Primetime (2026) Review
Chris Hansen has made a career out of exposing paedophiles. As the host of NBC’s ‘To Catch a Predator’, he worked alongside the online vigilante group Perverted-Justice to catch men attempting to meet minors for sex. Lured to a house under false pretences, the men were instead confronted by Hansen and an undercover camera crew, their encounters filmed; usually ending in arrest. The format proved enormously popular, offering audiences the spectacle of predators exposed, humiliated and made dance to Hansen’s tune.
Documentarian Lance Oppenheim’s feature film debut, ‘Primetime’, takes viewers behind the scenes of Hansen’s operation, examining the machinery responsible for ‘To Catch a Predator’. As the show’s popularity grows, so does the pressure to deliver increasingly dramatic confrontations, blurring the line between investigative journalism and reality television. Inevitably, the pursuit of ratings comes at a devastating cost.
It’s a fascinating premise, and Oppenheim initially makes excellent use of it. The behind-the-scenes perspective offers a compelling glimpse into the peculiar machinery of reality television, revealing how carefully these operations are orchestrated, packaged and sold as entertainment. Oppenheim and screenwriter Ajon Singh draw out the absurdity of genuine moral outrage becoming entangled with the increasingly elaborate machinery of television production.
The film has an unmistakable ‘Network’ quality. Like Sidney Lumet's masterpiece, ‘Primetime’ examines television's capacity to turn almost anything into entertainment. Hansen's crusade is an extraordinarily marketable proposition: who wouldn't want to watch a paedophile get his comeuppance? Yet therein lies the rub. At what point does the pursuit of justice become indistinguishable from the pursuit of entertainment? Oppenheim raises an intriguing question about the commodification of moral outrage, but never quite follows through- recognising the sickness without offering a concrete diagnosis.
This shortcoming is particularly apparent in Hansen himself. Presented as a grotesque amalgamation of vanity, self-righteousness and ambition, he is at once preacher, prosecutor and television personality. But what actually drives him? Ego, genuine moral conviction, an appetite for recognition, or some combination of all three? Is he, as Kris Kristofferson suggests, “a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction?”
The film never really decides. Certainly, a journalist can genuinely believe he is protecting children while simultaneously relishing the power and public adulation that comes with exposing those who threaten them. However, it is precisely this contradiction that the film fails to meaningfully explore. The tension between those impulses is far more compelling than the rather one-dimensional portrait offered here.
Curiously, the film finds considerably more depth in the character of Dan, a young actor recruited to pose as an underage decoy in the sting operations. His own experiences and motivations are afforded greater attention; he emerges as a more rounded, recognisably human figure. The contrast is telling: while Hansen remains something of an enigma, Dan offers a more revealing glimpse into the personal motivations and moral ambiguities of those involved in the operation.
Indeed, Oppenheim and Singh seem far more interested in those orchestrating the trap than those caught in it. The latter are largely reduced to pitiful objects of humiliation, their exposure valued more for its entertainment than for what it reveals about them or their intentions. Understanding the motivations behind such behaviour does not excuse it; it’s arguably a prerequisite for understanding the problem in the first place. Yet little effort is made to examine the psychological or social factors underlying their behaviour. The result is an odd omission: in a film ostensibly about catching sexual predators, the predators themselves remain something of an afterthought.
There is an uncomfortable irony in Oppenheim's approach. In examining Hansen's appetite for spectacle, the film seems equally enamoured with it, revelling in the grotesquery of its characters without always looking beneath the surface. Though intermittently compelling, ‘Primetime’ comes perilously close to becoming precisely the sort of entertainment Oppenheim sets out to interrogate.
Having said that, the film is a visually evocative affair. Shot on 16mm and presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio, it captures the peculiar aesthetic of mid-2000s television, complete with its saturated colours and garish visual palette. Oppenheim and cinematographer David Bolen employ an array of camera formats, from degraded digital video and surveillance footage to more expressionistic, dreamlike imagery, creating a visual language that is at once visceral and unsettling- if occasionally a little over-the-top.
The result is a distinctly seedy, occasionally hallucinatory atmosphere, punctuated by some wonderfully unnerving close-ups. Daniel Garber's editing moves fluidly between the various visual formats and registers without ever feeling disjointed. Ari Balouzian's score and the sound design are equally effective, lending the film an ominous, occasionally disorientating quality, heightening its more disturbing moments.
As Hansen, Robert Pattinson is electric, delivering an intense performance that never feels like mere imitation. Bringing tremendous dynamism to the role, he captures the showman's instinct for self-promotion and his peculiar brand of moral grandstanding. Skyler Gisondo is equally impressive as Dan, bringing a sincerity and quiet vulnerability to the character. Phoebe Bridgers makes a welcome addition as another of the operation's decoys, while Merritt Wever excels as Hansen's producer, Andie, conveying the pressures and compromises of someone caught up in the machinery of the operation. In a smaller but pivotal role, Alex Winter also leaves a lasting impression despite his limited screen time.
Watching Hansen’s ‘To Catch a Predator’ is oddly engaging, though not enlightening. Neither is Lance Oppenheim’s ‘Primetime’. There is a difference between a child trapping an ant in a glass jar and a scientist doing the same. One is a voyeur; the other is trying to understand what makes the ant tick. Both Hansen’s show and Oppenheim’s film risk mistaking the spectacle of observation for the pursuit of understanding. Though strongly acted, visually evocative and occasionally absorbing, ‘Primetime’ ultimately exposes more than it explains.
