Preamble
Its rare instances like this where I curse the American release schedule. Primetime has been making waves state side and its been nearly a month since it finally hit UK shores. But its finally here. With that said, have you seen Primetime? Let me know in the comments below.
Brief Consideration
As far as popular syndicated shows go, To Catch a Predator is an odd concoction. At once, it’s an upstanding endeavour insofar as catching child predators before they get a chance to enact their fantasies. At the same time, it also feels like a bit of a circus act, with Chris Hansen as the measured presence, delivering catchphrases such as “Have a seat” and “You see how this looks?” with a Roger Moore-infused aplomb.
Primetime occupies the space between these two states, charting the rise and fall of the show amid the backdrop of an escalating personal crisis for Hansen (Robert Pattinson) and a newly minted twentysomething actor, Dan Plum (Skyler Gisondo), who gets a gig as a decoy on the show.
Primetime is less a biopic than a flight-of-fancy interpretation of events. The filmmaking that’s comprised of many different formats pricks at the balloon of realism via never letting the audience forget the behind-the-scenes artifice.
The result is something that never ceases to keep the audience on its toes, as it constantly feels like the film is morphing with its different styles. But what kept me engaged throughout Primetime was this persistent tension between commerce and meaningful pursuit. There’s a sense that despite the growing popularity of TCAP, it comes at the cost of what can be pursued, resulting in making the show becoming more salacious with the type of predators it catches. It’s a conflict that the film wears on its sleeve and resides with its main character.
Hansen is portrayed as someone who thinks he’s on a noble crusade to cleanse the world of evil, and each predator is an embodiment of this notion. But he’s equally excited about the show going Primetime and its growing popularity among television viewers. For an actor whose pivoted into character acting, Robert Pattinson’s performance as Hansen may be his most out there performance, with live-wire moments where he channels DC Comics’ Joker and sincere instances of PTSD that reinforce the burden of his presumed noble mission. Like the film itself, its a tight wire act of the absurd and the horrifying, much like TCAP itself.
