Predators

In To Catch a Predator, the reality television series that ran from 2004 – 2007 on NBC’s Dateline, men seeking sex with underage boys and girls are lured into televised arrests. David Osit’s film Predators investigates the history of the show and slowly unravels its ethics, calling into question the motives of both the media and the public hidden underneath TCAP’s positioning as a community service. “Help me understand,” Chris Hansen, the show’s suave, buttoned-up host rhetorically asks the men on each episode about their motives before they are hastily jumped by police waiting outside. Predators sensitively goes where To Catch a Predator had no real interest in going, into the psychology of the show and its enduring impact on participants and abuse survivors.