Back in the early-to-mid 2000s, around the time I was finishing high school and starting college, I would watch To Catch a Predator for hours on end. At the time, I saw it as nothing more than an entertaining reality show about alleged pedophiles being caught, embarrassed and arrested. When one guy would get arrested, his story would end, and the next would come in... or so I thought.
I recently watched the documentary Predators with my Paramount+ subscription, and I’m not going to lie, it made me feel gross in a number of ways. From some seriously distressing moments from the infamous reality series to the copycats that followed, to questions about empathy and morality, this 2025 film changed the way I see the show and my idea of entertainment. I'll explain…
The Predators Documentary Has Me Looking At The Infamous Show In A Night Light
For those who aren’t aware, David Osit’s Predators, which is one of the best documentaries of 2025, takes a deep dive into the origins and initial run of To Catch a Predator, the various copycats that it has inspired over the years, and how the show has impacted the lives of the crew, including host Chris Hansen. At first, I saw it as nothing more than a detailed look at one of the biggest media phenomena of the reality TV era and its impact on pop culture. I left with an entirely different point of view.
Watching how the To Catch a Predator crew and various law enforcement agencies carried out countless sting operations (including one that led to the suicide of a Texas prosecutor), and how they seemingly were more interested in good TV than protecting minors, put a bad taste in my mouth. Don’t get me wrong, the men targeted on this show were very much breaking the law and needed serious help, but the cavalier attitude and lack of empathy shown by the producers didn’t help anything.
While watching Predators, I kept thinking about how so many people were obsessed with watching this show back in the day (myself included), and how it’s messed up that we were seeking entertainment from a series that’s about a very serious topic. I felt kind of gross…
In Fact, It Led To Some Soul-Searching About Another One Of My Favorite 2000s Shows
After I finished Predators, I found myself doing a lot of soul-searching as I thought back on some of the shows that I used to watch for some twisted form of entertainment 20 years ago. I wish I could say To Catch a Predator was the only such program, but it’s just one of many. The other big one that I spent dozens upon dozens of hours watching back in high school was Lockup. This series, which was released with various subtitles – Extended Stay, Raw, World Tour, etc. – on MSNBC from 2005 to 2017, was one of my go-to binge shows during my high school and college days.
Unlike the incredibly moving The Alabama Solution documentary that came out this year, Lockup feels less interested in understanding inmates than it does in turning their punishment into entertainment. The past few days, I’ve been thinking a lot about my one-time obsession with the show and what it says about me.
I don’t know if David Osit set out to make a generation of TV viewers question one of the most popular shows of the 2000s, but this documentary did a number on me.
