“Bro, smuggle some fuckin’ turtles, and then you’ll feel the rush,” a frankly odd-looking dude says during the Monsters of God trailer.
If that’s not enough to let you know that this is a new docuseries brought to you by the same creative team behind the COVID-era smash hit Tiger King and Chimp Crazy, there are plenty of other clues in the trailer.
Right from the jump, for example, this guy who I will flat out say has some very Joe Exotic vibes, says, “I’m married to these animals, but I’m most intimate with my king cobra.”
So… yeah, that happened.
We then get the quick read that Monsters of God will take us into the strange world of illegal reptile poaching and selling. It premieres on HBO Max on August 6th, 2026, and it’s also noteworthy that it’s produced by A24, the studio that brought the strange yet rather appealing docuseries called Neighbors to HBO Max.
Monsters of God contains five episodes, and their titles could make you think that this is a new Narcos spin-off: “The Fever,” “Operation Cobra,” “Smuggler’s Inn,” “Operation Chameleon,” and “Head of the Snake.”
Pop Thruster noted that Neighbors explores bizarro conflict in Trump’s America. In short, if you’re into neighbor squabbles involving truly eccentric weirdos, this one is for you.
Back to Monsters of God: it looks like we’re going to get full reptilian dosages of snakes, lizards, turtles, gators, and likely other species as well.
We even get a quick glimpse of what appears to be a reenactment (I guess?) of someone shoving a sack, presumably with some kind of small reptile inside, down their pants for (again, we’re assuming here) smuggling purposes.
Monsters of God ain’t messing around, in other words, in the dealings of the humans and reptile trade in modern America.
“Even though it was illegal,” some guy tells us while rubbing his fingers together, “I fucking thrived.”
And if that’s not enough, there’s also crossover between the reptile world and the drug smuggling world. “They took the reptile smuggling industry into a dark and violent underworld,” the voiceover says as we see stacks of money, piles of drugs, and machine guns mounted to a wall.
Anson Wong is introduced as “the Pablo Escobar of reptiles.” “He’s a dangerous motherfucker,” someone who is presumably a law enforcement officer notes.
The trailer ends with someone else saying, “People are gonna continue to want that which is forbidden.”
If you’re surprised and slightly shocked that all of this activity and associated nonsense is going on with relation to reptiles and other exotic animals, I am right there with you.
Monsters of God does look interesting, but it remains to be seen whether it can recapture the mythic heights in the American pop cultural zeitgeist that Tiger King reached during those traumatic early months during COVID.
But I’d also question whether “Tiger King but with reptiles” is enough of a hook to break through the noise generally in any kind of real way – even during the TV doldrums of August.