It must be an odd feeling to watch someone else act out events from your life, particularly if you don’t necessarily agree with their portrayal. Chris Hansen is experiencing that phenomenon right now with the release of Primetime, a dark thriller which stars Robert Pattinson as the host of To Catch a Predator as he aims to make his show the biggest on television.
Even before the release of Primetime, Hansen questioned the filmmaker’s motives and critiqued Pattinson’s portrayal, but he’d not yet seen the film for himself. Now…he’s seen it.
In a short video filmed outside a theater, Hansen shared his initial thoughts on the film. “It was so bizarre and so in and out of reality, it’s hard for me to…,” Hansen said. “Obviously, I’m not objective because the character is, you know, me, but it was so detached from reality or anything I’ve experienced then or now doing the investigations. I’m not sure what the point of it was.“
He also teased that he’ll share his complete thoughts at 7 pm ET on his YouTube channel.
Although he found it stylish, our own Chris Bumbray felt a little disappointed by the film and Pattinson’s “barely human” take on Hansen.
“As played by Robert Pattinson, Hansen comes off as barely human, with him leering, cruel, and utterly devoid of any humanizing feature,” Bumbray wrote. “Anyone who actually watched To Catch a Predator knows that isn’t how Hansen came off, with audiences embracing him — initially, anyway — as righteous. Were he to have come off as he does here, the show likely would never have caught on. Having him portrayed this way works in a satire, but not as well when you’re telling a true story.”
He continued, “I do wonder if Primetime would have been better had Hansen simply been used as inspiration rather than as the actual subject. At its worst, Primetime never — for a second — feels like it can offer any real insight into the phenomenon that was To Catch a Predator. It’s stylish and entertaining, but it also feels like a two-dimensional look at subject matter that demands to be taken seriously. In short, the satirical approach leads to it being a bit of a misfire.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.