The thin line between cop and criminal is examined in Sexsting, the cyber drama by Doris Baizley in collaboration with veteran criminal defense lawyer, Susan Raffanti. The latter, a specialist in internet crimes, provided Baizley with transcripts of actual exchanges between FBI agents posing as underaged girls and the potential predators chatting them up online. Baizley then found a way to fictionalize those transcripts and turn them into a workable drama.
In Sexsting Gregor Itzin plays the Fed, Richard Roe; JD Collum plays John Doe, a middle-aged married man who thinks he's exchanging e-mails with Sandi, a "hot" 14-year-old. Seated at separate tables, Itzin and Collum speak the lines they tap out on their imaginary keyboards. The device takes a little getting used to, but thanks to the skillful work of the two actors -- and to Baizley's mountingly suspenseful writing -- Sexsting soon catches you up in its bizarre world and holds you in thrall until the ending.
It's the moral questions, the grey areas, that give Sexsting its power. Yes, John is a creep, but he doesn't cross the line and become a predator until Sandi entices him to make an actual visit. As for Richard, the Fed who plots and orchestrates the sting -- mostly because he's being pressured to make an arrest by his zealous boss (Christian Lyon) -- should he be commended or condemned for the way he has pulled John's strings? Who is the real predator and prey here?
The three other actors contribute cameos as other members of the old guy/young girl chat room; each one of them has a fictional persona. Only poor John was honest about himself; naturally and ironically, he's the one who gets busted and goes to jail.
