Written by Andreas Babiolakis

Anyone who knows me well is already familiar with a dark secret of mine: NBC Dateline series To Catch a Predator is one of my guilty pleasure watches. I have seen most (or all) episodes countless times (as individual segments, or entire episodes). I can recite entire conversations. There is an entire To Catch a Predator (or TCAP) community online; I cannot compete with some of the biggest experts out there, but I am for sure the TCAP know-it-all of my circle (whatever that means; I cannot confirm that this is a good trait to have). Words cannot express how excited I was to watch a film about the show's host, Chris Hansen, and the rumours of his delusions. For those of you who are somehow not familiar with To Catch a Predator, Hansen, NBC, and watchdog group Perverted Justice worked together to lure pedophiles to meet decoys (of-age actors playing children or teens) to random suburban homes; they will talk more with Hansen instead, who grills them on their perversions and awful intentions. After the first few stings, law enforcement got involved, so the pedophiles would meet police officers after their uncomfortable interviews with Hansen.

I have knowledge of the vast majority of these stings, some of the most memorable subjects, and much of its lore. This is the kind of situation where reality might be more entertaining and captivating than fiction. You have everything from a predator who brings their own child to a sting so that the two kids can become friends, to an idiot who got nabbed by Hansen and company twice in twenty-four hours (the first time he was naked in a stranger's kitchen, and the second time he waited at a McDonald's — he clearly didn't learn his lesson). Now, I will preface this review by stating something that I feel must be emphasized to anyone who is a To Catch a Predator nut who is keen on watching this film, Primetime: this film is heavily fictional when it comes to how it promotes the show. Almost every predator is amalgamated with another, or their stings are altered in ways (like a scene where Hansen loses his cool with a perverted rabbi — this never happened, and the rabbi's encounter is shocking on its own without the added seasoning). With that in mind, I am reviewing this film objectively and not as a TCAP fiend. If I was focusing on the accuracy of how To Catch a Predator is replicated here, Primetime would be a two out of five. In the way that one can better appreciate The Disaster Artist if they have actually seen The Room (since I don't think the former does the strongest job of fully detailing what this notorious flick is like), I think that it helps to know much about To Catch a Predator before seeing Primetime. Unlike The Disaster Artist, though, Primetime is so different than its source material that this will not work as well as Primetime intends either.

However, that's not the reason to watch the film. Director Lance Oppenheim (a documentarian by trade) actually had little interest in the To Catch a Predator when it was on the air. Reportedly, it was how the show — and Hansen — were parodied in other forms of media that caught his attention. The cherry on top was when Oppenheim's wife got a Cameo recording by Hansen (who famously was chronically on the service). Oppenheim saw an interesting parallel between Hansen as a person and as a host of this particular show (Hansen has worked on other specials, but it is his pedophile-based series, including Hansen vs. Predator which came out years later and acted as a follow-up to the iconic series). Hansen wants to do good and has done so: he has helped many families and children by ensuring that predators get captured. However, there is the darker side of Hansen's role, and his addiction to the craft: the ways that he finds even slight amusement in the suffering of his subjects. I do want to emphasize that Hansen isn't always sadistic. If a predator is honest and as sorry as they can be (at the end of the day, they are still a pedophile who wanted to harm a child, so I have little sympathy for them), Hansen will actually talk to them sincerely and will try to get to the bottom of their addiction. If a predator is a liar (like "I am here for he open house" or some other allaby), then Hansen will turn the interview into something a bit more entertaining with some serious grilling, occasional jokes and insults, and whatever would be great for television. So, yes, Hansen does have this toothiness to him. It doesn't always come out.

Primetime kicks off with a sting to show us what a typical segment looks like. A predator arrives, the decoy lures them into the house, Hansen pops out like a boss and tells the pervert to have a seat (where he can be best seen by all hidden cameras), Hansen then interrogates the predator before informing them that he is with NBC and that they are on television, and then the predator finally leaves before being intercepted by police. Hansen learns that NBC is trying to go toe-to-toe with ABC, and that To Catch a Predator is now going into the primetime slot of 9 P.M. (when iconic series Lost is on). Perhaps this is a method to secretly sabotage To Catch a Predator, since the head of NBC doesn't understand the appeal of Hansen's segment, but Primetime never goes deeper into this theme (you will find that winds up being the biggest issue with the film). Hansen and his team want to go bigger and better in order to take over their new slot. Meanwhile, there is a casting call for a new decoy. Enter Dan Plum (Skyler Gisondo), based on real-life decoy Dan Schrack. He apparently has little idea of what his job will be when he winds up late on "set" before meeting his first real-life predator (played by former child star Jonathan Lipnicki); it doesn't take long for Dan to wake up to the harsh reality of the job once he sees Jonathan's limp-dickie.

It didn't take long for me to start ripping apart the many inaccuracies that Primetime had when you compare it to To Catch a Predator; Hansen never came from an upper landing and down the stairs, since he was always nearby to try to ensure that predators couldn't leave right away; the predator Lipnicki played came in to the room fully naked and ran into Hansen — he didn't come in, talk to the decoy, and pull off his pants and masturbate with whipped cream (also this predator wasn't caucasian); from what I know, the decoy arriving late at the sting house didn't happen like this. However, it was at this moment that I had to make a conscious choice: do I keep watching as a To Catch a Predator fan, or do I watch with a neutral mindset? I opted for the latter and appreciated my choice when Primetime went further down the trail of Embellishment Boulevard (including a scene where Dan the decoy addresses a predator himself, as if he was Hansen). I understand that Oppenheim's motivation wasn't to recreate the show: it was to comment on the grey line between ethical, protective television and the obsession a reporter can have with such a subject (think of the 2014 journalist thriller Nightcrawler and how quickly it dips into cynical, monstrous territory).

