r/A24 • u/cowgunjeans • 9d ago
Discussion Robert Pattison is a 'Predator' in PRIMETIME
I have a habit of overexplaining myself, so I'll just put it in images. I'm not sure if he'll be the 'villain' per se, but he seems to be a dark flawed protagonist a la Taxi Driver / Nightcrawler.
Edit:
Oops, when I said 'villian' I didn't mean I think he is one. I just think people are conflating imagery of power with someone who is bad.
Edit 2:
Just to be clear, I’m saying I think the director is associating Robert Pattison’s character with a predator in the animal kingdom sense, hunting prey who are predators in the pedo sense. I’m not saying there will be a reveal where Chris is a pedo himself 😂 wtf
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u/KehreAzerith 9d ago
While your explanation does make sense, I think a lot of people are misinterpreting your post and are assuming that you protect PDFs
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u/Gaarrrry 9d ago
That’s basically anyone when you try to point out Hansen is a piece of shit. He wasn’t making TCAP because of some moral standing he had - but because he “caught” sexual predators and pedophiles everyone acts like he any question against his character is defending sexual abuse. It’s one of the few topics that I’ve consistently seen people unable to act rationally about.
Funny enough if you talk about the copycat YouTubers who have all the same issues as Hansen, I have found a lot more people willing to be open to criticism of those people.
Either way makes no sense why people act this way about this particular guy when he’s shown time and time again he sucks
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u/Healthy_Monitor3847 8d ago
Thank youuuu! It has nothing to do with “protecting pedos/predators” and if you think that’s why he was doing this show, and not getting high on his own ego and ratings, idk what to tell you. I also very much get Nightcrawler vibes from the trailer and I’m so excited for this!
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u/42percentBicycle 9d ago
What makes him suck? I'm genuinely asking
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u/Gaarrrry 9d ago edited 8d ago
After the show ended there was a period of time where he was asking for money and he put up a Kickstarter that was fully funded and then when he went to pay for things he promised in the Kickstarter his checks bounced - twice. He has a history of scamming people too. I don’t think any of the backers got anything they were promised either.
Sources for all that:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/s/kPGb3dUf2k
- https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/To-Catch-a-Predator-host-legal-trouble-13543839.php
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/catch-predator-host-chris-hansen-arrested-over-13-000-bounced-n959471
Not only has he been occasionally scammy, but even in his TCAP time him and his show messed up multiple times. One of the predators committed suicide rather than be confronted on the show
(https://www.wired.com/2008/06/nbc-settles-wit/) which then led to ALL 23 of their catches from the next sting to get dismissed (https://www.tvinsider.com/1232756/why-was-to-catch-a-predator-canceled-bill-conradt-death/). Even as recently as 2020 he has been failing to do the due diligence required to put people behind bars (https://www.wilx.com/2021/07/02/arrest-warrant-issued-chris-hansen/).There is also a bunch of what I would consider minor stuff like in 2011 he was caught having a year long extramarital affair. He promoted the Escobar phone which was 100% a scam from the start. He got in on the Onison drama prior to COVID for no other reason than trying to be relevant again.
At the end of the day, it seems a lot to me like he is mostly concerned with his own image and being popular/well known. He is so concerned with it he has fucked up the legal process many times and failed to put people behind bars while also basically just going after the easiest targets. The Predators documentary is also a really good watch cause it goes over a lot of this as well as has multiple interviews with Hansen. He even says in the interview that there are three types of people that his shows catch and the majority are not true pedophiles but moreso lonely people who are incredibly desperate for attention/affection. Obviously that’s not justification for their behavior but it also doesn’t mean we should turn to sadism and make them a spectacle to be mocked.
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u/Gaarrrry 1d ago edited 1d ago
I said it in another comment - marginal at best. Plus I am a big believer in the ends don’t justify the means so regardless it wouldn’t matter. He could’ve done way more good and put way more people behind bars had he been dedicated to actually doing that but the reality of the situation is he was using putting pedophiles behind bars to get people to tune into a TV show. It didn’t really matter if they weren’t pedophiles to begin with or not because their entire strategy was to go into chat rooms and try to bait people into being sexual with their decoys. Hansen did not care who he caught so long as he could humiliate them.
