This article contains spoilers for Primetime (2026), as well as discussion about pedophilia and suicide.
Primetime has been taking the internet by storm, solidifying itself as a must-see film for the 2026 fall movie season.
The discourse around the film online is demonstrating how social media culture lacks nuance and encourages black-and-white thinking when analyzing complex issues.
The film stars Robert Pattinson as a dramatized version of Chris Hansen, following his work on the popular mid-2000s reality TV series, To Catch a Predator.
To Catch a Predator started as a segment on NBC’s current affairs show Dateline, quickly becoming a popular program that blurred the line between investigative journalism and reality TV.
In the show, the television crew would pose as teenagers online to lure would-be child predators to a rigged sting house to be confronted on camera by Hansen with the incriminating online chat logs. The perpetrators would then, subsequently, be arrested by police.
The show was a massive success, attracting an average of 7 million viewers per episode according to the New York Times, competing with heavyweight scripted shows such as ABC’s Lost.
But the show’s success caused much debate about the ethics of television and sensationalism in reality TV, with the showrunners chasing headlines and ratings under the guise of enacting social justice.
This is the meat of what Primetime dives into.
Primetime questions how true crime media can dehumanize the people involved by turning these real-life tragedies into entertainment for mass audiences. It depicts Hansen’s pursuits as driven by the desire for success, rather than altruism.
The film comes at a time in which the mainstream popularity of true crime media is at an all time high, with true crime podcasts dominating the charts.
The modern obsession with true-crime can be explained by the switch from cable television to streaming services, with Netflix releasing tons of serialized true-crime documentaries a year. The expansion of the internet has also given audiences a means of active participation through digital communities.
True-crime also surged in popularity following the Sept. 11 attacks, garnering a cultural obsession with risk management and surveillance culture.
With To Catch a Predator in direct competition with cultural juggernauts such as Lost, the show needed to continue to remain provocative. Therefore, the crew searched for perpetrators that would make for good entertainment for their audience.
Primetime also depicts how actors were hired to play decoys to lure predators. Skyler Gisondo plays Dan Plum, an actor who is subjected in his role to an older man exposing himself to him, a situation he isn’t suitably prepared for. Much of the film depicts this dynamic as unsettlingly exploitative of the young aspiring actors involved in these fictionalized depictions of real operations.
Primetime culminates in the infamous sting operation that allegedly led to the suicide of assistant district attorney, Bill Conradt, in 2006.
The crew attempted to arrest Conradt after it is alleged he exchanged sexually explicit messages online with somebody he believed to be a 13-year-old boy but was, in fact, a To Catch a Predator actor. Conradt committed suicide after police forcibly entered his home, while the show’s crew waited outside to film the arrest.
While the film has been doing well both critically and financially, it has also been the subject of online discourse due to its criticism of the child-predator vigilante, Chris Hansen.
Hansen himself has publicly objected to how he is portrayed in the film, with him having had no involvement with the film in terms of consultation.
“In a way, it’s a hit piece on me and the series, which is weird,” Hansen said on his podcast "Have A Seat With Chris Hansen.”
Those who are critical of Hansen’s work are often mischaracterized online as sympathetic to pedophiles for questioning the morality and motivations of Hansen and To Catch a Predator.
This reflects how the digital age has led to discourse that lacks nuance, with complex issues forcing people into extreme all-or-nothing camps.
This is something that the movie actually addresses quite blatantly in the climax, when Hansen tells Plum, “You’re either with me or you’re with him,” (referring to the assistant district attorney, Conradt, before his death). Hansen’s character says this to justify his ethically uncertain means towards a supposedly moral end.
The controversy surrounding the film demonstrates how modern audiences struggle to discuss complex moral issues online. Criticizing the methods used by Hansen and his crew is not automatically a defence of the people they were pursuing.
The discourse around Primetime highlights the need for nuance in these online discussions and makes for a film that is absolutely worth taking a seat to watch for yourself.
This article is a part of our Opinions section and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Gauntlet editorial board.