“Come on in, I just *whacked* my toe on the banister!”

Hansen sees a bit of himself in Dan — he, too, was once a young and aspiring name. Hansen tries to correct Dan at one point, insisting that he never acts; we, the audience, know better. Robert Pattinson is highly electric as Hansen because of how hilarious his drawl is, as well as his occasional dip into Hansen's animated and psychotic side. However, it is Pattinson's restraint when needed — including the moments when Hansen may not want to open up, and you can only see his hurt behind his eyes and cracked smile — that adds additional context where Primetime may have forgotten to add it; it is clear that Hansen — according to this film — is only acting and can never be his real self. He always has to be "on." He can never be whoever he could be behind closed doors. He always has to be the television figure Chris Hansen. This is something Dan notices rather quickly. At first, Dan wants to be the very best he can be and even has interesting ideas on how he can improve the To Catch a Predator experience. Then that spark dissipates, and Dan no longer wants to follow in Hansen's footsteps. He's in too deep by this point.

There are some other subplots and ideas happening at the same time. There's a constant obsession that Hansen has with iconic news anchor Stone Phillips (who was on Dateline — To Catch a Predator's parent show — during the era this film takes place). Producer Andie Bender (Merritt Wever) keeps getting offers from rival channel ABC to appear on a then-new series What Would You Do? (a far-more wholesome and ethical approach to human behaviours and concerns than To Catch a Predator). Hansen is caught having an affair while not devoting enough time to his wife (Anna Farris) and kids. All of these threads are either partially fulfilled with us wanting more (the Bender and Hansen-family storylines), or dropped without coming to fruition (the Phillips motif).

Then, there is the most creative subplot: Hansen's attachment to his bracelet that he got while on assignment in India. The story was about missing children there, and Hansen was gifted the bracelet by one of the local kids — one who claimed to have seen a monstrous figure in the shadows. Hansen sees this mythical figure himself — this is a metaphor for the monster he keeps chasing. Is that monster himself for becoming quite estranged from his family? Is it him for wanting to continue To Catch a Predator for the wrong reasons and having to lie to himself that he is still doing the show entirely for moral reasons? Is the monster all of the pedophiles that are out there that cannot be caught, and so Hansen has to keep hunting? Unlike the other storylines, I think this is left a little ambiguous: who do we think are the demons that haunt Hansen the most? Since he refuses to completely open up, we will never know. That is what Oppenheim is most driven by, and why he wanted to make Primetime.

While I wish parts of the film were explored a bit more and felt a little fuller, Primetime is still a rather strong cautionary tale on the deteriorating morality of televised news and reality programming; what was once meant to be a noble mission can turn into a farce all in the name of viewership. This point could have been made in many ways, but Oppenheim saw Hansen and To Catch a Predator as the scapegoats for understandable reasons: there is a lot to work with regarding this show. While the film does make up and fudge quite a bit of its recounts (and I never want to feel as though Hansen, who is infamously full of himself outside of this show, has made legitimate claims about the intention of Primetime), there is still something pretty truthful here: that well-intentioned television and beneficial crusades can still be handled maliciously. In reality, enough of the predators got away with reduced sentences or scot-free because their circumstances were being considered forms of entrapment, which begs the question of where the priorities of the To Catch a Predator team lie; then again, how can I completely discredit a mission to try and capture actual rapists? Not everything has to be black-and-white. We can have mixed thoughts on the same issues, and Primetime does allow for that.

However, when Primetime covers the notorious capture and fate of Rockwell district attorney Bill Conradt (I won't go too deeply into this if you aren't aware, so as to not spoil), is it not hypocritical to heighten and manufacture what was already a gripping scenario? Is manipulating elements for cinema not as untrustworthy as doing the same for reality television? It's one thing when Primetime changes details of sting operations (to combine many noteworthy one-offs and save time), but it's another to imply that Hansen and NBC were even guiltier regarding a controversial outcome than they already are. I know the film has a point to make, but when the source material is this abundant, why is Oppenheim — a documentarian, no less — resorting to sensationalism and made-up details? This is not the first film based on true events and people to do this, but there are examples that stand out as rougher than others, and this is one of those instances. One of the final shots is of a quad of camera feeds slowly turning off one by one, with Hansen staring off into the distance and wondering what’s next (he is eventually left alone on the screen, surrounded by digital blue). This is the final piece of evidence that much of Primetime is about trying to deconstruct Hansen — in doing so, it loses sight of everything else around him (not completely, but even slightly and at all times).

Overall, despite some of these choices, Primetime is still a rather good film, even when it gets in its own way. Like To Catch a Predator, I found Primetime equally bleak and uncomfortably funny. When Hansen saw the film, he outright asked what was the point of the picture. I can see why he would feel this way, but I do think that there is a through line: that we cannot trust what is being delivered to us as news when much of the news in our lifetime is being treated as a source of entertainment. I will say that there is a majorly missed opportunity to further many of the film's themes and threads when you consider that the Conradt sting resulted in To Catch a Predator being taken off the air in real life; why this was not brought up in Primetime when it would have been fitting in every single way is puzzling. Even so, Primetime is rather enthralling, and maybe that's why I crave more when I see these open opportunities: when it works, it works rather well as a journalistic satire-thriller. Even amidst all of the hyperbole, there is truth within Primetime; I just wish the film was even more ironed out and constructed because this could have been a highlight of the year had it been fully realized (consider how good it is when it is flawed).

Finally, I must shout out one of the most inspired casting choices of the year. Singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers being cast as real decoy Del Harvey (who played both girls and boys on To Catch a Predator) was a perfect choice. The closest we ever get to the reality of the show is Bridgers' reenactment of Harvey's persona, iconic lines, and responsibilities on the show.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.