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Antiheroes

Every episode covering Antiheroes.

"I want to look at main characters and protagonists doing things - despicable horrific things - and how the audience is carried along with them, compelled by them."

— Chas Fisher  |  DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir

KEY IDEAS

Assholes Who Are Completely Relatable

"I really enjoyed tying the, like, just the fact that you're able to draw these sorts of connections between, you know, like an insurance salesman and a post-war, you know, a GI, like all of those sorts of things are really fascinating. And I think writing characters that are assholes, but are completely relatable"

— Mel Killingsworth (01:04:35) · DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling

Audience Sympathy for Antiheros

"What can we learn from noir?. In particular: *How can we make characters doing despicable things... compelling?*"

— Chas Fisher (00:01:01) · DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling

Audience Complicity in Moral Compromise

"I want to look at main characters and protagonists doing things - despicable horrific things - and how the audience is carried along with them, compelled by them."

— Chas Fisher (00:03:31) · DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir

DZ-19: Car-Crash Characters

How do you make unlikeable characters compelling to watch... in drama?
AI✦Stu and Chas build a toolkit specifically for making asshole protagonists--deeply flawed, morally compromised, or reprehensible characters--compelling enough to sustain a drama.✦
⏱ 1h 59m
1 MAR 2015
Listen when you're writing a protagonist who does terrible things but you need the audience to keep watching.
▶ More Info
Stu and Chas revisit a topic from a year ago: how do screenwriters make unlikeable characters compelling? This time, we turn our focus to dramas and analyse how AMERICAN HISTORY X, YOUNG ADULT, NIGHTCRAWLER all make their asshole protagonists compelling to watch. We expand our original list of five writer’s tools to include a few more for your tool belt… →

DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling

How does Film Noir show us terrible people doing terrible things without endorsing it?
AI✦Both films distinguish between characters undergoing transformative arcs and characters discovering their true natures: Easy realizes the system is out to get him and makes survival-based choices, while Rodney in Woman of the Hour was always a predator.✦
⏱ 1h 10m
30 JAN 2026
Listen if you need audiences to root for characters who do terrible things
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DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir

What can Film Noir teach us about character arcs and audience engagement?
AI✦Walter Neff and Philip Marlowe aren’t transformed by their arcs so much as revealed--they each follow their existing code to its logical end, and whether that code changes or simply clarifies what was always there is the philosophical question that separates a character who falls from one who simply stops pretending.✦
⏱ 1h 22m
31 DEC 2025
Listen if you want to write morally compromised characters without endorsing their choices.
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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… →

DZ-122: Escalating Antagonism Across Genres

How can you apply horror ideas to action and comedy?
AI✦Terry in Rebel Ridge becomes the horror for the antagonists halfway through the film, and Kim frames this as the key to making your hero dynamic: think of them as the monster your villains have awakened.✦
⏱ 1h 44m
1 OCT 2025
Listen to learn how thinking of your hero as the horror (for your villains) makes your script dynamic.
▶ More Info
In this episode Chas, Stu and guest Kim Ho continue their exploration into the power(s) of antagonism and how focusing on them can develop story… →