September 25, 2026

"Primetime" provides a bleak yet provocative snapshot of a distinct time in American culture, when appointment television was waning andmdash;perhaps as a responsemdash;mainstream shock reality TV was at its apex. It's an exposé of sorts, especially for those of us who never tuned into "To Catch a Predator," the proudly lurid segment that was part of NBC's long-running investigative show, "Dateline." One of the many curious things about the film—directed by Lance Oppenheim, a documentarian making his narrative debut, and written by Ajon Singh and Luke Dittrich—is that it consistently comes across as fictional and as an outlet for the filmmakers to make a social commentary about the dangers of greed, egotism, and losing your moral center. The fact that it's based on real people and events, which of course have been embellished for dramatic purposes, makes it all the more intriguing, not to mention sad and disturbing.