Writers: Ajon Singh and Luke Dittrich
Director: Lance Oppenheim
Television is its own corrupt moral universe, especially in the murky world of reality and constructed factual shows, filled with creators who compromise any sense of decency to get the greatest TV moment to boost the ratings and get them a top slot on the channel. In 2006 anchorman Chris Hansen was given the opportunity to just that with his show Predators on American network NBC, trapping and exposing paedophiles. Lance Oppenheim’s new film Primetime, screening at the BFI London Film Festival, exposes the methods behind the show and a crucial moment for Hansen, his producer and the company who demanded big returns for raising the stakes.
Frustrated that his show isn’t given the journalistic respect it deserves, presenter Chris Hansen is nonetheless admired by audiences and even police forces for his vigilante justice. When the chance to go primetime presents itself, his team come under pressure to hook big stories and they’re soon on the trail of a ‘whale.’ With a new decoy actor onboard to lure the paedophile, everyone is playing their own game, compromising the ‘justice’ they claim to be providing.
Oppenheim’s film, written by Ajon Singh and Luke Dittrich, is an honest look at the cogs that make reality-based television work – notably here focusing on those community, consumer and social justice programmes that lure and entrap criminals. The story itself will only be familiar to American audiences, but the premise is far more universal, showcasing the process of these shows which is well explained, using undercover performers and researchers to root out, bait and then film perpetrators getting caught, a formula shows like Predators established.
But Primetime is less interesting in celebrating the achievements of the show than unpicking its self-serving morality- the anchor who wants a better job covering real wars, the producer protecting her product from copycats and manipulating others to get the content she needs, and the young actor hoping to get a union card by working on the show, leading to a ‘proper’ acting gig one day. And although they are all invested in what they do Oppenheim’s film shows the personal and professional compromises they’re all prepared to make for the sake of good TV. Much like the four seasons of Unreal by Sarah Gertrude Shapiro and, Marti Noxon about reality dating shows, entertainment is the real goal and staying at the top is all encompassing no matter the cost.
Robert Pattinson is always great in these morally ambiguous roles, and here with his own perfect good guy image under threat, his Hansen starts to break down, overwhelmed by the public shame in store for him. Skyler Gisondo as new actor Dan also gives a great sense of being out of his depth but grows into his time on the show which – like Hansen – is not accepted as proper acting by his contemporaries. It is Merritt Wever as somewhat venal producer Andie however who motors the film, a keen combination of editorial eye, precise management of the artists and the scenarios as well as a self-serving streak that proves pretty ruthless. No one seems to be interested in the other real life victims out there.
Television has a complex place in national life, often assuming an authority that is both non-legitimate and hard to control. Primetime shows that whatever the personal cost to the individual, television always wins.
Primetime is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2026 from 7-18 October.
