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# Primetime
- URL: https://www.afterimages.film/primetime/
- Published: 2026-10-01T03:21:11.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T20:56:25.000Z
- Description: A time-capsule exploration of how the media commodifies American depravity and the people who enable it.
- Author: Dennis Ramirez
- Tags: Impressions, First Time Watch, In Theaters, 2026, Score: 8, #rating-8

### Review

Near the beginning of *Primetime*, there's a brief mention of Saddam Hussein's fall, and I had a flashback to the televised "Shock and Awe" campaign in 2003, when the U.S. military essentially livestreamed the bombing of Baghdad on news networks. I was only 20 at the time, and while the concept felt immoral, I can't pretend I wasn't also fascinated by watching a city being bombed in real time. This memory, vague as it was, cast a shadow over my screening of Lance Oppenheim's *Primetime*, a time-capsule exploration of how the media commodifies American depravity and the people who enable it. 

Robert Pattinson leads the film as Chris Hansen, host of the infamous *To Catch a Predator* series, which set out to expose pedophiles using "decoys" (adult actors posing as minors). These men were lured to houses with the promise of sex, only to be confronted by Hansen and, after they tried to leave, arrested. Hansen's a crusader, convinced he's "cleansing the world of a great evil," haunted by a past investigation involving missing children in India. He doesn't feel the show's getting the appreciation it deserves, nor does he feel he's getting the respect he deserves as a journalist. One day, NBC head Jeff Zucker (playing himself) tells Hansen and producer Andie Bender (Merritt Wever) that he's moving their show to prime time against *Lost*. This is the make-or-break moment Hansen's been waiting for, and he intends to make *Predator* the most important television show, no matter the cost.

*Primetime* is Lance Oppenheim's first narrative feature, and his documentary instincts give the film a voyeuristic aesthetic as it delves into each character's psyche. The film lays bare each character's morals, motivations, and hypocrisies, leaving it to the viewer to pass judgment. Everyone justifies their actions in service of justice, but their methods continually cross ethical boundaries. The film smartly doesn't equivocate these moral lapses as equal to the pedophiles they're hunting, but it does reveal a primal hunger at the root of everything going on. In one scene, Chris talks to a fan of the show, who asks if he ever wishes he could physically hurt the men the show captures. The man is salivating over the idea of the violence he'd inflict if he were in Chris' shoes, licking his lips in a way that's nearly identical to the way the pedophiles do when arriving at the decoy houses. 

Hansen doesn't share this bloodlust, but his hunger for recognition is just as ravenous, and Robert Pattinson portrays Hansen as an obsessive Captain Ahab moonlighting as a circus ringmaster. It's a very flashy performance that occasionally threatens to escape containment and suspend disbelief, but makes sense given Chris Hansen's flair for the dramatic. The opening scene, where Chris throws open curtains and slowly descends the stairs like Dracula to confront the latest predator, tells you everything you need to know about him.

Even though Robert Pattinson is the face of the movie, Skyler Gisondo walks away with it. He gives a career-best performance as Dan Plum, the newest decoy hire for the *Predator* crew. He's the emotional heart of the movie, as an aspiring actor who thinks this will be his big break. His arc is one of exploitation and loss of innocence, but his hunger for creative validation means he'll endure anything to get his coveted SAG card. Merritt Wever is also electrifying as Andie, the hyper-competent stage manager to Hansen's showman. She's the poster child of unhealthy work-life balance. Her work is her life, and if it happens to be exploitative, it's going to be the *best* exploitation out there. 

*Primetime* is more a string of vignettes than a straightforward narrative, which will leave some viewers feeling unfulfilled. It's not a thesis about *To Catch a Predator*, but a mirror for society and for the viewer. It asks us, "Is the pursuit of justice noble if it's driven by commercialism?" All of this is summed up by a line Chris utters at the start of the movie (as he preps to confront a pedophile) and again at the end, when he faces the consequences of his hunger to grow the show: "What would have happened if I wasn't here?"

![Primetime](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/lmrulvLbmaejTix1YaMxo1oGhH1.jpg) 

Director

#### Lance Oppenheim

Budget

##### $14.5M

Release Date

Released

##### Sep 23, 2026

Runtime

##### 1h 50m

[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0NZa01qTRU&ref=afterimages.film) [ ](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34206385/?ref=afterimages.film) [ ](https://letterboxd.com/film/primetime-2026/?ref=afterimages.film) 

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