Eliza Dooley
Portrayed by: Karen Gillan
- Attention Whore: A Downplayed and more realistic example-Eliza doesn't need to be the center of attention in every conversation, but she is constantly posting things online and dressing provocatively, so that she can get positive feedback on her looks.
- Character Development: Her growth as a person is the main driving force of the series.
- Freudian Excuse: Eliza was butt (butt ugly) in school, and didn't have any friends. Now she wants to be beautiful and get compliments from strangers online, even if she doesn't have any real friends.
- Ethical Slut / Good Bad Girl: Eliza likes sex, and doesn't see anything wrong with this. She calls Henry out for what she saw as Slut-Shaming, and is implied to use her looks to help her as a salesperson. However, in the pilot when she finds out her current lover is cheating on his wife with her, she's very upset (to the point where the realization, combined with her airsickness, makes her vomit. Twice). Her attitude is also used to highlight the differences between her and the older Henry (who expresses shock that she's been "intimate" with a man after two and a half weeks).
- Hidden Depths: Eliza is not seen as professional by her co-workers, and she's not good at real friendships, but she's the top salesperson at her company, and in one conversation with Henry, mentions that she might be on the same level as him work-wise, because she sells to doctors and he works with the general public. She even surprises him by using words like furthermore and ergo. She's not exactly book smart, but she has a definite intelligence.
- Innocently Insensitive: A variation on this. It's not that she doesn't realize she says insensitive or offensive things to people; she's so self-absorbed that she genuinely doesn't care.
- In "Nugget of Wisdom", after finding out Charmonique has no one to babysit her son Kevin, while Eliza is at her house, Charmonique talks about how she probably won't go out, and doesn't know who could possibly help her, giving Eliza an opening. Eliza seems genuinely unaware that she's in a position to help for quite some time.
- Motor Mouth: She can be this, and also mixes in chat-speak and made up words into her speech.
- One Head Taller: Gender-flipped. Eliza is noticeably taller than Henry (and nearly everyone else, for that matter).
- Pretty in Mink: She wears quite a few fur vests and jackets as part of her Costume Porn.
Henry Higgs
Portrayed by: John Cho
- Brutal Honesty: He pulls few punches with Eliza, flat-out telling her he doesn't like her and that she's "vapid, self-obsessed, despised and a narcissist."
- Friendless Background: When he gets a Facebook in episode 2, the first person to friend him is his mother. He notes that she is his "first friend" in real life too.
- Hidden Depths: While incredibly straight-laced and professional in public, Henry is incredibly creative and eloquent at times.
- Look-Alike Lovers: Henry meets Julia (played by his "Go On" co-star Allison Miller), a pediatric urologist who shares many of his qualities, including how they get ready in the morning. They even dress alike.
- No Social Skills: Not as noticeable as other cases, but he definitely has a hard time socializing. For instance, in episode 2 he accidentally tags a baby as himself in his ex girlfriend's picture and decides to meet her face to face to discuss the situation over something that's really not a big deal. He then goes on tangents during their conversation.
- Not So Above It All: Despite all his talk about other people's obsession with social media, it doesn't take him very long to become something of a Facebook addict himself.
- Another instance is in episode 4, Charmonique's son Kevin puts on Crayon Pop's Bar Bar Bar
saying it's for 'my man (Henry)'. At first he's a little offended saying "Just because I'm Korean, you think I automatically like K-Pop", but soon enough he starts dancing and genuinely having a good time.
- Another instance is in episode 4, Charmonique's son Kevin puts on Crayon Pop's Bar Bar Bar
- Not So Stoic: Henry is usually reserved, but once he goes to a Blues Traveler concert, he rocks out, to the point where he upsets his girlfriend Julia, who is as dry as he normally is.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Freestyling is apparently part of his creative process. When asking Eliza to come to Saperstein's daughter's wedding with him, he gives her a rhyming list of instructions on what to wear.
- "Ear drops. Hear drops. No more tear-drops with ear drops. Don't fear drops. The ear pops. The pain stops." He does it three times in one episode ("Un-Tag My Heart), getting interrupted the first two times and the third going to a dark place about his work-centric life.
- Workaholic: Henry values success at his job over pretty much everything else-he's good at it, and he seems to enjoy it. However, this has stopped him from forming close friendships and is part of why he's single.
Charmonique Whitaker
Portrayed by: Da'Vine Joy Randolph
- Almighty Janitor: She knows a lot about everyone and easily guesses Henry's password.
- Ghetto Name: After Henry demonstrates that Eliza doesn't even know Charmonique's name (while Charmonique, who greets everyone in the office first thing in the morning, knows hers), Eliza defends herself by saying "That's not a real name."
- The Smart Woman: She graduated from Yale. Combined with the implied book smarts, she is the most socially adept.
Kevin Whitaker
- In the Blood: He is very smart like his mother.
- The Philosopher: See below.
- Sophisticated as Hell: "The Internet is all about illusion, girl."
- Wise Beyond Their Years: He is very eloquent at times, and is also a quite talented and versatile dj.
Bryn
Portrayed by: Allyn Rachel
- Hipster/Granola Girl: Bryn likes to wear bright floral outfits, her friends have names like Thistle, Eyelet, and Wren, and she makes her own poptarts at home.
- Hidden Badass: Bryn may not look like much of a fighter, but in "Imperfect Harmony" in three different offscreen fight scenes with Charmonique, she manages to do some serious damage.
Sam Saperstein
Portrayed by: David Harewood
- Benevolent Boss: Saperstein cares a lot about his "work family" and knows everyone by name. He wants them to be close, he's generous with praise (a little too generous), and even invited some of his employees (higher level, but still) to his daughter's wedding.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Thinks nothing of dropping to the floor to do pushups in the elevator, or improvising jazz trios with voice as instrument, among numerous other examples.
- Nice Guy: He wishes for all of his employees to be happy at work (while still doing their jobs, of course) and will go to some absurd lengths, at least in Henry's case, to make sure people aren't getting too stressed.
- He's genuinely upset when Charmonique isn't at her desk to greet him and everyone else coming into the office so he takes it upon himself to greet employees with a song and a dance.
- Terrance is the only person he's openly cold towards, because Terrance is married to his daughter, and that doesn't last too long once Sam realizes that Terrance is also a nice guy who doesn't let other people's rudeness upset him.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Saperstein likes physical displays of affection, big time. He's kissed male employees on the lips, gives hugs, often sits on the table during meeting, right next to who he's talking to, and in one episode gives Eliza a kiss on the hand and a big close romantic dance dip move. Only Henry seems to find this off-putting.
- Shipper on Deck: For Eliza and Henry.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: In "Even Hell Has Two Bars", Henry and Eliza see that Saperstein has a painted, framed picture of he and his wife having interesting looking sex...IN A GUEST BEDROOM.
