Martin Lester Schneider

Martin Schneider is Sandy Kominsky's urologist, an old acquaintance from way back who reenters his life with a checkup and a diagnosis Sandy would rather not hear. Amiable, direct, and comfortable in his own skin, he delivers bad news gently but won't dress it up, and he takes an interest in Sandy's daughter Mindy that neither man quite anticipated.

Paul Reiser plays him without a trace of sitcom smarm, which is the trick: Martin could easily be a punchline, the doctor poking around where he shouldn't, but Reiser makes him decent and a little wistful, a man aware of the awkwardness he's causing and doing his best anyway. It's a small, exact performance that keeps a squirmy premise humane.