Primetime (2026) is about the events surrounding Dateline NBC's To Catch a Predator, and its host Chris Hansen (played by Robert Pattinson) circa 2006. I walked into this movie on a whim, knowing precious little other than whom Pattinson was playing, but that was enough for me. It was a phenomenal film from beginning to end and I highly recommend going to see it in the theater if you have a chance.
Spoilers for Primetime (2026)
Content Warning for Sexual Violence, Grooming, Suicide
In the opening scene we hear Hansen quietly rehearsing his lines as the show's primary decoy actress opens the front door of the house in which the film crew have set up to shoot. After admitting their latest target into the home, she promptly excuses herself, leaving the man alone to wait in the kitchen. Atop a flight of stairs, Hansen appears in a flash. He reads off line after lurid line from chat logs between the man and whom he had thought to be an adolescent girl. An investigative journalist by trade, Hansen begins to attempt an interview. Pattinson's performance in this scene is as frightening as it is captivating. The effect is hypnotic, and as both the target and we the audience hang on every word, it quickly becomes crystal clear why Chris Hansen would eventually be nicknamed 'The Predator Hunter'. I think this film is a potent reminder that in order to catch a predator, one must necessarily become a predator themselves.
When the show's popularity gets it moved to a more prestigious yet more competitive time slot (the titular Primetime) the stakes are elevated tremendously. The network demands more and Hansen is thrilled to oblige, demanding more of his team in turn. The film will ultimately crescendo with the final target we will track, holed up in his home, shooting himself in the head. A dumbfounded Hansen runs through his script as ever, unsure what to do at this escalation. One line rings out above all the others: "What would've happened if I wasn't here?" the same words delivered earlier to the first man, cast through a dark fun house mirror.
This film does nothing to soften the vile acts of these men, yet it stops short of fully casting them as the "Ancient Evil" that Hansen believes them to be. It is a comfort to imagine that such reprehensible actions are simply those of inhuman monsters, rather than face the truth, that these are the actions of fallible, flesh-and-blood human beings just like the rest of us. When we allow ourselves to harbor hatred and contempt for other people, we all have the capacity to be monstrous.
It is an all-too-tempting fiction to tell ourselves that with enough cops, with enough prisons, with enough vengeful retribution we can lock away the worst aspects of humanity and throw away the key, but to do so is to debate who does and does not "qualify" as human, as deserving of rights. Whether granted to an individual or an institution, this is a level of power that no one should possess.
We truly damn ourselves to a Hell of our own creation when we attempt — whether in a court of law or the court of public opinion — to litigate humanity and personhood as anything other than intrinsic and unalienable.