Eric Goode Unpacks 'Monsters of God' Finale Tortoise Reveal — SkimNews
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- Eric Goode told IndieWire that the 'Monsters of God' finale centers on Ken McLeod, a former US Fish and Wildlife Service officer who kept a critically endangered ploughshare tortoise from Madagascar in his bedroom for 20 years post-retirement, comparing him to 'an alcoholic running a liquor store.'
- 'Tiger King' served as a double-edged sword for Goode — it landed him the HBO deal but became 'a liability' for accessing reptile trade subjects, with featured smuggler Tom Crutchfield saying he would have declined had he seen it first.
- Josh and Benny Safdie, whom Goode hired through his Turtle Conservancy work, originally collaborated on the project in 2014 in South Florida; Josh Safdie and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Ronald Bronstein are credited as executive producers on the finished series.
- 'Monsters of God' finished its five-episode HBO run on September 3, and Goode positioned it as distinct from 'Tiger King' and 'Chimp Crazy' by emphasizing the half-century history of the US reptile trade over 'freakshow' personalities.
- San Diego Zoo herpetology curator Tom Schultz, now in his early 90s, declined to sign a release despite multiple lengthy conversations with Goode about his ties to illegal dealers Anson Wong and Tom Crutchfield.
- Goode framed the docuseries as 'a cautionary tale about the extinction crisis,' arguing that 'some of the very laws that we put in place to save species actually do more harm than good sometimes.'
- Goode said he is developing non-animal projects, including a documentary about his family and another about nightlife in downtown Manhattan in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Why it matters: The 'Monsters of God' finale flips the expected narrative by exposing that the corruption Goode spent four episodes investigating in dealers also infected the enforcement side — McLeod's 20-year secret possession of a tortoise Goode calls 'critically endangered, arguably extinct in the wild' underscores how wildlife protection laws can be undermined by the very officials sworn to enforce them.
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