Before Robert Pattinson's Primetime, Stream This Must-Watch Documentary On Paramount+
A24 appears to have a controversial, hot-button hit on the way with Lance Oppenheim's "Primetime." An examination of the real-life phenomenon that was "To Catch a Predator" and its ambitious, crusading host Chris Hansen, the film looks like it will be powered by Robert Pattinson as the man who became a household name by shaming pedophiles on network television. It's been selected to compete for the Golden Lion at this year's Venice International Film Festival, and just debuted a compellingly frenetic trailer (with a killer "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" gag).
"Primetime" is due to hit theaters on September 25, 2026, but while you're waiting, you can watch David Osit's critically acclaimed 2025 documentary "Predators," which covers the same troubling material in a sobering, morally conflicted manner. The film boasts a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 99%, and should've received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature Film. In any event, it's currently streaming on Paramount+, and will almost certainly be the more nuanced take on the 2004 — 2007 run of "To Catch a Predator." And if you're wondering how nuanced a documentary about a show dedicated to taking child predators off the streets could be, that's why you need to watch it!
Why don't you have a seat and watch Predators?
If you were obsessed with "To Catch a Predator" when it initially aired (and I'll admit that I was), you might've felt a little queasy about the show's whole aesthetic. On one hand, catching sexual predators who were likely to harm children at some point (if they hadn't already) is a wholly worthy cause. Most episodes followed the same formula: The volunteer organization Perverted-Justice would use an actor to play a child who's stumbled into the wrong online forum. We'd see the creepy text messages, and listen to the skin-crawling phone conversations between a grown man and an actor posing as underage prey. By this point, you were ready for these monsters to get exposed.
What bothered me, and bothered Osit as well, was that you were primed to laugh at these men's pathetically clumsy come-ons. You knew they were going to get arrested, so there was no air of danger. And when Chris Hansen made his grand appearance (sometimes with a quip before issuing his catchphrase "Why don't you have a seat?"), you were geared to feel schadenfreude as the host destroyed these guys' lives. Justifiably? Of course. But this is a gravely serious issue, one that requires a helluva lot more levity than Hansen's grandstanding allowed.
"Predators" ultimately puts Hansen on the spot, and Osit conducts a brutally uncomfortable interview. Most people probably know what brought about the show's downfall, but for those who don't, I'll let them discover this for themselves. I can't recommend "Predators" more highly (just make sure you're not watching these Predators instead). I just hope "Primetime" does this subject justice as well.