Has anyone here watched HBO’s Monsters of God?
I’d be interested to hear everyones take on it.
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Havent watched yet myself, though actually currently watching Wickens do a breakdown of it! I’ll have more to say afterwards. but honestly think it’s really interesting to see how the hobby has evolved over the years. The good, and the bad!
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It’s interesting to see that a lot of the old, familiar names that were/are involved in the trade. Many I’ve known of or about for my entire career as a hobbyist.
Unfortunately, I feel, this documentary will be used to ban or otherwise destroy more of our hobby.
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I’ve only seen the first two episodes. I gotta say, it’s fascinating. I had no idea that level of criminal activity was going on. Who the hell calls him “Tommy” Crutchfield? I’ve always seen him as “Tom” Crutchfield. I remember getting monthly Tom Crutchfield and Bob Clark snail-mailings with their list of available reptiles, before the internet, when Reptiles magazine was in its prime. I don’t think I kept any of those mailings, but I have all my old Reptiles magazine issues.
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I’ve always suspected and therefore I’m not surprised at the lowest levels human beings will stoop to for greed. It’s very sad to say the least…..
Better, ‘is’. There’s just a brief mention in the doc of Van Nostrand’s discovery of the art of laundering (importing WC animals as CB), but that’s still a very common practice, and these animals are sold on the open market. And herps carried in suitcases and brownboxed is how virtually all these new species hit the market at high prices. Not just herps lately, either – nearly all the non-T inverts in the hobby are from smuggled stock (or are smuggled themselves), and that’s a very recently added niche in the hobby. Smuggling of Ts is definitely on the rise, too.
My take is that it is well worth watching, even if you need to sign up for the service for a month (which I did). I’ve read the book(s) it is based on, and the doc follows that pretty closely which is great. The historical photos and videos, and contemporary interviews, add a huge amount of value. Five stars.
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