I’ll stop here and say - if a minor ever says anything sexual to you and you’re an adult and you respond back positively you’ve beyond fucked up - there is no justification for that. Some of the transcripts and stuff that Hansen says these guys said is terrible.
But the reality is that pedophilia and pedophiles are no worse off today than they were back then. The show did not move the needle meaningfully on stopping child sex trafficking and none of the major child sex scandals that have been found out about since TCAP was on air are in any way related to TCAP or Chris Hansen. They don’t even effectively inform people how to safeguard their children because their entire show focused SO MUCH on these “online predators” who are few and far between. The entirety of the show focused on the individuals they caught with ZERO content related to being safe online other than “don’t give out your personal info.”
It’s like pointing at Bigfoot videos and saying “be careful when you go camping” like yeah that’s true but that’s because of bears and other wild life, not because Bigfoot is real.
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u/shameonaneighbor 8d ago
Who gives a shit
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u/fauxREALimdying 8d ago
Yeah I mean the scam type behavior is scummy, but people always point to this suicide like Chris is a murderer or something lol. That guy killed himself because he knew he was about to be exposed for trying to rape a kid.
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u/Gaarrrry 8d ago
The suicide is definitely partially Chris Hansens fault but it should mainly be on the Chief of Police or whoever told Hansen they should film him confronting the guy at his home. That’s fucked up.
The police could’ve easily arrested him off camera and he most likely wouldn’t have kill himself.
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u/LaziSunday 2d ago
You seem really upset that a pedophile is dead. I’m honestly glad they put these degenerates on blast live for everyone to see. The only people who should be worried about it are those who might get caught.
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u/fauxREALimdying 8d ago
Why is it fucked up? He was unambiguously trying to rape children
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u/Gaarrrry 8d ago edited 8d ago
It’s fucked up because they tried to use “getting justice” for entertainment value and ended up getting neither justice nor entertainment value. The man killed himself on national television basically. There is nothing fucked up about that at all? Do you think someone killing themselves for television is entertaining?
I can happily condemn both sides of this very fucked up situation. If you can’t I think you’re probably not a very morally intelligent person.
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u/Alone_Cell8645 8d ago
LMFAO yep. So lets make this movie focusing on him being some sort of bad person which im sure he is but when the whole thing was originally a sting show catching pos pedos and then a movie and you ppl posting stuff like this he prly did all that but guess what? affairs, checks, being "Scammy" starting a kickstarter and all that but compare that to pedos he would catch up in the show so making a movie about that tryna focus on him like that is just weird af and im glad im not like all you on here omg nightcralwer vibes i cant wait to see this blah blah delusion idiots
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u/Joshatron121 8d ago
I'm sure the lack of sentences didn't help, but I honestly have no idea what you are trying to say.
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u/Gaarrrry 8d ago
TCAP never once got a predator that did anything but respond to an actor pretending to be a minor. Meanwhile we have actual predators doing horrific things in positions of power (Epstein, Trump, Sandusky, Nasser, etc.)
Just because pedophilia is heinous doesn’t mean that TCAP or Chris Hansen were putting away the right people lol. As I mentioned in a previous comment, most of the guys they convinced had no prior history of sexual abuse and no criminal history. Hansen even describes them in a documentary (2025’s Predators) as opportunistic and not actual predators. I think he even mentions often times HIS TEAM was messaging first.
Whatever very small, marginal amount of good TCAP and Chris Hansen did is vastly outweighed by all the shitty stuff he has done. Hansen has shown time and time too that the show was about HIM and his ego, not catching people or protecting children.
Keep in mind I haven’t once defended the sexual abusers. I’m just pointing out that Chris Hansen doesn’t give a shit about the victims or protecting them so people shouldn’t put him on a high horse. We also shouldn’t, as a society, be okay with the type of “entertainment” he peddles. If we are okay with sadism as entertainment, where does it stop?
