At its peak, Chris Hansen’s To Catch a Predator became a cultural phenomenon and generated jokes, despite addressing a deeply concerning issue. The reality program, in which Hansen’s team would lure child predators into a trap, proliferated to such a degree that the show could be referenced with a mere mention of “Why don’t you have a seat?” Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime doesn’t shy away from the catharsis of such a culturally relevent TV show, but it also makes an earnest attempt to explore the darkness behind the curtain in a manner more contemplative than routine.

Robert Pattinson walks a fine line in his portrayal of Chris Hansen, embodying a reporter who believes he is doing something more important than just another news story. The opening sequence showcases one of his many episodes, in which a child predator enters a house after being invited in by the decoy Del Harvey (Phoebe Bridgers). As Harvey leaves the predator alone, Hansen enters with printed chat logs, reading off the perverted admissions of a man seeking sex with an underage girl. After Hansen gives the expected reveal of his name and the project he’s working on, the predator leaves, and law enforcement captures him. Back in the house, all Chris can think about is how good that scene looked and whether it’ll work for his producer, the laser-focused Andie Bender (Merritt Wever).

As the show soared in popularity, it entered uncharted territory when it became a primetime staple of NBC. Chris Hansen becomes a celebrity who gets noticed on planes, but by people who believe he is doing the Lord’s work and would like to see the targeted predators executed rather than caught. This odd level of fame has Hansen constantly framing his work as a confrontation with evil while, at the same time, being thrilled to go head-to-head with TV’s Lost. He insists he isn’t exactly acting while also rehearsing the best way to read off sexually explicit messages. Through his strange visions, maybe he does believe he is confronting evil. Or maybe he’s trying to make up for his sin of an extra-marital affair. Or maybe he just wants to best Stone Phillips in the ratings.

The deeper question surrounding the show’s psychic effect is mostly seen through the eyes of Dan Plumb (Skyler Gisondo), an actor hired as the latest child decoy, dubbed Decoy Dan. The job sounds cushy for being paid to lure in child predators by pretending to be a little boy. But Dan is not prepared for this work, as he is chucked into the deep end immediately, forced to handle a child predator who enters a house, removes his pants, and sprays whipped cream on his exposed penis. It’s a traumatic event that nearly makes him quit, an ordeal the crew has witnessed before. While Hansen does convince Dan to perform again, the process still eats at him as he realizes what he’s becoming associated with. These concerns reach a devastating boiling point when the show finds its biggest child predator target, Texas District Attorney Bill Conradt (Alex Winter), who panicked when discovered and killed himself as police approached his door.

Primetime is not an easy film to watch, and not just because of its controversial topic or Pattinson reading off the chatroom printouts about underage sexual acts. Through its dated 4:3 presentation and dangerously close camera angles, the film tries to find the evil in the shadows that motivates someone like Hansen to keep the show going. Sometimes that comes in the form of questioning a more physical encounter with a Rabbi suspect. Sometimes it takes a more supernatural form with a lingering mask in the darkness, brewed from Hansen’s experience when covering kidnapped children in India.

But through that lens, a bigger theory emerges: How much of that observation can come through media that questions media? To Catch a Predator is certainly put under the microscope, as Bender is only thinking of her job, and the pervert-busting expert Xavier Von Erck (Matthew Maher) keeps his head strictly down at the keyboard in his hunt for pedophilic criminals. The movie can also be questioned for its slick editing and montages, which convey the show’s rise to fame and highlight the highs of being a ratings juggernaut, while practically daring the audience to share that same hit of euphoria. Some welcome and tightrope-walking stings of humor balance out the stern egotism at play, ranging from Hansen’s annoyed barks to the overt reference to a celebrity since revealed to be a pedophile.

Primetime avoids stumbling into a behind-the-curtain biopic and instead explores the psychological costs of fame within such questionable entertainment. The mesmerizing performances anchor a film that constantly questions acting itself and the purpose it serves. It is so easy for many to justify what Hansen was doing as necessary for embarassing and apprehending pedophiles, no matter the cost. But many didn’t know about the costs until the cameras were rolling and chat logs were read. When we spend so much time treating these real and concerning crimes as exciting television, does that format merely mutate what we perceive as evil into something more sensational? Do we view these intruding adults as child predators as criminals that must be apprehended, or simply contestants on a hidden-camera show? It’s a strange void between journalism, crime, and reality TV that someone as egotistical as Pattinson’s portrayal of Chris Hansen can only gaze at with frightening curiosity. And in that surreal stare are brief thoughts of morality between how best to deliver the next line and whether it would be good for a promo.

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