The Mythos of Primetime
Image courtesy of A24.
By Margaret Varadan
Primetime is an A24 production that dramatically recounts the story of the 2004 Dateline NBC show To Catch a Predator and its host Chris Hansen. The movie hit theaters on September 25th, and its portrayal of the show has already landed the film in hot water. Discussions have been circulating about the movie ever since the release of its official trailer, and upon the movie’s release in theaters, controversy reached a boiling point as to how Primetime depicted the show’s concept of running predator stings on TV. Particularly, viewers are concerned that the movie serves to villainize its host, Chris Hansen, and garner sympathy for the predators he exposed. Is this really the case? Did A24 actually create a pity piece for the monsters that society abhors, and did they truly slander the reputation and character of Hansen?
The answer: …it’s complicated.
First, I think we should address the elephant in the room: Chris Hansen, the host and face of To Catch a Predator, who claims to have been completely excluded from the making of Primetime since its conception and has been directly opposed to it throughout its production. One of the main critiques I have encountered in gathering the opinions of Primetime’s viewers and Hansen himself is that the movie is ridiculously dramatic. Hansen, who was barred from watching the movie before its official release due to his refusal to sign a strict legal contract, has disparaged the film for portraying him and his colleagues with inflated personalities and unrealistic behavior. Hansen stated on The Adam Carolla Show that Primetime is “a complete work of fiction, overly dramatized, and it portrays everybody involved, myself included, as these power-hungry, greedy media people.” Yikes. Criticism over Hansen’s character from casual viewers is one thing, but for the man himself to claim that his personality has been completely misinterpreted is entirely different.
In order to answer the question of whether Primetime serves only to sympathize with predators and villainize Hansen, it is necessary to explain why the movie was even made. The director of Primetime, Lance Oppenheim, attended a press conference at the Venice Film Festival along with the film’s major cast members. When discussing how he was introduced to To Catch a Predator when he was younger, Oppenheim remarks, “When I finally watched To Catch a Predator, I was amazed. Chris Hansen was like this mythological being who had these one-liners that reminded me of Tony Montana.” Further in the conference, Robert Pattinson, who plays Hansen in the movie, stated in regard to his portrayal of Hansen, “I think what we were trying to capture is all of our enthusiasm in his sort of mystery.” Overall, Pattinson and Oppenheim can be said to have the goal of showing Hansen as a sort of fantastical character who is impervious to any attempts to fully understand him, because there is no actual answer to who Hansen is as a person.
This mythological interpretation of Hansen, who is a real person, pretty much highlights the main goal of Primetime. This movie has never claimed to be a biopic about the life and accomplishments of Hansen or his associates. In fact, the real purpose of Primetime is to bring to the audience the sense of wonder and bewilderment its creators experienced in watching To Catch a Predator growing up. You have to admit, the concept of a show from over 20 years ago ruthlessly pursuing the hidden danger of online predators in the wake of the internet’s creation, setting up entire houses as a set, and ultimately being aired as a television program, is extremely fantastical; if we had no episodes of Hansen carrying out these stings as evidence, one could claim that there is no way the concept of this show could ever leave the imagination and become reality.
So yes, Primetime completely over-dramatizes Hansen’s character and adds several layers of complex emotions which he apparently never felt the need to express toward his associates. But seeing as how the creators of the film never tried to hide the fact that they were more concerned about theatrics than a realistic portrayal, I do not see the point in taking issue with this creative liberty.
As to whether Hansen is portrayed as a dramatic villain, I do believe that the majority of Pattinson’s role focuses on the negative aspects of Hansen’s character, some of which, in line with the point of his mythic presence, are added embellishments. From the beginning of the movie, my impression of Hansen was a man who prizes theatrics and feels a tremendous sense of self-importance, which can be seen in him speed-dialing a vending machine company for apparently robbing him of his Rice Krispie snack after the machine malfunctions. If the creators of Primetime were going to take the risk of portraying Hansen with a more negative presentation than positive, they should have thought to at least get his green light for this decision.
As stated previously, both Oppenheim and Pattinson exalt Hansen for being an unreal, enigmatic person in their upbringings. Because of this, it would be wrong to conclude that Primetime seeks to villainize his real character. As to whether the film was made with the goal to evoke sympathy for predators, this criticism mainly arises from the debate that has been going on for two decades now, of whether Dateline NBC is responsible for the death of assistant attorney Bill Conradt or if his suicide was entirely of his own volition. The most infamous sting operation that To Catch a Predator carried out was when Hansen’s crew, along with the Murphy police department, went to Conradt’s house on charges of sexually harassing who he believed to be a 13-year-old boy online. The act of going to the predator instead of luring him to a set was a completely unprecedented move, which the crew would come very quickly to regret, as upon arriving at Conradt’s house, the attorney refused to come outside and committed suicide. Some feel that Conradt, fully aware of his wrongs, brought his whole demise upon himself, while others, namely Conradt’s sister Patricia Conradt, believe that the Predator team pushed him over the edge.
In Primetime, this event is depicted with some creative liberties taken, such as Conradt committing suicide in direct view from his window, and Dan Plum, who portrays the real male decoy Dan Schrack, singing Seasons of Love to him over the phone in what was, in my opinion, a silly attempt at an emotionally complex scene. Seeing as how this event has already been in controversial circulation for decades, it is unreasonable to accuse Primetime of being the first to provide nuanced commentary on the subject. In regard to the rest of the movie, I was not given the impression that the predators caught were sorry creatures pushed into bad positions. The reading out of the sexually explicit messages these men would send to apparent minors elicited no reaction from me other than disgust, and I can’t imagine that any case mentioned in the movie other than Conradt’s serves as a vehicle of sympathy.
Overall, Primetime, in decorating the events of To Catch a Predator with creativity and decorating its own production with examples of poor production consultation, provides the viewer with a colorful ride both on and behind the scenes, preferring to create folklore about the 2004 show rather than offer a realistic account. Therefore, the film should not be charged with slander, as it only ever claims to be a fictional account.
