A cultural sensation from its inception in the early 2000s, Dateline NBC’s candid-camera investigative series To Catch a Predator ensnared sex offenders and lured them to a film set, where they would be interviewed and arrested while cameras rolled. The show was a hit and transformed its host Chris Hansen into a moral crusader and TV star, while spawning a worldwide industry of imitators and vigilantes.
But why did we watch so voraciously — and why do we continue to devour its web-based, clickbait-driven offshoots? Looking back on the program, and the franchises it spawned, filmmaker David Osit turns his camera on journalists, actors, law enforcers, academics, and ultimately himself, to trace America's obsession with watching people at their lowest.