Adam Long and Josh Hadley join Mike to explore Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004), the sweeping documentary from Xan Cassavetes about the rise and fall of Los Angeles’s most influential pay-TV channel. More than a cable station, Z Channel was a film school beamed into living rooms, programming uncut movies, international cinema, director’s cuts, and repertory favorites long before that was standard practice.
The conversation digs into the channel’s daring programming philosophy, its outsized impact on American film culture, and the obsessive, self-destructive personality of founder Jerry Harvey. The hosts examine how the documentary balances cinephile nostalgia with a clear-eyed look at the personal and institutional costs of that obsession, while also asking what Z Channel’s legacy means in today’s algorithm-driven media landscape.
Special Guest: James B. Harris Guest Co-Hosts: Andrew Nette, Rod Lott
Noirvember 2025 closes out with a hard-edged dive into Cop (1988)
, James B. Harris’s blistering adaptation of James Ellroy's novel Blood on the Moon. Mike teams up with Andrew Nette and Rod Lott to unpack this gritty Los Angeles thriller, led by one of James Woods’s most volatile performances as Detective Lloyd Hopkins-—a cop who bulldozes every rule on the hunt for a killer.-
We dig into the film’s tangled lineage: how Harris reshaped Ellroy’s novel for the screen, how Woods weaponizes charisma and menace in equal measure, how Blood on the Moon compares to the earlier L.A. Death Trap, and how Cop fits into the larger landscape of late-’80s neo-noir. Along the way, expect conversations about Ellroy’s amoral universe, the film’s sleazy-sunset L.A. atmosphere, and why Lloyd Hopkins may be one of the most unnerving Reagan-era "hero" of crime cinema.
Special Guest: James B. Harris Guest Co-Host: Heather Drain, Aaron Peterson
When Robert Troy (Zalman King) buys a "sleeping beauty" (Tisa Farrow) at a carnival and introduces her to the playscape of fantasy roleplay in which he lives every day, things don't necessarily work out in Some Call it Loving, a beautiful and unusual film from 1973.
Writer/director James B. Harris discusses the genesis of the film as well as his work with Stanley Kubrick on The Killing, Paths of Glory, One-Eyed Jacks, and more. He also compares the volatility of Timothy Carey to Richard Pryor.
Heather Drain and The Hollywood Outsider's Aaron Peterson join Mike in discussing the film as well as other interpretations of the Sleeping Beauty tale.
Music:
"The Very Thought of You" - Nat King Cole
"The Sleeping Beauty Waltz" - Tchaikovsky
"In Dreams" - Roy Orbison
"Sleeepwalk" - Santo & Johnny
"Once Upon a Dream" - Lana Del Rey
Guest Co-Hosts: Adam Long, Josh Hadley
Special Guest: 
Special Guest: