Primetime is absolutely incredible in every conceivable way - at least in a technical sense. Everything, from every acting performance to the biting tension, the terrifyingly Dracula-like score, and the movie gradually becoming slightly more grainy to show Hansen’s slowly decaying psyche, there’s nothing that isn’t intentional and perfected to the highest degree - but something felt off to me.
This strange feeling doesn’t necessarily stem from anything in particular, more so the absence of something that I can’t fully grasp. I felt as if, the entire time, I was waiting for something that never came. I’d watch, anticipating the other shoe to drop, for something colossal to happen which changes everything, and it never did. Instead, this is a much simpler - at least more than I expected - retelling of the growth of To Catch a Predator in the early to mid-2000s, showing the inherent insincerity of reality TV - at least this branch of it - and the constant chase towards fame that leads everybody around Hansen to become detached from him and the show itself.
It’s likely that this problem was entirely with me - I entered expecting something specific, and that isn’t what this is. However, I’d argue that the movie does lead you to believe there is something on the horizon, even if it doesn’t outright tell you.
Though this is a very different movie than I thought I was walking into, the story itself is still pretty great. We watch as Chris Hansen slowly loses any sense of humanity in himself as he chases fame and fortune - making the show bigger and bigger - with absolutely no regard for the people around him or who it could affect, only to be faced with those consequences in the blink of an eye - or the click of a trigger - in this final scene.
Speaking of which, undoubtedly my favourite moment within this was its end. I’ve always thought a final scene is one of the most - if not the single most - important scenes in any movie. This is the scene that an audience will remember best, and you have to leave them with some sense of the movie’s themes, forcing them to ponder them as they go home. Primetime nails this perfectly.
This final shot, with a quadruple split-screen, slowly isolating Hansen in a single corner, leaving him alone in his nothingness after everybody who once stood by now abandoned him and his show, is such a beautiful one - even if three quarters are slowly infected with a blue ‘no signal’ screen.
This is such a quiet end after a booming finale, leaving you with a slow creep towards the credits, so much so that you can’t help but just stare at these names popping up for a few moments before leaving. This made such a profound impact on me in ways that I’m unable to fully articulate, even if I wasn’t able to connect quite as deeply with the rest of the picture.
All I can guess is that what may have caused this strong impact is how seriously this death is taken. There is no moving on after this. We just - spoilers - watched a man shoot himself in the head as a reality TV host watched on, in pursuit of higher ratings and catching his whale. This ‘whale’ just died in front of our eyes, not only at his own hands but at the hands of Chris Hansen and Andie Bender, and it was dealt with the absolute most gravity that it required, regardless of who this man was.
I fully believe this is Robert Pattinson’s Oscar. After a slightly later career, turning him into one of the greatest young actors working currently, 2026 is the year Pattinson isn’t only nominated, but wins. Whether for Primetime - which seems most likely as of now - Dune: Part Three, The Drama, or The Odyssey, there is at least one guaranteed Academy Award in Pattinson’s future; mark my words.
However, for as incredible as Pattinson is in this, I actually found two other - somewhat surprising - standouts in Merritt Wever and Skyler Gisondo. As the end of the year fast approaches, Oscar conversations are popping up much more, and with Primetime being in the centre of the cultural zeitgeist, there’s no way this isn’t able to pick up a few acting nominations - not to mention all its surefire technical noms.
First, Wever portrays Andie Bender’s inner turmoil as she grapples with sticking by Hansen and his show, with her main objective being those ratings, and believing she is just as bad - or morally grey - as Chris, with unattainable pinpoint accuracy and elevates Pattinson’s performance with such effortless grace; I’m sure there’ll be at least an Oscar nomination for her.
Second, Skyler Gisondo is one that caught me very off guard. Despite having small roles in Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man franchise and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, he initially entered the limelight in 2025’s Superman, in which his acting chops weren’t stretched in any conceivable way. Primetime is the one to do that. He was able to show the acting process and his growing comfort with the concept of Hansen’s show in quite an interesting - if not pretty understated - way. I don’t see many people talk about him in conversation with Primetime, but I’m sure Gisondo has the chops to be quite an incredible actor in the coming years.
Even though Primetime may not have connected with me in the way I had initially hoped, there is so much here to love - at least in a technical sense. Even the longer I ponder over this, the more I find myself loving the idea of it in my head, and I’m sure, once I rewatch, this will be catapulted much higher in the rankings. However, I simply can’t deny the bittersweet feeling of melancholy, mixed with slight dissatisfaction, as the credits rolled. I expected much more of a slow escalation of this story rather than a beat-for-beat retelling, though what we did get isn’t exactly terrible either and leaves you with so much to sink your teeth into over the few days after.