For a segment on an American news magazine show that had only 20 episodes, To Catch a Predator, which showed sting operations on men trying to abuse children in a twisted combination of reality TV and true crime, retains an outsized cultural reach, both in time – it was on two decades ago – and globally, the show continuing to provide material for memes online, and this film, Primetime, finding a reasonable audience beyond its domestic borders. Unfortunately, while director Lance Oppenheim’s dramatisation of the show’s production and the event that led to its cancellation hopes to explore it as a ne plus ultra of the desire and ability for the media to turn anything, no matter how sordid, into entertainment, it never really gets beyond the banal – if only it were more expressive and horrifying, despite its stylistic flourishes that convey surreal subjectivity to what we’re shown. With such dark and rich subject matter, Primetime held a lot of promise, but sadly, it just isn’t interesting enough.

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With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.