Ethics and empathy at heart of riveting ‘Predators’
The infamous legacy of NBC reality shows from the early 2000s continues to darken with “Predators,” a searing documentary that turns the cameras on the network’s once popular “To Catch a Predator.” At the time, the series was praised for its well-intentioned attempt to put child molesters behind bars. But now, 20 years on, director David Osit isn’t so sure that was a good thing, ethically speaking.
Sure, the pervs deserved what they had coming. But Osit looks beyond the instantaneous schadenfreude viewers derived from the show’s gotcha moments to question the long-term effects of a program presented and consumed as entertainment. What he uncovers is unsettling, at best, with lives ruined, and in one pivotal case, a life ended. All the while, we sat back in our easy chairs, feeling as self-righteous as we were amused by the dolts who were told they were “free to leave,” only to be greeted by law enforcement as they exited the kitchen door.
Turns out most of the laughs were on us, John Q. Public, blind to the fact that nearly all the perps eventually walked because the show’s smug host, Chris Hansen, never reminded the vermin of their right to remain silent. He cross-examined, and they freely answered in futile hopes of mitigating their shame and embarrassment. But the production’s failure to remove them from the streets did nothing to stem the huge cash flow from advertisers happy to exploit the misery of others – victims and perps – in the name of high Nielsen ratings.
Osit admits he was not immune. Himself a victim of child molestation, he says he never missed an episode as part of a quest to understand why adult men felt compelled to entice sex from kids. Alas, after years of research and countless interviews with the show’s cast and crew, he’s still searching for an answer. But he hardly comes up empty. And what he finds is a plethora of moral complexities that implicate NBC, the show’s producers and even the cops they were purportedly “assisting.”
No less than a former prosecuting attorney is heard questioning the show’s tactics; moreover, who was running the sting operation: the police, or the TV guys? I’ll give you one guess who he considers most culpable. We also hear from “the decoys,” of-age actors who signed on to lure the targets by passing themselves off as young teens. Regrets? They have a few, especially the sandy-haired lad who played a significant role in exposing an officer of the court who killed himself as police closed in on his home.
The irony, of course, is that the underhanded tactics of the producers to evoke scorn toward these degenerates ended up eliciting sympathy for the “bad guys,” as they wept and begged Hansen to let them walk with promises of never doing it again. You also ask yourself if these deplorables would have ever taken the bait if the show had not duped them online. I kept thinking of the John DeLorean case in which the automaker was entrapped by the FBI and charged with drug trafficking, charges for which he was later acquitted. You felt sorry for him, too. But he did, after all, accept what the Feds were offering.
It’s much the same here, leaving you as torn as Osit, who – of all people – should feel no compassion for the likes of these reprobates. But that’s where he, and we, are after learning the ugliness of what went on behind the scenes of “To Catch a Predator.” Worse, the show has spawned a cottage industry of young YouTubers emulating the show, and Hansen, by ambushing prospective offenders on camera and then posting the footage online in the hope of gaining fame and viewers. We meet one such dude in Skeet Hansen, who likes to zing his marks with the line, “You’ve just been Skeeted.”
It’s amazing how willfully ignorant Skeet and the rest of his crew are of the sleaze and deceit they employ in purposely ruining the lives of others just to make a buck. What hath “To Catch a Predator” wrought? Interestingly, many fans ask the same question of the show’s contemporary, “The Apprentice.” Both series were created to regale the masses, but in the long run, have indirectly poisoned the well of civility and ethics.
Even Osit questions his own motivations in making “Predator.” Is he, too, profiting off the agony of others? Perhaps, but in examining America’s unhealthy thirst for vigilantism, he more than justifies his riveting tale of our collective moral decay. In the end, who are the predators of the title? Them, or us? The answer just might surprise you.
Movie review
Predators
Rated: Unrated
Director: David Osit
Runtime: 96 minutes
Where: In theaters, expanding Oct. 3
Grade: B+
