How Netflix Changed the Documentary

Tiger King topped Forbes list of the top 25 most popular Netflix shows of 2020 as it spent a record breaking 27 days as the number one most viewed show on the platform. In the same year where gripping crime dramas and high budget sci-fi shows with stellar casts where released, the nations favourite show focused on the real life story of a rivalry between a wannabe famous zoo keeper and a Cat rights activist who allegedly killed her ex husband. This isn't the first time Netflix has turned a real life story into a hit show that gripped the nation. In 2015 they released the docuseries making a murderer which won 4 primetime Emmy awards.

While the story itself is already intriguing, the main factor in the documentarys success and what makes it so addictive is in the way the creative talent behind the show chose to tell the story. Tiger Kings producers apply storytelling techniques used in fictional dramas to real life scenarios; though the editing they were able to make these situations into stories with colourful protagonists, cliffhangers and mind blowing plot twists (whilst also focusing on themes of desperation and betrayal). When editing the show they ensure that they withhold information from the story to allow shocking plot twists to surprise the viewers in later episodes. In essence; the reason Netflix documentaries like Tiger king and Making a murderer feel so different to most other documentaries is because they have more in common with other genres like a crime drama and that makes them more unique and engaging. Tiger King especially feels like a hybrid of many different genres with elements of comedy throughout and the bizarre story was all over social media when it was first released making people feel like they had to watch the show just so they could understand all of the references and jokes relating to it. The show also couldn't have come out at a better time, everyone was stuck in their homes when tiger king released and many other shows where shutting down production due to the lockdown, Tiger King was able to finish filming just in time. It was also a form of escapism  despite the fact it's a "reality" show, the story was just so far-fetched and unbelievable that it was able to attract an audience that wouldn't usually tune into a documentary. Recently other Netflix documentaries like "American Murder" have been seeing similar viral success like Tiger King, which is something that many expensive dramas fail to do.