If you were sentient during the mid-2000s and had a TV, chances are you were at least aware of the show To Catch a Predator. The hidden camera series’ impact reverberates to this day, placing itself and its host, Chris Hansen, in the history books.
With distance, though, the conversation around its impact has become much more complicated and nuanced. Elevated by the 2025 documentary Predators, a question looms large over its legacy. How noble can the show actually be when the situations depicted are turned into spectacle for the sake of ratings?
Director Lance Oppenheim wades into the conversation with Primetime. The film is a dramatization of the the rapid rise of To Catch a Predator, as host Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) and producer Andie Bender (Merritt Wever) attempt to maximize their new primetime slot.
Oppenheim immediately sets the stage, placing the machine of showbiz front and center. Hansen rehearses his delivery of the explicit messages exchanged between their decoys and the predators like its Shakespeare while Andie maneuvers the crew into place before the arrival of their target. This is a production.
David Bolen’s oversaturated and suffocating cinematography enhances the heightened reality we’re witnessing as well. Every shot feels pulled straight off a TV screen. The visual flair establishes an immediate sense of artifice.
Ajon Singh’s screenplay also plays with this idea of artifice and holds each of the characters’ intents to the light.
Andie is the bluntest about her aspirations, keeping her eyes on high ratings. Hansen craves being taken seriously and seen as a successful reporter. He occasionally falls back on the show’s mission to inspire and uplift the people on his team when they’re in doubt.
Then there’s Dan Plumb (Skyler Gisondo), the newest decoy for the show. A struggling actor, Dan hopes to get his SAG card and a notable credit on his resume.
The screenplay, however, struggles to dig into this conflict beyond mere surface level observations. The presentation of these characters and the way they interact with the show’s content feels obvious and hollow.
Dan specifically presents a story with potential. His first interaction with a target rattles him terribly, but he’s convinced by Hansen to continue on. He reckons with his dreams and the means by which he achieves those dreams; it’s an interesting journey, but the beats feel abrupt and under-explored.
Primetime spells out its themes with a heavy hand, often defaulting to telling the audience what to think. The subject matter requires a nuanced discussion but it’s only comfortable dipping a toe into the water so to speak.
The trio of performances at the center of the film do a lot of the heavy lifting. For all the shortcomings of the screenplay, these actors imbue a lot of dynamism into the people they play.
Pattinson, per usual, is remarkable. He approaches Hansen with surgical precision, down to the way he moves his mouth. But he avoids a simple caricature, crafting a ticking timebomb of a human.
Though the screenplay doesn’t allow a deep exploration, there is a fascinating dichotomy present between Hansen the Person and Hansen the Persona. We feel Pattinson flip a switch and he shifts into a showman, treating each confrontation as a performance.
The most interesting moments are when everyday viewers praise Hansen while out and about. Hansen clearly enjoys the pedestal they place him on and it fuels his belief that he is doing important work. However, he’s not praised by the people he wants to be seen by.
Pattinson excellently conveys this tricky balance between fulfillment and the insatiable need for more. His eyes flicker between pleasure and hunger. That hunger later bubbles to the surface in terrifying and exhilarating ways.
Gisondo demonstrates remarkable range that he hasn’t showcased prior to this. He beautifully and painfully conveys the toll the show takes on Dan in powerful, quiet scenes. It’s a powerful subversion of the persona Gisondo has built thorughout his career.
The real star of the show is Merritt Wever as Andie. She surveys each moment as if eyeing a chess board, placing each piece in her favor and reorganizing the board as she sees fit. Wever’s impeccable interiority shines brightly here.
Wever never clues us in to what Andie’s next move will be, but we always see the gears turning in her eyes. As things slip in and out of her control, she constantly pivots to ensure her own security. Those shifts never feel jarring, though, because Wever keys us into Andie’s mental gymnastics without having to explicitly articulate it.
The individual pieces are exciting and top-notch, but they unfortunately can’t come together to make a fully efficient machine. Primetime isn’t by any means a bad movie, but it never rises to the heights of its own aspirations.
It never resorts to being a simple takedown of Hansen and clearly wants to explore him and the show with depth. It feels almost too insular, never grappling with the ramifications of the show itself. These people are rabid for ratings but we don’t get a large sense of the cost.
There’s an interesting conversation to be had about what happens when people take justice into their own hands and who gets to deliver that justice. Primetime simply asks the question without any thoughtful interrogation.
Primetime is in theaters September 25th.
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Adam Patla
Adam grew up less than 3 minutes away from a movie theater so he was always destined to love all things entertainment. He studied Broadcast & Cinematic Arts at Central Michigan University before working as a talent agent in the Chicago area until 2020. During lockdown he began discussing film and television on TikTok where he cultivated a platform of over 50,000 followers. He is currently a member of Chicago Indie Critics.