HBO's 'Monsters of God' Probes Reptile Smuggling
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- HBO's "Monsters of God" is a five-part docuseries from Tiger King co-director Eric Goode profiling reptile dealers including Tom Crutchfield, Hank Molt (who pioneered importing rare and often endangered reptiles to the U.S.), and Malaysian exporter Anson Wong, whom HBO calls "the Pablo Escobar of reptiles"
- Bryan Christy's 2008 book "The Lizard King" supplies the template for the series; Christy appears as a consulting producer and praised Goode and fellow producers for "wrangling" wary reptile importers onto camera
- Mike Van Nostrand was convicted in 2022 for smuggling illegally-harvested Florida turtles to China, Japan, and other places, per the Department of Justice, and appeared on the post-screening panel alongside Crutchfield
- Eric Goode acknowledged his own collecting habit at the Q&A, saying "I've been an addict for over 50 years and now I'm still not sober," while distinguishing the series from Tiger King and Chimp Crazy: "Reptiles are different. It's nuanced"
- Zoos are portrayed as complicit in the series, paying dealers like Molt and Crutchfield to supply exotic reptiles while knowing the wranglers were violating U.S. and international law; Goode added, "Law enforcement made a lot of mistakes. We've made mistakes. The zoos made big mistakes and we're all complicit."
- New episodes debut on HBO the next four Thursdays and stream on HBO Max; actor Jason Segel moderated the panel at Vidiots in Los Angeles after a screening of episode 1
Why it matters: By giving convicted smugglers like Van Nostrand a platform to defend the exotic reptile trade — what HBO calls a "billion-dollar criminal enterprise" — the series spotlights the blurry ethics of a market where zoos, dealers, and regulators all share blame; for audiences, it's a chance to revisit Goode's true-crime animal-kingdom template while questioning whether passion or profit drives the trade.
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