DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir

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

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?

Part 1 (DZ-123) focuses on two (now classic) noirs: DOUBLE INDEMNITY and THE LONG GOODBYE.

While Part 2 (DZ-124) looks at two more contemporary examples DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS and WOMAN OF THE HOUR.

Despite Chas claiming to have edited this episode it was, in fact, Chris Walker who saved the day and got this done by the end of 2025. Thanks Chris.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.

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→ Read the transcript for this episode.

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"This is the philosophical question, right? When you get drunk, do you change what you do or do you simply allow your inhibitions to fall and do what you would normally want to do?" — Mel Killingsworth @ 00:42:04

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CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 – Cold Open
• 00:00:17 – Flawed Characters and Noir
• 00:03:06 – › Writing morally compromised characters without endorsing their worldview
• 00:08:41 – › Defining film noir as genre, style, and worldview
• 00:14:27 – › Noir's reach across decades of screenwriting
• 00:16:40 – DOUBLE INDEMNITY
• 00:21:41 – › Diegetic confession and its structural function
• 00:27:17 – › Telling the audience the crime upfront removes justification burden
• 00:32:24 – › How everyman framing sustains complicity in a morally bankrupt protagonist
• 00:41:43 – › Whether morally compromised characters genuinely change or self-reveal
• 00:49:17 – › Film worldview versus character desire: crime without endorsement
• 00:53:38 – THE LONG GOODBYE
• 01:00:17 – › Save the cat: establishing a morally complex protagonist
• 01:06:26 – › Transgression, personal code, and the inevitability of noir failure
• 01:14:13 – › Character change versus worldview shift at the ending
• 01:21:15 – Wrap Up and Key Learnings

FILMS

• DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) — (w) Raymond Chandler, James M Cain, Billy Wilder (d) Billy Wilder
• THE LONG GOODBYE (1973) — (w) Leigh Brackett, Raymond Chandler (d) Robert Altman

SCRIPTS

• Study the script: THE LONG GOODBYE (1973) — Leigh Brackett, Raymond Chandler

SHOT ZERO DEEP DIVES

• Blocking a Sneak: DOUBLE INDEMNITY

LINKS

• Read: Mel's A Brief History of Queer Coding in Film Part 1

EPISODES IN THE NOIR SERIES

• DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir
• DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling

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Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2025/dz-123/