Primetime (2026)

What earned the score

• Spoiler Reveals a plot point Show Hide

  The Sting as Ratings-Driven Moral Fraud

  Hansen and NBC, with Chris and producer Andie, turn Dan into bait for sensational footage and ratings, exposing the adult decoy to sexual assault while Hansen claims to be doing the Lord’s work. The film indicts the sting’s media machinery as institutional harm: a ratings-driven moral crusade that can punish people more brutally through public exposure than through the criminal process.

• Sting Journalism as Institutional Harm

  The docudrama presents the predator-exposure operation as a worthy cause but shows ambition and obsession darkening the investigators’ work, with its stated message that journalists disregard others’ humanity for primetime hits. The sting and news-show mission are framed as sources of harm, not simply as a good institution marred by one bad actor.

Details

In 2006, To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history. When a high stakes operation goes fatally wrong, his veneered dream of fame curdles into a nightmare of performative justice.

Starring

Robert PattinsonMerritt WeverSkyler GisondoMatthew MaherPhoebe Bridgers

Director

Lance Oppenheim

Writer

Ajon SinghLuke Dittrich

Genre

DramaThriller

Release Date

Sep 23, 2026

Parents Guide

• Sex Moderate

  A man drops his pants and shows his penis.

  Several text messages about sexual contact with minors.

  There are two shots of different young men each with their penises shown.

  Severe & disturbing sexual dialogue between pedophiles and children, who are actors acting as children. The dialogues are mostly explicit and read mostly twice or more times.

• Violence Moderate

  A man holds a gun to his head and shoots; blood splatter.

• Profanity Severe

  Uses of "f**k", of "s**t", "ass", "godd**n".

• Drugs Mild

  Two characters have recreational drinks while having a conversation.

• Frightening Scenes Severe

  Some dialogue related to pedophilia.

  Images of a man in a grotesque mask.

  The tone of the whole film is very disturbing, dealing with themes of men contacting underage children for sexual purposes.

Reviews

No Reviews yet.