David Osit's documentary 'Predators' offers a disturbing examination of the televised shaming central to the hit show 'To Catch a Predator'. The film may rank among the year's best nonfiction works, providing a troubling meditation on society's thirst for revenge as portrayed by reality TV.
Osit, initially an offscreen voice but later a fully present figure, explains he avidly watched the US series, which ran from 2004 to 2007. Each episode followed a similar pattern: a man arrives at a suburban house expecting sex with a teen, only to be confronted by journalist Chris Hansen with transcripts of his interactions with a decoy actor. The target often cries and pleads, then is told he is free, only to be arrested by waiting police.
At the time, Jimmy Kimmel called the show 'the funniest thing on television', likening it to 'Punk'd but for paedophiles'. However, the documentary reveals the grim reality, including a suspect who killed himself when police arrived. The film questions how such ritualised humiliation helps stop child abuse or improves lives.
Osit's documentary also examines modern YouTube knockoffs, highlighting a cycle of cruelty where predators are targeted by morally indignant camera-wielding predators, themselves filmed by quasi-predatory documentarians. It presents a mise en abyme of despair, leaving viewers to ponder the ethics of such vigilante justice.
