Actor Robert Pattinson played TV host Chris Hansen in Primetime — Asharq Al-Awsat

The drama Primetime, directed by Lance Oppenheim, unfolds in the United States and tells the story of TV host Chris Hansen and the To Catch a Predator segment on Dateline NBC. Hansen is played by Robert Pattinson, while the film focuses on 2000s television, the pursuit of ratings and public shaming, Asharq Al-Awsat reports.

Television and public shaming

In the plot, Hansen is an ambitious television journalist who earns high ratings by luring in front of cameras people who believe they have arranged to meet a minor. In the opening scene, he meets in Long Beach, California, a man who has arrived for a meeting with a supposedly 13-year-old girl.

The reviewer notes that the film depicts the moment when the media began claiming the role of arbiter of public punishment. At the end of the film, Hansen's character compares television to a pillory that once stood in every village.

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The film's team

Primetime became the first feature fiction film by 30-year-old Oppenheim, who had previously worked mainly in the documentary genre. The screenplay was written by Ajon Singh, for whom this is his first work in feature film.

Merritt Wever, Matthew Maher, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers and Tony Revolori also starred in the film. Former NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker plays himself: his character moves To Catch a Predator to Wednesday prime time, where the program airs at the same time as the series Lost on ABC.

In the view of the review's author, the film's central figure is Hansen as played by Pattinson: his desire to find a larger target increasingly highlights the character's contradictions. The film also features a National Enquirer reporter who calls Hansen regarding his own exposé about him.