Daniel Meade

Daniel Meade is the boyish heir apparent at MODE magazine, handed the editor-in-chief chair by his father less as a promotion than as a leash. He's used to getting by on charm and looks, more interested in models than manuscripts, and visibly unready for the job everyone assumes he doesn't deserve.

The show sets him up as a punchline — the playboy who can't read a masthead without help — and then keeps quietly proving there's a decent person underneath the tan. Eric Mabius plays the entitlement loosely, almost apologetically, so every flash of real feeling for Betty or his family lands as a small, earned surprise.