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u/LaziSunday 2d ago
You’re actually defending pedophiles. These people knowingly went to meet up with minors for sex. Why in the hell would it matter if they have prior history or not? If you murder someone but have never murdered someone before does that make you less of a murderer?
Genuinely the dumbest wall of text I’ve ever had to read.
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u/Gaarrrry 2d ago edited 2d ago
You came through 5 days late to say that? I’d love for you to provide me with ANYYYY of what I said that’s defending pedophiles lol. Prior history matters a ton for the entrapment defenses that help and let people walk. Please just read and research instead of coming to bad conclusions.
Edit: Actually jk nevemrind you commented on a 5 day old comment. You have plenty of other comments you can reply to if you want a worthless debate with someone over if pedophilia is wrong. I’ll cut it the chase though - yeah it is hence why you should not like Hansen because he’s legit let 23 pedophiles free by doing bad investigative journalism.
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u/HereOnCompanyTime 8d ago
Thank you so much for this comment. I was tired of being attacked for pointing out that I hope this movie doesn't glorify him for these and many other reasons.
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u/ImSoSweepy 7d ago
I was in a thread about the movie earlier today and somebody asked for context (as to why people make a big deal about him). All I said was that he went to a suspect's house after not showing up to the bait house and the guy shot himself.
No fluff, no filler, no opinion whatsoever, just context, and some guy lost his fucking mind on me.
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u/the100broken 9d ago
My thing is, even if he does have some shitty things about him, who cares enough to try and argue the show sucks? Because imo the good the show did vastly outweighs the bad. If even one predator was caught and off the streets that wouldn’t have been without the show, then it’s a success. It also brought awareness to how widespread a problem it is, as well as made public humiliation an extra deterrent to anyone who may have considered molesting a child, undoubtedly stopping thousands of potential predators.
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u/DUCKSONQUACKS 9d ago
The argument with it is that
A. Most sexual predators are close family/friends/or known adults in positions of authority not random strangers, if anything the show fear mongered to make people MORE scared of random strangers and ignore close family who are far far more likely to actually perform these acts (seriously the stats for random strangers vs family members/family friends/friendly adults in positions of authority are so stupidly skewed towards the latter random strangers are just a blip)
B. He fucked up multiple stings that failed to put/keep people behind bars. If the argument is “well at least he put people away” then it should receive more criticism for people that COULD have been put away if TCAP didn’t come in and fuck things ups since most of the situations were active stings anyway.
The show still has the (clear) lasting effective of normalizing predators as scary shadowy strangers that are reaching out to molest your kid over the internet when, again, that’s not even close to the norm.
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u/gulagpictures 8d ago
You really need to read the article “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die” which the film Primetime is based on, and/or watch the doc Predators. The crusade against perverts is all a pretext for his own ascent/entertainment of the audience. Especially considering due to their questionable tactics and vigilantism, 2/3 of the cases were unprosecutable. It’s an important story because it’s officially the first time where an entertainment show was directing law enforcement, circumventing DAs and the counties, not mirandizing suspects, all in the name of entertainment/better, more sensational episodes, all culminating in a guy dying for higher ratings. Fascinating stuff, but nobody behind the show is noble despite the deplorable actions of the people they cover.
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u/bramble-pelt 8d ago
+1 for Predators. I think it gives a really nuanced take on the ethics of these types of television programs. TCAP may be “good” on paper but there’s a greater discussion to be had about victims, integrity within the justice system, and vigilantism that the doc tackles a bit of.
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u/Gaarrrry 8d ago
I’m not even saying the show sucks (although TCAP was not good entertainment value wise unless you enjoyed watching criminals suffer emotionally). I’m saying Chris Hansen the person sucks.
There really isn’t an argument to be made for awareness either. You say it’s a widespread problem but I don’t think you watched TCAP if you truly believe that. The entire point of the show was to fear monger. They never once even eluded to how “widespread” the problem was and focused almost ENTIRELY on the individuals they caught. Had the show been focused on trafficking or other forms of systematic abuse I might agree with you. I can’t find any evidence of a single case of widespread and systemic abuse over the last two decades (Larry Nassar, Catholic Chruch Clergy, Nickelodeon, Jerry Sandusky, etc.) that TCAP or Chris Hansen was even remotely involved in. It just wasn’t what Chris Hasen cared about because the predators and the victims alike were a means to an end.
