A word from the German language has become somewhat popular in recent years. The word, which doesn’t have a counterpart in English, is schadenfreude. And it translates according to the dictionary as “the experience of pleasure, joy, or satisfaction that comes from learning of the troubles, failures, or suffering of another person.”
We can all relate to that feeling. Who hasn’t at least once in our life smirked in satisfaction when someone who we believe deserves it suffers some sort of setback. It may not last long – some of us, after all, do have a conscience – but for that one enduring moment we feel … what? Justified somehow?
That emotion may be one of the reasons why the television show To Catch a Predator was so popular. Produced by “NBC Dateline,” the series premiered in 2004. And over the next three years, some 20 episodes aired, garnering the network a sizeable audience. The New York Times reported that the 11 episodes from the 2006-2007 season attracted an average of 7 million viewers, compared to just 6.2 million for Dateline’s other programming.
The conceit was simple: Dateline presenter Chris Hansen and a TV crew would troll online for people who wanted to hook up with under-age boys or girls. An adult actor would pose as the prey, and when the trolling was successful, that actor would greet the person at some agreed-upon location, offer the chance to sit down and be comfortable … then disappear, after which Hansen and his crew would emerge. What typically followed was Hansen asking questions, which the person would sometimes refuse to answer, sometimes respond to be breaking into tears, sometimes simply walk out – only to be pounced upon by local police officers and taken to jail.
In early 2025, documentary filmmaker David Osit premiered his film Predators at the Sundance Film Festival. It was his effort not only to examine how the show worked by interviewing Hansen, some of his crew and various law-enforcement officials, but also to try and figure out what drove these men to commit the crimes that the show revealed them committing.
Now we have Primetime, a film by Lance Oppenheim that takes a different approach to the same story. While Otis let Hansen explain his motivations – which come across largely as self-serving – Oppenheim is far more obvious about his criticism both of the show in general and Hansen in particular.
Robert Pattinson plays Hansen as a man driven by ambition. At the time, just past the turn of the century, Stone Phillips was the man whom Hansen wanted to be – and he saw To Catch a Predator as his ticket to success. With producer Andie Bender (played by Merritt Weaver) clearing the way, Pattinson’s Hansen ruthlessly uses his so-called “decoys” – mainly a kid named Dan Plum (played by Skyler Gisondo) – to lure a succession of men into the intended compromising situations.
But even while being showered with praise by network brass, Hansen feels the pressure to be ever more daring, which gradually begins to worry members of his team, especially Plum and Bender. And as it turns out, they have good reason.
At the same time, in the film Hansen himself is trying to save his marriage by extricating himself from an affair with a much younger woman. If he isn’t feeling pressure enough, matters grow ever tighter when he receives a call from a National Enquirer reporter who says that the tabloid has photos of his meeting with the woman – and that they plan to publish them.
If you watched To Catch a Predator, you likely know that the series was canceled following an episode that ended disastrously. Instead of luring a man to a neutral location, the crew and police officials went to a man’s actual house, resulting in his committing suicide. NBC later settled a multi-million-dollar lawsuit that the man’s sister had filed.
Primetime captures all this in fever-dream fashion with Oppenheim’s cameras opting for garish color imagery and intense closeups to capture the sweat-heavy, less-than-wholesome feel put forth by both predator and prey.
Don’t be surprised, then, if after watching you’re tempted to avoid schadenfreude and indulge in a hot, emotionally cleansing shower.