it’s a family of dogs.In a country of just 25 million people, the show has been streamed over 200 million times, making it the most popular program ever on ABC iview, the Australian public broadcaster’s on-demand service.And this week, “Bluey” won an International Emmy Kids Award for the best preschool program, with the winners announced online because of the coronavirus pandemic and the cancellation of the awards ceremony in Cannes.“Bluey” started to go global last year. Disney purchased the rights for the series, and it premiered on Disney Junior in the United States in September, and is now on Disney+. Youku, a Chinese streaming service, is showing it dubbed into Mandarin.“Bluey” speaks with a rare frankness and authenticity not only about the experience of being a child, but, also, being a parent. If it becomes as much of a hit abroad as at home, “Bluey” could rival “The Wiggles” as Australia’s most popular children’s cultural export.The dog family lives in a suburban home in Brisbane with palm trees, colorful birds and endless sunny days — not to mention the city’s quintessential “Queenslander” houses, with corrugated iron roofs and shady verandas.Jane Gould, Disney’s senior vice president of content strategy and insights, said that the Australian setting and the characters’ strong accents weren’t an issue for young viewers in the United States, but that they would have been in the past.“Our kids live in a much more global community than the adults do,” Gould said, adding that, because of the internet, children nowadays have heard a broader variety of voices.Daley Pearson, a co-founder of Ludo Studio, which produced the show, said “Bluey” was “a show for parents who hate kids’ shows.” He described it as a mixture of “Peppa Pig” and “Family Guy” — minus the latter’s vulgarity.“I think kids can handle a lot of stuff more than film and TV writers give them credit for,” Pearson added. “They can handle heavy themes about compromise, cooperation or death, or jealousy.”And whereas shows like “Peppa Pig” lampoon a bumbling father figure, “Bluey” celebrates the father, Bandit, as an equal, capable and fun parent, alongside his wife, Chilli. Bandit is always sympathetic to his children, dedicates time to playing games and contributes equally to the housework. Several Australian media outlets have described this portrayal as “groundbreaking.”At a launch party for a “Bluey” range of soft toys and books in Sydney a few months ago, about 30 parents stood by as their children sat on the floor, rapt, while they were read a “Bluey” story.James Brown, 39, who came to the event with his wife and two children, said: “I like the father. He is a really interesting role model for dads who are trying to do a bit more than the traditional model.”“There’s not a lot of TV where that’s represented,” he added.But Brumm said that he did not set out to redefine fathers.“I was just trying to show what I did around the house and with the kids,” he said. “We still tease my father that he never changed a nappy,” he added, using the Australian word for a diaper. “The roles were probably more split back then. For my wife and myself, it’s all in.”Brumm, who also worked on the British cartoon “Charlie and Lola,” said he based “Bluey” on a Blue Heeler dog of the same name he had growing up in Queensland.Also known as an Australian cattle dog, Blue Heelers — a mix of native wild dingoes and domestic breeds — were bred to herd animals over long distances. They are celebrated in Australia for their loyalty and intelligence and the blue tinge of their coats.“There are so many Australian shows that are cockatoos and koalas and kangaroos. I just found this really quintessential Australian dog,” Brumm said.When Brumm had his own children, who are both under 10, he started jotting down the games they played, he said, and these “just morphed into these ‘Monty Python’ bizarre scenarios.”Brumm said he soon realized he had never seen a depiction of unstructured children’s play — with all the strange, nonsensical turns it can take — in a kids’ TV show before.It was equally important for him to show the charm and nostalgia of watching children grow up. One trademark of “Bluey” is the realistic dialogue and the constant dribble of random and amusing questions that young people ask about the world: “Where do rocks come from?” “Why are some plants food, like lettuce, but other plants not food?”Sky Scott, 36, a physiotherapist who was at the recent toy launch, said she loved “Bluey” because it portrayed “the humor of parenting.” She even watches it with friends without her children, she added.“There are so many things we can relate to as a parent” in the show, she said.Teigan Butchers, 36, who came to the event with her 6-year-old, said that “Bluey” depicted “a lot of normalities of life: chores and bedtime and rules. When we were growing up, we had fairy tales, which are a little less realistic.”Brumm said this sense of realism was what “Bluey” was all about. “There’s so much hard work with kids and there’s so much laughter that’s going on in and around the cracks,” he said. “I wanted to get to the core of what’s in the engine room of a family.” More

Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. If you’re interested in hearing from The Times regularly about great TV, sign up for our Watching newsletter and get recommendations straight to your inbox.An Empire State of PanicNew York City has been hit hard by Covid-19, with more than 1,550 coronavirus-related deaths as of Tuesday.“Recently, it has gone from the city that never sleeps to the city that lays awake every night filled with existential dread,” Trevor Noah joked on Tuesday night’s “The Daily Social Distancing Show.”This week, the Navy sent in a U.S. hospital ship, the Comfort, to dock in New York and help handle patients. Beginning Monday night, the city paid tribute to emergency workers by lighting the Empire State Building red and white, flashing like an ambulance beacon.“Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the crisis it’s that you definitely want to be on a giant ship.” — JIMMY FALLON“It has 1,000 hospital beds on-site, which New Yorkers are so excited about. So excited that yesterday a crowd gathered to welcome the boat to the city, which is obviously extremely counterproductive in social distancing land, but it also shows you how much New York has changed. Yeah, because normally we hate it when people show up to the city. Like a month ago, New Yorkers would have gathered to throw rats at that boat: ‘Your mother says hello!’” — TREVOR NOAH“Last night, the building lit up like a siren to honor the medical workers serving on the front line of the epidemic. This might be a good idea when they first pitched it, but as someone who lives in New York, it was terrifying. The Empire State Building, the giant light flashing around — and can you imagine if someone was high in their living room? They must have freaked out. ‘[Expletive], dude! I think we’re getting pulled over by that building!’” — TREVOR NOAH“Yep, everyone was confused by the red and white flashing lights. At first, New Yorkers thought it meant Target finally got a shipment of toilet paper.” — JIMMY FALLON“Pull over! The Empire State Building is flashing its lights!” — JIMMY KIMMEL“When they saw that, New Yorkers were like, ‘That’s great. Maybe next time could you give us a heads up? I thought we were being invaded by North Korea.’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (MyPillow Edition)“During President Trump’s press briefing yesterday about the pandemic, he invited the founder of MyPillow to speak, at which point I used my pillow to scream into.” — SETH MEYERS“It’s no surprise Trump would introduce the MyPillow guy at a presidential briefing. It’s a tradition going back to Harry Truman announcing victory in the Pacific with Chef Boyardee.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“That’s right, the founder of MyPillow spoke at a coronavirus press briefing yesterday and encouraged Americans to use the time they’re self-isolating to read their Bibles. Oh, I don’t know — between the plague and the false idol next to you, I think the Bible is going to feel redundant.” — SETH MEYERSThe Bits Worth WatchingThe “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness offered Jimmy Fallon some helpful tips on home-based quarantine haircuts.What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightJoe Biden and Lady Gaga will be virtual guests on “The Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutThere’s never been a better time to follow new comedians on Instagram. More

What’s StreamingBAGHDAD CENTRAL Stream on Hulu. An Iraqi inspector searches post-9/11 Baghdad for his missing daughter in this thriller series. Set around America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, “Baghdad Central” stars Waleed Zuaiter as Muhsin Al-Khafaji, a former law enforcement operative whose mission requires him to form an uneasy partnership with U.S. forces. (“I’m never sure if they’re going to shoot me in the head,” he says early on.) The series, based on a novel by the scholar Elliott Colla, originally aired on the British network Channel 4 and was generally well-received. “It’s nice to see an Iraq war-set thriller that centers on Iraqi lives for a change,” Ellen E. Jones wrote in a review for The Guardian. “Nice because it’s the right thing for a socially conscious broadcaster to commission, but also just nice because it makes for some refreshingly original entertainment.”THE INN AT LITTLE WASHINGTON: A DELICIOUS DOCUMENTARY (2020) Stream on PBS.org. Scallops with poached apple, hand assembled. Lobster Napoleon. Lamb carpaccio with “Caesar-salad ice cream.” These are some of the eye-catching dishes in this hourlong documentary, which follows the chef Patrick O’Connell and the employees of his Virginia restaurant, the Inn at Little Washington, on a quest for one of the top honors in the culinary world: a three-star rating in the Michelin Guide. On top of a bounty of lovingly filmed food, the documentary offers a history of the restaurant (in the Blue Ridge Mountains) and a look at O’Connell’s culinary philosophy. “It’s either art or garbage,” he says. “There’s nothing in between.”BE OUR CHEF Stream on Disney Plus. Expect less perfectionism and more princess cameos in this new cooking-competition show, which pits families against each other in Disney-themed culinary challenges. A highlight of the first episode’s menu: Tomato soup served in a bread bowl shaped like Cinderella’s carriage.THE ILIZA SHLESINGER SKETCH SHOW Stream on Netflix. After five stand-up specials for Netflix, the comedian Iliza Shlesinger turns to sketch comedy in this new streaming series. The first episode includes parodies of “Jackass” and “A Star Is Born,” plus a sketch in which a roomful of suited executives trade business gobbledygook while messily (and inexplicably) scarfing down nectarines.What’s on TVSEVEN SAMURAI (1956) 8 p.m. on TCM. Wednesday would have been the 100th birthday of Toshiro Mifune, the Japanese actor perhaps best known for his work with the filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. (Mifune died in 1997.) TCM is airing a handful of Mifune and Kurosawa’s collaborations over the course of the day. In addition to “Seven Samurai,” Kurosawa’s venerated drama with Mifune as a samurai of questionable legitimacy, consider Kurosawa’s film noir HIGH AND LOW (1963), airing at 5:30 p.m., in which Mifune plays a business executive drawn into a kidnapping scandal. For a late-night masterpiece, see RASHOMON (1951), airing at 11:45 p.m., with Mifune as a bandit. More

It’s impossible to know whether or not the Netflix docu-series “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” would have become such a sensation were we not all spending most of our waking hours inside. The show’s subtitle itself feels like it was made for a different time, one in which the show really had to sell itself to potential viewers. (“It has murder, mayhem and madness.”)The New York Times TV critic Margaret Lyons certainly knew, writing, “Narratively, this seven-part documentary is kind of a mess, but everything it depicts is so outrageous that it barely matters.”If you’ve seen the entire series (or even just a few episodes), you’ve likely been inspired to dive down a rabbit hole and read even more about the sordid tale of Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin and the world of American big cat owners.First, you might want to know that last fall, “Saturday Night Live” actress Kate McKinnon signed up to produce and star as Baskin in the limited series “Joe Exotic.” That series is based on a podcast of the same name by the writer Robert Moor. (You can listen to that podcast here.)Moor also wrote one of the two definitive journalistic pieces on the saga of the Tiger King. There’s this Texas Monthly piece, and then there’s Moor’s, which he wrote for New York Magazine, and is a meaty long read that has tons of details the series does not. Like the following:“When he got back to the park, he put a pair of tigers with lions, and soon his first liger was born. Then he decided to house the liger with a lion, and a year later the first liliger was born — half-lion, half-liger. Joe would go on to create a tiliger and even a tililiger (or T3) — creatures that existed almost nowhere else on earth. Some of these hybrids grew to monstrous size; Joe’s largest weighed over a thousand pounds. By continuing on this trajectory, Joe believed he could re-create a prehistoric sabertooth tiger. (Big-cat biologists universally agree that this is absurd.)”Moor put together a Twitter thread detailing some random facts he found during his reporting, but he deleted one of the Tweets, and now it’s all messed up! (Who among us?) Still, you might be interested in scrolling through his feed.Here are some more of the most interesting and informative pieces “Tiger King” has inspired, from around the web:‘Tiger King’ Chose the Wrong Villain [Slate]“One of the craziest things about this crazy-ass show is the bad edit that it gives to Carole Baskin, making a murderer and a bona fide reality TV villain of one of the few participants who has not actually been convicted of anything murder-adjacent … In a series that is bursting with felons, cult leaders, polygamists, wife abusers, animal abusers, and cruel egomaniacs, it’s Baskin alone who is treated without sympathy.”‘Tiger King’: What Happened to Carole Baskin’s Husband, Don Lewis? [The New York Times]“By Tuesday morning, Sheriff Chronister, who watched the seven episodes of the documentary with his family, was holding a Facebook Live news conference in his kitchen. He wanted to discuss the disappearance of Don Lewis, who ran a big cat sanctuary in the Tampa area before he went missing 23 years ago.”A Debate About ‘Tiger King’ Between Me and Myself [Vulture]“Me: Is ‘Tiger King’ good in a moral sense? Is it humane? Is it compassionate? Is it an ethical piece of filmmaking? Because come on, you know you cringed while watching this.“‘Tiger King,’ for all its extreme watchability, also lives pretty close to that TLC reality-show place. There’s a whiff of class tourism here, not that different from shows like ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’ or ‘Here Comes Honey Boo Boo’ — shows that treat their subjects like sideshow acts in a circus, where the circus is poverty. You feel okay watching this?Myself: Ehhhhhhhhhh …”Inside Joe Exotic’s Wild Homemade Music Videos [Vanity Fair]“After some light internet research, Vanity Fair concluded that the mystery musicians responsible for Joe’s tracks are Vince Johnson and vocalist Danny Clinton, both of whom are listed in ‘Tiger King’’s credits. But Joe guarded this ‘secret’ fiercely.“‘I had no idea he was going to Milli Vanilli the songs,’ Johnson wrote Vanity Fair in an email. ‘It was a couple of months and two or three songs [into the collaboration] when I was on YouTube one night and just happened to look up Joe Exotic. And there he was, lip-syncing and acting like the ghost of Elvis [in these music videos].’”The Private Zoos on Netflix’s ‘Tiger King’ Exist Because of These U.S. Exotic Pet Ownership Laws [People]“To learn more about how American citizens can legally own tigers, lions, and other large, dangerous animals as pets, People talked to Alicia Prygoski, the legislative affairs manager at Animal Legal Defense Fund — a group dedicated to furthering animal welfare ‘by filing high-impact lawsuits to protect animals’ — about the current laws (or lack thereof) regarding exotic pet ownership in the United States.”Why Yes, a ‘Tiger King’ Star Did Appear in Britney Spears’ ‘Slave 4 U’ VMAs Performance [Billboard]Hint: It’s not Joe Exotic.Slow and Steady [The New Yorker]This 2012 piece about turtle conservation looks at Eric Goode, who directed “Tiger King,” along with Rebecca Chalkin. In it, Goode is described as a “Manhattan hotel and restaurant owner” who “built and bought trendy hotels — the Maritime, the Bowery, the Jane, Lafayette House” and also used to date Naomi Campbell. More