Maxine "Max" Felice Shaw

Max is a fast-talking attorney with a mouth that outruns her better judgment, sharing an apartment with her closest friends and treating every conversation like a case she intends to win. She's confident, combative, and secretly soft-hearted, forever sparring with the buttoned-up Kyle in a rivalry that clearly runs on more than dislike.

Erika Alexander plays Max like a woman daring you to underestimate her, all rapid-fire wit and physical bravado, which makes the character a corrective to the era's quieter sitcom women. The verbal duels with Kyle crackle because Alexander never lets Max soften her edges just to be liked, and that's what makes her funny and rootable at once.