On the surface, To Catch A Predator may seem like it was a moral net-positive. The Dateline series helped apprehend multiple criminals before they could target more children. That, at least on paper, sounds like a good thing. Predators, a new documentary delving into the repercussions of the popular show, however, argues that its legacy is a lot more complicated than that.
“A cultural sensation from its inception in the early 2000s, Dateline NBC’s candid-camera investigative series To Catch A Predator ensnared sex offenders and lured them to a film set, where they would be interviewed and arrested while cameras rolled. The show was a hit and transformed its host Chris Hansen into a moral crusader and TV star, while spawning a worldwide industry of imitators and vigilantes,” the documentary’s logline reads. “But why did we watch so voraciously — and why do we continue to devour its web-based, clickbait-driven offshoots?”
“Looking back on the show and the countless franchises it spawned, filmmaker David Osit turns his camera on journalists, actors, law enforcers, academics, and ultimately himself, to trace America’s obsession with watching people at their lowest,” the film’s synopsis continues, before promising to “delve into the murk of human nature to observe hunter, predator, subject and spectator alike, all ensnared in a complicated web of entertainment as far as the eye can see.”
A new trailer for the documentary includes a clip of a recorded call presumably from the show, before teasing an interview with Hansen himself. “Some people watching this may feel like you have something to answer for. What do you say to that?” the filmmaker asks while Hansen looks uncomfortable.
To Catch A Predator premiered in 2004 and was canceled in 2008, shortly after Bill Conradt, a Texas assistant district attorney, committed suicide after learning he was about to be a subject on the show. In a statement, Osit said the incident left him with a long-lasting distaste for the true crime genre. “I certainly found the show fascinating… I remembered watching as a young adult and feeling a complex stew of discomfort and schadenfreude as child predators were lured into a house, interviewed and ultimately arrested with cameras rolling for our national entertainment,” he said, per People. “But even knowing the sordid details of what happened in Texas towards the end of the show’s run—a man who ultimately committed suicide rather than be filmed by Dateline NBC cameras during one of their child predator stings—I didn’t imagine a story about this show could transcend what always bothered me most about the true crime genre.”
You can revisit the phenomenon yourself (or decide whether Osit’s documentary just advances To Catch A Predator‘s long shadow) when the film premieres September 19 in theaters.
