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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nIn \u201cPrimetime,\u201d Robert Pattinson plays Chris Hansen, host of \u201cTo Catch a Predator,\u201d an offshoot of NBC\u2019s \u201cDateline\u201d news program in the mid-2000\u2019s. Hansen and the show\u2019s production team would coordinate with police to lure child predators (via Internet chatrooms where there would be no ambiguity as to their intent) to locations where they would be ambushed, first by Hansen and his cameras, then by the police. While removing child predators from society was undeniably good work, doing so in the form of a television program was morally dubious, as there was an exploitative element to broadcasting the lowest moments of the predators\u2019 lives in the name of entertainment. Then again, if anyone deserves that kind of humiliation, it\u2019s child predators. The debate over the righteousness of the show swirls to this day, and there\u2019s no real \u201cright\u201d answer, but \u201cPrimetime\u201d doesn\u2019t want the viewer coming away thinking that Hansen and his team were saints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be clear, this isn\u2019t the kind of movie that tries to make it seem like Hansen and his team were the real villains on \u201cTo Catch a Predator,\u201d it never goes that far. The marks on that show were the lowest scum of the earth and there is absolutely no confusion about that in the movie. But it does play up the \u201cselfishness\u201d aspect of benefitting from their downfall in the form of tangible television success and intangible feelings of moral superiority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the beginning of the film, the show is already enjoying success in a late-night timeslot. Hansen has show\u2019s formula down (yes, he asks the mark to have a seat) and he\u2019s famous enough to get recognized on airplanes. But NBC executive Jeff Zucker (playing himself) wants he and his producer Andie (Merritt Wever) to take the show to an earlier \u2013 primetime – slot. However, they\u2019ll have to make the show more exciting with more sensational creative choices and taking down more interesting targets. The latter isn\u2019t exactly the sort of thing they can engineer, though they are on the trail of a guy going to a high-profile state funeral in Texas. They pass up the opportunity to catch many predators in New Jersey to focus on this one \u201cwhale.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everybody\u2019s life is a mess. Hansen\u2019s relationship with his wife (Anna Faris) is crumbling and he\u2019s about to be exposed for an affair. Andie is way over-budget and feeling unappreciated. New \u201cdecoy\u201d actor Dan (Skyler Gosondo) is in way over his head both performing and living with his role in the operation. The movie seemingly learns in real time that Decoy Dan is a more interesting character than Pattinson\u2019s compelling-but-imitative Hansen, and shoehorns him into scenes where he doesn\u2019t belong in the third act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only way for these people to feel better about themselves personally and professionally is to catch predators and hit them with the full force of their insecurities. There are worse targets for such bullying, but is it healthy or right that they\u2019re doing this kind of bullying at all? Considering the work that\u2019s getting done as a result of this bullying, probably yes, but maybe a less enthusiastic yes than it would seem at first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPrimetime\u201d certainly wants the viewers to see the ratings-chasing Hansen and Andi as \u201csleazy,\u201d though reports of them coming off as outright villains have been exaggerated. The same can be said of reports of this subtly being a \u201chorror\u201d movie, which can be blamed on the way the film\u2019s trailer was edited. Surely some of the film\u2019s subject matter is horrific in a non-cinematic way, but Chris Hansen is no slasher, not even figuratively. The only thing getting chopped to pieces here is the film itself, in that there are some nonsensical editing choices that make timeframes murky and rob the film of urgency. If this film fits comfortably into the fringes of your schedule, fine, but don\u2019t waste your primetime hours making time for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: C<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPrimetime\u201d is rated R for disturbing sexual material, graphic nudity, some violent content, and language. Its running time is 110 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bob Garver In \u201cPrimetime,\u201d Robert Pattinson plays Chris Hansen, host of \u201cTo Catch a Predator,\u201d an offshoot of NBC\u2019s \u201cDateline\u201d news program in the mid-2000\u2019s. Hansen and the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcL2ltYWdlLTItMS53ZWJwP2ZpdD03NjclMkMxMDI0JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTW92aWUgUmV2aWV3ICYjODIxMTsgUHJpbWV0aW1lIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.Ft4pvHo6KHZUJaOHg1OCOS9knIQDcSN3qPOxuQrHGwcMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcL2ltYWdlLTItMS53ZWJwP2ZpdD03NjclMkMxMDI0JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTW92aWUgUmV2aWV3IC0gUHJpbWV0aW1lIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.NpUsNqesZOiBbFuch5L9WID8rMw6XTlz8D5Tg3i-rlsMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[17613],"class_list":["post-82456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-movie-review-primetime"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82459,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82456\/revisions\/82459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}