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/