Schmidt

Schmidt is the loft's resident striver, a douchebag-jar-earning marketing guy who irons his own napkins and believes with total sincerity that self-improvement is a personality. He's vain, status-obsessed, and secretly wounded from being fat in college, which explains almost everything about the abs and the expensive shoes. He wants respect, romance, and a seat at the table.

The writing hands Max Greenfield a character who could be insufferable and instead makes him the show's most tender mess. Greenfield plays every preening line with such committed, hurt sincerity that the vanity becomes sweet rather than grating. He's funniest precisely when he's trying hardest not to be needy.