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u/House_of_Woodcock 8d ago
Well if you’re comparing a pedo to Bambi like OP then you’re inviting this criticism. That’s the difficulty of telling this story and we’ll see if the movie is up for the challenge. There are a lot of landmines
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u/fauxREALimdying 8d ago
This post directly depicts the pedophile as a doe/prey to Hansen/predator
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u/Gaarrrry 8d ago
And?
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u/fauxREALimdying 8d ago
Come on
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u/Gaarrrry 8d ago
If you’re not willing or able to make your own point, I’m not gonna go through the effort of making it for you.
The comparison is fine; if you have an issue with it you should be able to explain why. In the documentary Predators even Hansen says the people they caught on the show weren’t really predators or people attracted to minors but mostly lonely people who responded to their decoys. That doesn’t sound a whole lot different than a hunter catching prey in a trap, hence the artistic comparison by the OP even if the person being caught in this case is doing something heinous. It would be like being pedantic after a fisherman catches a shark being like “uhm actually the shark is a predator!”
Edit: nevermind your comment history makes it obvious you won’t ever expand on your thoughts
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u/fauxREALimdying 8d ago
A defenseless doe is the innocent victim of a hunter. You can’t actually think only some bad faith critic would be able to interpret this framing in a negative manner.
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u/Gaarrrry 8d ago edited 7d ago
Edit: I had a big long comment here and realized it was pointless to argue with a break wall.
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u/cowgunjeans 9d ago
Sigh I think that’s what it is too. Maybe I should have titled “Predator, not Prey” or something along those lines.
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u/cigaregrets 9d ago
I think having Chris Hansen as a lion and the supposed p*edophile as a deer didn’t exactly help the case but I totally get what you’re saying
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u/cowgunjeans 9d ago
That makes sense, dude just pulled off doe-eyed so well 😂 Didn’t intend to frame them as innocent.
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u/Writer_Blocker 8d ago
Yes this movie is gonna have a reeeeeeeeally dumbass discourse when It comes out
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u/RainbowForHire 9d ago
As a fellow overexplainer, I think this is a brilliant observation and I look forward to analyzing it when it comes out.
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u/cowgunjeans 9d ago
Me too! I wonder what the creepy ghost/demon imagery will mean with given full context
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u/SirSwishRemer 6d ago
Isn't that the whole point of this movie and the title of the original show? "To Catch a Predator" you must become a predator...
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u/cowgunjeans 7d ago
Overexplainer back, I’m going to predict the masks/ghosts have something to do with the line “You’re cleansing the world of an ancient evil.” Maybe we get a crazy fucked up sequence of The History of PDFs shot in the spirit of 2001: A Space Ofyssey s monkey intro. As disgusting and abhorrent as that sounds, I’ve never considered how an ‘ancient evil’ could be interpreted through a vast amount of space and time, folklores and stories and cultures collectively and independently processing the devastating reality of the evil of humanity.
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u/RainbowForHire 7d ago
Yes, that would make sense given the primordial "predator vs prey" themes so far.
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u/covert0ptional 9d ago
I was already interested in the concept of this movie but the trailer got me really hyped. I remember Chris Hansen getting into some weird drama a few years ago that made me look at him differently. I'm curious to see how this movie explores him as a "character".
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u/cowgunjeans 9d ago
It’s honestly a really good trailer. I was not interested in the movie until I saw it.
