兰斯·奥本海姆（Lance Oppenheim）所创作的惊悚小说《Primetime》讲述了真人秀节目《To Catch a Predator》的诞生与衰落过程。书名暗示我们正在观看一部反映特定历史时期的作品——故事背景设定在2006年：那时，流媒体内容的黄金时代还远未成为媒体领域的主流；YouTube成立还不到一年，Netflix还只是一个通过邮件寄送DVD的服务平台，而黄金时段（prime-time）依然是广播电视界最抢手的播出时段。在《Primetime》中，有许多充满“复古感”的细节令人印象深刻，其中最引人注目的莫过于NBCUniversal办公室墙上展示的：《吉尔莫女孩》（Gilmore Girls）和《维罗妮卡·马尔斯》（Veronica Mars）等剧集被整齐地排列在色彩鲜艳的展示板上。当该电视台的首席执行官杰夫·祖克（Jeff Zucker）亲自宣布将《To Catch a Predator》的播出时间调整到每周三晚9点时，他的动作显得既真实又充满怪异感（这种表演方式既体现了角色的身份，又营造出一种荒诞的氛围）。虽然2006年时电子表格已经存在，但在书中它们却被刻意隐藏起来，仿佛是所有人不愿面对的“秘密”或“耻辱”一样。
The title of “Primetime,” Lance Oppenheim’s thriller about the making and unmaking of the scuzzy reality-TV phenomenon “To Catch a Predator,” tells us we’re watching a period piece. The period is 2006, when the golden age of streamable content is barely a speck on the media horizon. YouTube is less than a year old, Netflix is a DVD-by-mail service, and a prime-time slot is still one of the most coveted jewels in broadcast television. Of the many throwback jolts that “Primetime” aims to deliver, none is more jarringly analog than the sight of a TV schedule on a wall at NBCUniversal’s offices, with shows like “Gilmore Girls” and “Veronica Mars” stacked on primary-colored planks. When the network’s C.E.O., Jeff Zucker—played, in a vertiginous mix of authenticity and uncanny-valley weirdness, by Zucker himself—announces that he’s moving “To Catch a Predator” to Wednesdays at 9 .., he actually it, with his hand. Spreadsheets existed in 2006, but here they are kept, like everyone’s shame and scruples, firmly out of sight.
但他会发现什么呢？帕丁森出色的表演并没有给出任何明确的答案。他所饰演的克里斯·汉森表面上光鲜亮丽，充满积极进取的精神，但实际上内心空虚、缺乏真正的感情生活。在NBC电视台，他只是一个二线明星，始终活在《Dateline》节目主持人斯通·菲利普斯（比尔·赫克饰）的阴影之下——后者正前往阿富汗等地区进行重要的新闻报道。影片暗示：在21世纪初，反恐战争以及布兰妮·斯皮尔斯和真人秀节目是少数能够吸引美国人注意力的事物。汉森的工作严重影响了他在康涅狄格州斯坦福德的家庭生活；他偶尔才会回家看望妻子安娜·法里斯和他们的两个年幼的儿子。之后，他又不得不再次踏上旅途，前往佛罗里达州的福特迈尔斯等地调查性犯罪者……汉森自己的婚外情也引起了公众的关注。这位美国最著名的“设圈套抓罪犯”的记者，如今却面临着自己的公开羞辱——这种讽刺意味他自然明白得很清楚。
But what would he find? Pattinson’s dazzlingly contoured performance doesn’t provide any easy answers. His Chris Hansen is all flashy surface, full of jittery go-getter energy and disturbingly devoid of inner life. At NBC, he’s a second-tier golden boy, stuck in the shadow of the “Dateline” anchor Stone Phillips (Bill Heck), who’s off doing serious reporting in places like Afghanistan. (The war on terror, the film suggests, was one of the few things that could command American attention spans in the early two-thousands, along with Britney Spears and reality TV.) Meanwhile, Hansen’s work has taken a toll on his family life in Stamford, Connecticut, where he occasionally drops in on his wife (Anna Faris) and their two young sons. Then it’s back on the road to sniff out sex offenders in towns like Fort Myers, Florida, where one of Hansen’s extramarital affairs has attracted the notice of the . The irony of America’s most famous entrapment artist facing his own public humiliation is not lost on him.