★★★★★ – BBC Culture. In 2006, To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen (Pattinson) sets out to make television history. Why don’t you take a seat?

Lance Oppenheim invites you to take a seat for this dark media satire starring an uncanny and unsettling Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen, the real-life host of the American television series To Catch a Predator, a hugely popular reality show in the 2000s that baited paedophiles in online chatrooms and lured them to “sting houses” where they would be greeted by the stern glare of host Hansen and his catchphrase “Why don’t you take a seat?”

Reminiscent of Network, Real Life, and Nightcrawler, Primetime joins a pantheon of films that put media ethics and the attention economy under the spotlight. The supporting cast includes Phoebe Bridgers in her acting debut, three-time Emmy winner Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie, Severance) and Skylar Gisondo (Booksmart, Licorice Pizza) in a scene-stealing role as a struggling 20-something actor employed to play a 13-year-old boy.