The film explores the rise of the reality show as it became a major phenomenon in the US, while also asking some thorny questions about the ethics of its approach to dealing with sexual predators.
Seen the film and need those closing moments unpacked? Read on to have the Primetime ending explained.
Primetime ending explained: What happened to Bill Conradt?
Eventually, Von Erck, Hansen and their colleagues discover that this whale is Bill Conradt, an assistant district attorney from Rockland County, Texas and – under pressure to improve ratings – Hansen decides to take the team to Texas.
Although disappointed they could not complete an interview with Conradt, producer Andie Bender (who is a composite of real life figures) hopes to interview the police officers and salvage the episode.
As you can read in our piece explaining the true story behind the film, this depiction of events is more or less as it happened in real life, with some notable differences, and the incident was also featured in last year's acclaimed documentary Predators.
View Green Video on the source websiteWhile few would argue with the fact that the predators Hansen and his team were going after were bad men who deserved to answer for their crimes, there are longstanding questions surrounding whether this was the correct way to confront them.
Exactly how you feel about that is likely to come down to your own views and interpretation, but there can be no doubt that Primetime asks us to reckon with some pretty uncomfortable questions.
"Obviously, I’m not objective because the character is, you know, me, but it was so detached from reality or anything I’ve experienced then or now doing the investigations. I’m not sure what the point of it was."
In one of the film's more surreal flourishes, we repeatedly return to a motif concerning Hansen's brush with an "ancient evil", which he encountered while working on a separate project in India.
Later, when he sees Conradt through the window of his home just before his death, Hansen sees him as that same ancient monster.
It's clear that this is meant to signal that Hansen really does believe that he is on an urgent, righteous quest to do good in the world – with the film suggesting that he has essentially anointed himself as humanity's saviour in the face of this ancient evil, perhaps even suffering from a slight messiah complex that has seen him lose touch with reality.
What is the significance of the final scene with 'Decoy' Dan Plum?
We first find Dan as a desperate actor auditioning for the role on the show, with Hansen taking him under his wing after he lands the part, and Dan finding himself getting more and more drawn into the process.
This whole storyline explores another of the ethical quandaries regarding the entire Primetime project, specifically the emotional and psychological toll that playing these decoys would have had on the young actors cast in the roles – and how the process could essentially be read as a form of exploitation.
He added: "I want it to end in a way that there's still something around the corner, and you could read it a few different ways and that he has an opportunity to keep going even if he shouldn't."
"He's the person who starts as this naive guy who doesn't know anything about the world, and by the end he's affected by it."
Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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