Susie Myerson

Susie manages the club where Midge Maisel stumbles into stand-up, and she's the first person to see something real in that mess. Gruff, broke, chain-smoking, allergic to sentiment, she talks fast and trusts no one's good intentions, including her own family's. She spots talent and grabs it before she's even sure what to do with it.

Borstein plays her like a fist — all elbows and deflection — which makes the rare moments she lets herself care land like a gut punch. The scripts give her the era's best deadpan, but it's the specificity of her defensiveness, a person who has been disappointed so often that kindness reads as suspicious, that makes her unforgettable.