Flasz On Film

Synopsis: An examination of the rise and fall of the controversial To Catch a Predator TV specials from NBC, using interviews, archival material and unseen footage to probe the show’s cultural impact and ethical implications, as well as how the series shaped subsequent media and public perceptions of justice and punishment.

Even though there has been a grand total of 20 episodes of To Catch a Predator, it officially ran on NBC for a number of years, between 2004 and 2007. It became an immediate sensation that reverberated with audiences on the basis of its provocative content and the chilling suggestion that the world is full of men who might be out to take advantage of our kids and that something needs to be done to stop them.

Predators, directed by David Osit, is a documentary that brings us up close to the phenomenon of To Catch a Predator, retraces the history of its production and attempts to contextualize its cultural influence while also prodding delicately—yet with appropriate journalistic rigor—at numerous controversies surrounding this project and asking morally complex questions about its central mission. Over the course of just over ninety minutes, the movie successfully gathers all the important beats the viewer would require to learn more about this program that successfully, and controversially, blurred the line between reporting on news and making them. Using clever framing, competent talking head interviews led by folks who did not shy away from asking difficult questions, and copious amounts of archival footage, most of which can be investigated in full on YouTube and other places, the filmmakers captured the paradoxical nature of To Catch a Predator as a show that compelled its viewers, jolted some of them towards often ill-guided action, and also forced them to reflect on the moral validity of vigilantism itself.

This is perhaps where Predators succeeds most profoundly. It is clear from the get-go that the filmmakers had their own mission to fulfill while assembling their footage, which included interviewing Chris Hansen himself, decoys who worked with NBC and posed as minors fishing on the Internet for interactions with potentially predatory men, law enforcement officials and second-wave online vigilantes who carried on Chris Hansen’s work on their own and frequently without a blessing of any government agencies. Osit and his collaborators were not after crafting a simple information dump of the kind that clutters streaming services these days, but rather an attempt to tell a story that recounts the facts and also illuminates the moral quagmire that surrounds the fundamental idea of hunting for online predators outside the boundaries of law.

Although the movie itself tends to be hard to watch in places because of the subject matter alone, it truly does a great job outlining just how weird and potentially murky Hansen’s mission potentially was. The filmmakers suggest that To Catch a Predator operated in the shadowland between entrapment and legally valid sting operations and that perhaps its central core was to both perform a public service and generate clout and ratings for the producers., which hints at its ethically grey and potentially exploitative motivations. In fact, many online content creators who followed Hansen’s footsteps openly admitted to being driven by clicks and online notoriety, just as they were propelled by the need to flag monsters hiding in our midst.

By drawing attention to a handful of tragedies, morally ambiguous cases as well as the fact that Hansen’s collaboration with law enforcement frequently led to these cases being impossible to prosecute (which meant that many of the individuals “caught” in those sting operation walked free soon thereafter), Predators cuts right into the heart of the matter, which is encapsulated in the title alone. They suggest that just as much as these men lured by young-presenting decoys were most likely opportunistic sexual predators, the people engaging in the act of hunting and catching them were also predators of a different kind. This is a difficult balancing act as far as documentary storytelling is concerned and the filmmakers mostly rely on their subjects and the story alone instead of attempting to explain these morally discombobulating complexities. They frequently pause and let their interviewees sit with their opinions, especially after asking them hard questions regarding these moral edge cases. They let the camera roll to make sure we can all partake in the detectable discomfort of it all without forcing their own opinion onto the viewer or cutting to infographics or other often deployed documentary tactics.

As a result, Predators functions as a well-rounded and intellectually engaging piece of documentary storytelling. It works as a movie that educates us on the story behind Hansen, his work on To Catch a Predator and later projects, illustrates the phenomenon that followed the program and respectfully recounts surrounding scandals and controversies. Most importantly, though, it acts as a piece of hard-and-fast journalism that isn’t afraid of upsetting the cart and suggests that underneath aspirations to make our kids safe from lurking sex pests, the very concept of vigilantism carries a degree of moral duplicity that needs to be tackled and discussed. Therefore, Predators might just about pass the test of essential viewing as its provocative and honest nature instigates a potent debate on the frequently complex patterns of motivations driving causes we tend to describe as noble.