I like watching “to catch a predator” on YouTube as an entertainment, and a few things stood out to me. All of them boil down to Chris Hansen deliberately making it LESS fun then it could have been. In particular,
1) The interaction between a predator and decoy is usually quite brief. But I thought the whole point was to see just how far would the predator go. So why not let him interact with the decoy for 5 or 10 minutes rather than just a minute? I realize that the safety of a decoy is a concern. But remember: there is a security just around the corner. So if decoy walks out the moment a predator makes a move, she would still be perfectly safe. I also realize that the predator already incriminated himself on a transcript. But the whole point of decoy being physically there is for predator to incriminate himself a second time, in person. So why ruin that second purpose? Especially if decoy tried so hard to put up a perfect act ... only to walk away way too soon.
2) When more than one predator arrive at the same time, Chris Hansen usually tries to send away the first predator faster so that the second one doesn’t see him. But why?! From my point of view, it would have been a lot more fun if predators were to meet. It would be a fun variety. Well, actually, there WAS one episode where he had them meet. And I am glad. But K wish there were more episodes like that.
3) I remember a few episodes when a predator said he never done it before and Chris Hansen pointed out that he had similar conversation with one of his other decoys. But, instead of reading the chat log of that other decoy, he went right back to the first one. I just wish he could take an opportunity and read that second chat log, that would have surely been more fun. By the similar token, if you will read Talldreamy_doc chat log, it was pointed out that one of the decoys cut conversation short because he was talking to the other one. But why not have both decoys talk to him? Wouldn’t it be interesting to see how he would tell both of them they are his only love, then confront him with the second chatlog when he shows up and says he never done this before.
4) He has that ritual that at the end of the interview he says “I am Chris Hansen with dateline nbc” and then the cameras come forward. In some cases that’s good: it kinda boosts a shock value. But then there are other cases when the predator himself identifies him as Chris Hansen Andy says he seen that show, followe$ by Chris asking him “if you seen that show why did you do it”. Well, in those latter types of situations, he STILL yells him he is Chris Hansen at the very end. But why? I thought they already both talked about it. Turning it into a ritual takes AWAY from the shock value. Because then in those other situations where it does make sense, the audience would be like “oh well, that’s what he always does, that’s his ritual”.
5) When he does tell them who he is, he always gives them an option to leave. But why not keep them there longer just to see how they will behave differently once on camera? Yes, technically, they should be allowed to leave. But he doesn’t have to remind them of that. Just like technically they were allowed to leave from get go, and some did. But he were t reminding them of that. So maybe he shouldn’t be reminding them of that option after the disclosure either.
03 Jul 2022, 2:22 am