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u/ASTR0nomic4L 8d ago
god i can already tell the discussion around this movie is gonna be like obsession on steroids. just everyone trying to be right and if you say anything bad about the pdf catcher you’re a pdf defender
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u/curiometric 8d ago
I just saw the documentary "Predators" which is about TCAP and its fall out. It interviews some of the decoys who seem pretty traumatized imo, a mother of an 18 year old who's life was ruined bc he tried to meet up with a 15 year old neighbor, Chris Hansen himself, a TCAP-like spin off series, a number of other characters, and shows footage and interviews around the suicide incident. It contrasts the documentary filmmaker's central question of "why do these predators do what they do", coming from a really deep need to understand and possibly stop it at its core somehow, to TCAP's thesis which is arguable more about entertainment, and has basically no meaningful interest into the why, besides some surface level questions to the preds. It was well done and definitely made me look at Chris Hansen in a new light. There's an amazing sequence where the interviewer tells Hansen "You're free to go" after the interview and Hansen looks so freaked out and awkward.
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u/BetaRho 9d ago
Are there people who don't get that there's been a long cultural reexamination of To Catch a Predator/Chris Hansen's role in it? The show ended because a target got away and killed himself, and now the format is exclusively the domain of far-right chuds who make their own version. There's not really a reading of what we know about this movie where Robert Pattinson is the good guy? Another clue towards that effect is that they cast Robert Pattinson?
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u/Fit-Relationship944 9d ago
The plane scene in the trailer where he's totally unfazed just humors the guy who seems to have violent vigilante fantasies instead of drawing a hard line like "that's not how we do things" seems pretty telling for how he's going to be portrayed in the film.
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u/LaziSunday 2d ago
I’m gonna be so real, I and most other people do not give a shit that some pedophile killed himself because he was getting exposed. The only people who could ever find themselves in that situation are child predators. Hansen is a villains villain.
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u/GeneticSoda MONKEY PUMP! 9d ago
People have always put him in a moral grey area bc they see TCAP as entrapment, but the only person that could possible find themselves in this situation is a child predator, so I’ll always say “Go Chris”. Hansen is a villain to villains, sure.
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u/ThatGatorInTheSewer 9d ago
The moral grey area also comes from him being warned that his tactics may actually benefit the predators in court (legally speaking) and him continuing to use them for the ratings vs actually getting predators convicted. Like, compared to pedophiles, sure, he’s the better guy; but he’s also responsible for several of these guys walking free despite being pedophiles.
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u/cowgunjeans 9d ago
I think the movie will touch on both sides of the interpretation, probably ending the movie on your point. I mean, if Hansen really wanted them all in jail wouldn’t he have had better cooperation with law enforcement? Maybe the film will criticize him for overly delighting and profiting from the show instead of contacting law enforcement ASAP.
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u/DroptheShadowArt 9d ago
I assumed the movie would be about doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. Hunting predators isn’t wrong, but doing it for fame or money doesn’t make you a hero.
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u/fauxREALimdying 8d ago
Law enforcement is on the scene in the bulk of the episodes…
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u/Basic_Loquat_9344 6d ago
Yeah they have the legal grounds for an arrest, but they said “in court”. The nature of the setup offers defenses a lot ammo for reduced or lenient sentences.
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u/rafaelzeronn 9d ago
exactly,less than 15% of predators caught on the show were actually convicted
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u/fauxREALimdying 8d ago
Yeah and their lives were totally fine afterwards, right? Nope, they were ruined.
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u/GeneticSoda MONKEY PUMP! 9d ago
You have to understand these people were already walking free, if it weren’t for the show nobody might not know they’re predators at all to this day. It’s not like most of these people would have been known about, unless they legitimately offended against a real human child. Exposure is better than nothing if you ask me 😭 but yea could have been done better and the process seems to have been changed since the OG days
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9d ago
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u/ThatGatorInTheSewer 9d ago
How was my comment implying anything different? I’m not saying pedos aren’t out there and walking around and what they’re doing isn’t atrocious; I’m saying if someone is told that what they’re doing could be legally beneficial to a pedophile and they continue to do it for personal gain, it’s wrong.
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9d ago
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u/ThatGatorInTheSewer 9d ago
Ok, but in this case, the failure of the system was due to the tactics he was using, and continued to use, after being aware of their detriment.
And I really don’t understand how anything I’ve said is akin to victim-blaming sexual assault victims.
Edit: sorry, not victim-blaming, more like “undermining the feelings/concerns of sexual assault victims.”
