- Network: HBO
- Series Premiere Date: Aug 18, 2024
Critic Reviews
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Chimp Crazy is a docuseries that piles on the storytelling drama, but it also evokes strong emotions from us, which is what a good docuseries should do.
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“Chimp Crazy” paints a more complex, nuanced portrait of chimp owners than “Tiger King” did of folks who collect Big Cats. “Chimp Crazy” also proves more entertaining with surprising twists and outlandish characters who are hard to dislike even as they make terrible, self-destructive life choices.
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A startling portrait of need, delusion, and the cruelty it begets, all of it perpetrated in the name of compassion and adoration.
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Goode’s methods are legitimately gripping, even if they stray into all kinds of gray areas. I found that the docuseries stayed with me for days after I watched, and it has affected how I think about all our interactions with animals, both domesticated and wild.
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Chimp Crazy lacks the snack-chip urgency of Tiger King, but that’s by design. Haddix is a thorny and complicated character, although you often have to dig around the edges of the episodes for complexities they try to move right past. This is a series that isn’t meant to be wolfed down in one gulp and regretted the next morning. It’s made to be chewed on and lingered over, even if it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
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The story gets weirder as it goes along. It also gets more involving and coherent, having taken a few digressive side trips before swinging into forward motion.