Primetime

Primetime is based on the controversial mid-2000s true-crime series To Catch a Predator, hosted by American broadcast journalist Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson). The psychological thriller follows Hansen and his production team as they conduct sting operations to expose suspected paedophiles who engage in online chats with minors. The team recruits adult volunteers posing as 13-year-olds to lure potential predators into meeting them. Once they arrive, they are ambushed on camera by Chris before being arrested by the police. The show was widely celebrated for its intent of exposing sexual predators but its methods often walked a murky ethical line. That moral ambiguity forms the heart of Primetime. Director Lance Oppenheim examines the credibility, ethics and moral corrosion of vigilante justice when packaged as entertainment. What begins as an ostensibly noble mission gradually becomes a spectacle, where humiliation, outrage and ratings feed off one another. The film also traces the systematic erosion of conscience among those involved, culminating in the suicide of one of the accused.