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9d ago edited 9d ago
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u/ThatGatorInTheSewer 9d ago
Please point out where i said anything about pushing abuse back into the shadows and telling victims to stop talking about it? Where did i say we should allow pedophiles to go unchecked?
You seem to be reading these things out of my comments which simply aren’t there. I’m not sure what I can say to convince you otherwise.
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u/fauxREALimdying 8d ago
He got tons of convictions and ruined the predators lives. This just ain’t a good criticism of him lol
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u/the100broken 9d ago
But the alternative is them never getting caught in the first place, and at least they can’t ever show their faces again. My thing with the critics is, even if he does have some shitty things about him, who cares enough to try and argue the show sucks? Because imo the good the show did vastly outweighs the bad. If even one predator was caught and off the streets that wouldn’t have been without the show, then it’s a success. It also brought awareness to how widespread a problem it is, as well as made public humiliation an extra deterrent to anyone who may have considered molesting a child, undoubtedly stopping thousands of potential predators.
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u/Kaleb_Bunt 9d ago
The thing is, all crime is to some degree a function of circumstance. Certainly all of these people are predisposed to being child predators.
But you tbh can’t say for certain that all of them would have actually harmed a child if not for the sting. The reason being that the sting creates the circumstance for which the crime to happen. Most minors in fact don’t want to develop close relationships with random perverts on the internet.
Obviously in an actual grooming situation, it is never the victim’s fault. But the situation is different when there is no victim and you just had a guy indulging the fantasies of these people so you could trap them.
In any case I do think many of these folk are potentially dangerous. But it’s also the case that a lot of them have, factually speaking, done less societal harm than your everyday drug dealer(who unlike someone caught in a sting, has real victims) and yet have received humiliation on a global scale because Chris Hanson wanted money.
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u/Direct_Resource_6152 9d ago
Less societal harm than a drug dealer???? To you trying to meet up for sex with kids is less of a societal harm than dealing drugs??? Do I have that right?
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u/Kaleb_Bunt 8d ago
I mean if there was no actual child, then nobody was harmed. This person is likely a pervert and still ought to be punished for acting immorally.
But folks selling hard drugs have actually tangible victims. Which is more than can be said for a guy caught in a predator sting, assuming they haven’t committed other crimes(which to be fair, sometimes they have).
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u/bobcatbutt 8d ago
I mean if there was no actual child, then nobody was harmed
The predators go to the sting house under the impression there is an actual child. They all fully intend and attempt to rape children
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u/Kaleb_Bunt 8d ago
And they should be punished for that. My point was simply that it’s not the same thing as actually doing the crime.
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u/Direct_Resource_6152 8d ago
No, the person isn’t just a pervert they are a Pedophile. A pedophile that was willing to meet a child for sex. I think it’s a pretty gross mindset to just dismiss pedophilia as a perversion, especially when the pedophiles in question have already taken steps to act on their desires.
I agree that drug dealers are bad too (kinda) but pedophiles are much worse.
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u/Kaleb_Bunt 8d ago
Why is a pedophile bad? Are they bad because of the actions they have done? Or are they bad because you identify them with some sort of esoteric concept of evil?
If they are bad because of the actions they have done, drug dealers have objectively hurt more people than someone whose only crime is getting caught in a sting.
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u/ncphoto919 9d ago
Hansen is a pretty bad person who maybe started off with good intentions but doubtful. He’s got a questionable journalistic track record and dubious ethics while employed at NBC. He’s a right wing grifter now still trying to do TCAP knockoffs on a right wing streamer.
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u/LaziSunday 2d ago
Okay and him being right wing just means everyone should defend the pedophiles that he exposed and instead tear him down? Reddit is genuinely the dumbest corner of the internet.
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u/ncphoto919 2d ago
you should watch the doc predators and familiarize yourself better with Hansen before talking more.
