§ PODCAST / EPISODES

Noir

2 episodes · Dec 2025 – Jan 2026

"The end of noir is often incredibly narratively unsatisfying. It’s untidy. It’s not a happy ending. Everybody loses. Everybody loses. If you get out alive, you have won. That is, I think, one of the things that differentiates a lot of noir and gangster film or whatever."

— Mel Killingsworth | DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir

DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir

What can Film Noir teach us about character arcs and audience engagement?

In this two part series, Mel and Chas use Noir (the genre) as a lens to interrogate flawed characters. How can characters doing reprehensible things still engage audiences? How can you ensure representation isn’t endorsement? And whether these characters undergo transformative arcs, or simply reveal their true natures… →

⏱ 1h 22m

31 DEC 2025

Character · Theme · Scenes

Listen if you want to write morally compromised characters without endorsing their choices.

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Films: Double Indemnity (1944) , The Long Goodbye (1973)

Character: Audience Complicity , Moral Ambiguity , Character Motivation , Character Arcs , Antiheroes , Moral Complexity , Character Flaw

Theme: Worldview , Representation and Endorsement

Scenes: Dramatic Irony