In the USA you no longer have to explain the phenomenon to anyone, but for a German readership we should start at the beginning. Starting in 2004, “To Catch a Predator” was a segment on the immensely popular NBC news magazine Dateline, and was later expanded to dedicated primetime specials: decoys posing as children on the Internet lure pedophiles to meetings where investigative journalist Chris Hansen confronts them with their chat messages in front of cameras.
After a short interview, the men are free to leave, but a special police squad is already waiting at the front door, who – in keeping with the sensationalist TV logic – often take them down in a laughably exaggerated manner. Above all, Chris Hansen himself achieved considerable cult status as a moderator who always appeared controlled and authoritarian when dealing with the attracted men.
When it comes to sleaze, no one can beat Robert Pattinson
But Hansen’s reputation has been crumbling since the acclaimed TV documentary “Predators” was released in 2025. Not only is the usefulness of the format as a whole questioned, but Hansen himself is also exposed as a manipulative narcissist. Just a year later, a feature film version follows that largely sheds light on the same events: Based on the Esquire article “Tonight On Dateline This Man Will Die,” which appeared in 2007, “Primetime” doesn’t go as deep as “Predators” in many places…
… but the feature film debutant Lance Oppenheim, who himself comes from the documentary field, stages the media hunt for pedophiles as a feverish frenzy, in which the main thing – for the makers and for their TV audience – is to ensure that the next kick hits even harder. This rousing delirium is also transmitted to the audience over long stretches, even if “Primetime” at the same time – especially in comparison to the documentary treatment in “Predators” – only scratches the surface in many places. However, Oppenheim also has a special trump card up his sleeve: Robert Pattinson, who was originally only involved as a producer, in the lead role!
Robert Pattinson is already having an outstanding year in 2026 – and with his performance in “Primetime” he’s just taking it up a notch!
Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) is a driven person himself. Ever since he was confronted with a series of unsolved child murders in India, he has set his mind on making the monsters in this world harmless. Laughed at with pity by his “serious” colleagues, he also craves respect, which he can get from his own children if necessary, even if it means waking them up in the middle of the night so that they can watch the teaser for his latest pedophile catch. Channel boss Jeff Zucker (playing himself) can’t do anything with the show either, but still promotes “To Catch A Predator” to the primetime format – as a direct competitor to “Lost”.
While polar bears, of all things, pounce on the survivors stranded in a tropical environment in the ABC megahit, Hansen and his producer Andie Bender (Merritt Wever) are faced with the challenge of constantly conjuring up new, increasingly blatant confrontations. Hansen in particular gets into the idea of having to drag a whale (i.e. a well-known, respected person) in front of the camera like Captain Ahab in “Moby Dick” – a madness that ultimately leads to catastrophe in November 2006…
A casting coup with cream on the member
As announced in the chats, one of the lured pedophiles, who appears online as “CrazyFrog,” brings a can of cream to the meeting to spray on his penis. The scene would be absurd enough in itself, but then the cream fetishist is also embodied by the now 35-year-old Jonathan Lipnicki – the unmistakable child star who achieved world fame at the end of the nineties, especially through the “Stuart Little” series. But “Primetime” may share exactly this problem with the format it actually criticizes: the pedophile performances seem more amusing than disturbing, even if they have a different effect on those involved.
A central storyline revolves around the previously unsuccessful young actor Dan Plumb (Skyler Gisondo), who is hired as a decoy because of his childish appearance (despite his 23 years, he easily passes for 13). On his first mission, he is thrown directly into the situation with the real pedophile without any training or explanations – somehow disturbing, but also funny. In the episode, it is repeatedly mentioned that the young actor is still burdened – but in the documentary “Predators” we learn that a number of decoys have dropped out because of such traumatic experiences.
Nobody plays assholes like him!
What remains above all is this unrelenting, feverish urge for ever more spectacular coups! And no one plays this assholeness that walks the fine line to madness as convincingly as Robert Pattinson – especially since he doesn’t make it so easy to portray Chris Hansen as a mere caricature. With the same precision and relentlessness with which the presenter prepared for the meetings with the pedophiles, the former “Twilight” star is now digging deep into the obsessions of the infamous TV legend.
Just a few months after Antinous in “The Odyssey” (set around 1350 BC), now Chris Hansen in “Primetime” (set in 2006) – and we honestly wouldn’t mind if the actor, who also appeared in “The Drama” and “Dune 3” in the cinema this year, then played his way through all the great asshole roles in the more than 3,000 years in between. Because no one else can do it as wonderfully smooth and greasy as Robert Pattinson at the moment.
Conclusion: If you actually want to delve deeper into all the exciting moral questions surrounding the TV format that was broadcast between 2004 and 2007, you are better off with the documentary “Predators”. But as an exhilarating fever trip with one – again! – outstanding Robert Pattinson, “Primetime” is still an absolutely thrilling cinematic experience!
We saw “Primetime” at the Venice Film Festival, where it had its world premiere as part of the official competition.