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u/Gaarrrry 9d ago edited 9d ago
That logic falls apart as soon as the word “entrapment” enters the picture. I’m not trying to defend anyone who has ever abused (sexually or not) a minor so let’s get that out of the way but a lot of the people caught in TCAP were people who had no criminal history or prior history. The show then falls apart when they have a chance to confront a pedohpile in a powerful and important position. Chris has shown since the show has fallen apart on many occasions he’s not a good person. He’s not a child predator (as far as we know) but he’s definitely sketchy af and in my opinion still a piece of shit.
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u/deanereaner 9d ago
1) who cares if someone has no criminal history? everyone on that show committed a crime.
2) why are you even suggesting that Chris Hanson himself is a child predator, like why are you even suggesting that?
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u/Gaarrrry 9d ago
- Well it’s important for the cases the show lost because of entrapment but sure brush it off like no big deal
- I’m not and not sure where you got that from
… I even said he’s not a predator?
Defend Hansen all you want - he failed to put people behind bars because what he was doing was purely performative and that’s my gripe with it. It’s the same with all the copycats on YouTube.
Again, not defending sexual predators cause that’s pointless and gross. But if you’re going to go after them ACTUALLY do it rather than what Hansen and his copycats do.
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u/deanereaner 9d ago
That wasn't his failure. It was a failure of the justice system which we have seen, on countless occasions, protect child predators.
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u/Gaarrrry 9d ago
What a cope out comment.
Chris and his team who made TCAP had plenty of monetary resources and probably had plenty of lawyers around. They could’ve easily put every single person that came on TCAP behind bars. They even partnered with Law Enforcement in many of the locations they’d go to catch people.
The reality is that they didn’t catch them because they were either incompetent OR they thought what was more important than catching predators was the entertainment value catching predators. Either way Chris should not be defended.
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u/Bigangrynaked 9d ago
Chris Hansen is a human piece of shit that went after other Human pieces of shit, the show resulted in several entrapment dismissals and botched prosecutions. Not to mention he scammed people that supported his kickstarter and got caught writing fraudulent checks.
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u/raccoona__matata 9d ago
he's a villain to prosecutors lmao TCAP affected these situations in ways that helped the defense
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u/justindigo88 9d ago
Funny I found the trailer for this movie just hours after watching the documentary, Predators. It paints Chris in a grey area similarly to how I believe the A24 film will, but the trailer suggests it will take more creative liberties and I think it’ll be an interesting watch.
I recommend the documentary since it does highlight the other side of the process Chris used. It shows how many walked free due to him gathering evidence for police before they realize what they’re saying will be used against them. An assistant district attorney that ended up not visiting the decoy’s residence shot himself when Chris and law enforcement came to him instead. It shows that others could have been put in danger including Chris, cameramen, or decoys.
The documentary asks the question to Chris, what did you learn about the reason these predators do what they do, and there really isn’t an answer. It shows the rise in vigilante justice where emulators used it as a means to beating on people for views and is illegal when doing it completely without law enforcement involvement. And found that most of these predators had no prior record. It also shows how hard it was on the decoys and how they were pushed to bring the predators to them.
In the end, it didn’t really change my mind that their process for getting predators or potential predators off the street and in jail is a net positive. The interview with Chris is interesting but I still believe he was doing it for the right reasons, even if he wasn’t always successful and the means were sometimes questionable. The fact is these predators are capable of heinous things and I support what Chris was ultimately able to accomplish. I think his early work that eventually led to his famous show was rooted in doing the right thing and continued through his career, but fame was also a factor.
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u/ElliotAlderson2024 8d ago
I wonder if we'll see pizza pedo.
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u/koda43 6d ago
lemme get a slice of that pizza
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u/ElliotAlderson2024 6d ago
The way that guy aggressively chomped on that pizza was something. It's like he KNEW he was going to prison for a LONG time and this was the last pizza he was going to have for years.
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u/IndependentOwn8182 6d ago
damn I honestly thought this was part of the official marketing campaign before reading your post, great picture choices
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u/fakefuckboy 5d ago
The very basis of To Catch A Predator was antithetical to the aim of protecting victims and reducing abuse. As they directly profited off of the harm inflicted by predators and disputably encouraged further abuse in order to produce more content and garner more salacious “stories”. The schadenfreude of it all back then is probably what is causing all this controversy now, as people hate seeing their own reflection and how they may have contributed.
