The Dateline NBC show To Catch a Predator took the pop culture zeitgeist by storm back when it premiered in 2004. It had a simple yet compelling premise: to trap would-be pedophiles after they meet in person with their online prey and then spring investigative journalist Chris Hansen on them. It was shocking, embarrassing, and so compelling for many that it was “must-see TV.” Predators, a documentary by filmmaker David Osit, is an examination of the show and the online copycats that have followed since To Catch a Predator went off the air in 2007. Unlike the show it’s about, the documentary is not an easy watch.
I expected more clips from the show, and we get some of that, but we also oddly get the back of an anthropologist’s head while he’s watching and then giving his opinions on it. There are tough conversations with the people who were used as bait due to their younger-looking nature, like the guy who is still traumatized that he is the last person to ever speak to the infamous suicide victim on the show. Finally, shots are taken at Chris Hansen and the show’s producers for their ethics, or apparent lack thereof.
David Osit reveals in Predators that this is all quite personal to him, since he was molested as a child. He was glued to To Catch a Predator and posits that the reason why is that he wanted to figure out what the motivation is for the predators. David says that the show never answered it for him, that it became more of a rhetorical question by Chris in each episode.
“…a meditation on [To Catch a Predator] and the aftermath of it.”
It’s fair to question the morality of a television show designed for entertainment on such a sensitive subject. The biggest incriminating pieces against it are when the aforementioned predator committed suicide during filming, and when Hansen and his producer (in the latest incarnation of the show on TruBlu) decided to run a story about an eighteen-year-old boy who was trying to hook up with a fifteen-year-old. The suicide effectively ended To Catch a Predator, and the story of the teenager ended a normal life for him. Heavy stuff for sure, but just how much blame should be put on the show’s plate?
Osit ends the documentary by interviewing Chris Hansen, but it doesn’t quite turn out to be a hard-hitting, villain-painting exposé that some may crave after all of the buildup to it. There are many unanswered questions in both life and Predators. If you’re looking for the black and white truth to it all, or to be simply entertained like watching an episode, then you’ve probably come to the wrong place.
I will say that I did quite enjoy the CrimeCon segment. It’s so surreal seeing a convention dedicated to crime, I could watch an entire documentary just on that! But even that piece attempts to portray Hansen in a smug, negative light.
Is asking the tough questions enough? The doc does pick up the sound of the 18-year-old offender literally screaming in anguish as his mother is being interviewed. Heartbreaking, but is Hansen the devil for this? I’m not quite sure of that either.
Predators could benefit from tighter editing (i.e., fewer shots of someone watching the show, perhaps using a voice-over instead), as well as a stronger stance by the director in his convictions, especially during his interview with Hansen. Really go after the guy face-to-face if you think he’s the a*****e that you hint at him to be in the movie. All in all, it’s an effective meditation on the show and the aftermath of it.
"…effective..."
