THE FIXATE & BINGE PODCAST, with Host, Joe Curdy: Deep dives into cinema and storytelling with voices who create it
Welcome to The Fixate & Binge Podcast, where host Joe Curdy dives deep into the world of film and television — exploring the stories that move us and the creators who bring them to life.
Each week, Joe sits down with filmmakers, writers, actors, and producers from around the globe to unpack the art, craft, and cultural impact of movies and TV. From indie gems to major releases, every conversation blends thoughtful analysis with candid, down-to-earth storytelling.
Whether you’re a passionate cinephile, a storyteller in the making, or just someone who loves a good binge, this show helps you see what’s on screen in a whole new light.
Expect smart conversation, honest recommendations, and insights that connect cinema to real life.
🎬 New episodes every Tuesday. Tune in, think deeply, and binge wisely.
THE FIXATE & BINGE PODCAST, with Host, Joe Curdy: Deep dives into cinema and storytelling with voices who create it
WHY WE LOVE BAD PEOPLE — AND THE DANGEROUS REASONS WE EXCUSE THEM
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Why do we keep rooting for people who do terrible things?
From Tony Soprano and Walter White to Dexter Morgan, Billy Butcher and Daemon Targaryen, television has become extraordinarily good at making us understand morally compromised characters. We know their trauma. We understand their motivations. We see their vulnerabilities. And somehow, the better we understand them, the easier it becomes to forgive them.
But when does understanding become justification?
In this nearly hour-long solo episode of The Fixate & Binge Podcast, Joe Curdy explores our fascination with television's antiheroes—and the uncomfortable possibility that the moral reasoning we use to defend fictional characters may not be so different from the reasoning we use to defend real people.
Joe begins with a look at Paramount+'s THE AGENCY, starring Michael Fassbender, before diving into the evolution of television's morally complicated protagonists and asking why charisma, competence, power, trauma and even humor can make us surprisingly forgiving of terrible behavior.
Then Hulu's new FURIOUS, starring Emmy Rossum and Lola Petticrew, takes the conversation somewhere darker: What happens when legitimate trauma and righteous anger become the justification for violence?
And then fiction collides with reality.
Joe examines the extraordinary public reaction surrounding Luigi Mangione following his recent guilty plea in the federal case stemming from the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson—and the larger debate over whether anger toward America's healthcare system can ever justify murder.
But this isn't a Left-versus-Right argument.
Because that's the uncomfortable part.
We all do it.
We forgive the people we believe are fighting for our side. We minimize behavior when we agree with the cause. We find reasons to excuse people we admire, people who entertain us, people who look the part, and people who are fighting someone we dislike even more.
We've all heard—or perhaps said—the dangerous sentence:
"I don't approve of everything they do, BUT..."
So what comes after the but?
Maybe television didn't destroy our moral compass.
Maybe it simply taught us how easy it is to understand the villain.
And maybe the most dangerous thing about the antihero isn't that we become like them—it's that we become convinced they're right.
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