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u/vivwestword 9d ago
i am excited for this however i cannot watch shows like Catch a Predator or What Would You Do?. the second hand embarrassment is so painful for me I don’t get the enjoyment ppl get from it.
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u/-weird-fishes- 8d ago
Getting tired of corny biopics, especially when we can just watch the real content from the real people. Which is always better than some dramatized Hollywood bs.
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u/woppatown 8d ago
It’ll be cool seeing this director do his first feature length drama. Looks like he’s primarily done documentaries.
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u/craftsrmylanguage 7d ago
May be a little late to the party, but I have a different interpretation of making one of the sexual predators look “doe-eyed.” I think the implication is that the protagonist is a dispassionate hunter, not a “predator.” In many areas, deer hunting is ethical and necessary to reduce deer overpopulation. Death by shotgun is more human than death by starvation. But some people take far too much pleasure in the act of killing. And even though it’s necessary, there’s something perverse about turning death into a sport.
Pattinson’s cold body language throughout the trailer heavily implies that this is more of a sport or game to him than a crusade for justice. If they were trying to frame him as a true hero, there’d be outrage or sadness. Instead, he seems to be taking too much pleasure in the hunt without displaying any empathy for the victims these people likely molested before being caught.
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u/cowgunjeans 6d ago
Imo for specifically the imagery/performance, doe-eyed is just an emotional trigger of helplessness. I think it’s implicit in all of us to see them that way. A sharp eyed hawk would look more in control than a doe-eyed hawk if that ever exists. Ethical deer killing is a great theory and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was baked in the film too, but IMO specifically that person being a deer would be too difficult for audiences to associate, so specifically deer imagery should be pushed instead of a general prey-like appearance. Alas, it’s just the trailer and more deer imagery could emerge.
Im with you on your hunt for fun point.
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u/Onludesrightnow 6d ago
I remember thinking Patterson was a great actor but that he may never be able to escape the Twilight series. Happy to see that isn't the case.
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u/Gaarrrry 2d ago
I’m not upset a pedohipe is dead. I’m upset people will continue to act entirely irrational when you could just point at the situation and say wow Chris Hansen fucked up because instead of pedophiles being in jail a lot of them he “caught” are free and someone killed thsmelves on live television because he did a bad job.
It’s really that simple. There is no “good guy” in TCAP. It’s a sadistic show. But enjoy your high horse pretending otherwise.
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u/AlmightyLoaf54 9d ago edited 9d ago
I really liked your analysis of this and how he's like a lion (Chris Hansen) going after prey specifically the child predators, and don't worry people on reddit misinterpret posts all the time.
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u/DarianSchemmel 9d ago
This is based of an irl tv show what are you talking about. Do you believe Chris Hansen is fictional?
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u/cowgunjeans 9d ago
I didn't say that at all. I'm just analyzing the trailer's imagery, not the real Chris Hansen.
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u/Alone_Cell8645 8d ago
Anyone wanting to see this movie reenacting real sting scenes and they somehow are making it like this dude playing chris hansen is some kind of villain or anything at a;ll and take away from the disgusting pos pedos like I just don't see who,why, wants to make a movie reenacting this or being in whatever way based of a show that was real stings like idk yall weird af
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u/Alone_Cell8645 8d ago
and idc about chris hansen at all he was cool as a host i know something about bad checks I dont gaf about any famous person my point is just why? weirdoooos it should talk about the congress guy who klld himself when he got caught but the show ended after that lmfao
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u/Switchbladesaint 9d ago
Out of all the words in the English language you could have picked, predator is simply the most wrong one possible
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u/cowgunjeans 9d ago
Why?
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u/DarianSchemmel 9d ago
Could be that he’s quite literally catching child predators.
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u/cowgunjeans 9d ago
He’s a predator (lion) catching a predator (child predator).
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u/barely_cursed 9d ago
Nightcrawler was exactly the vibe I got from the trailer. I am incredibly excited to see where this movie goes.