oh christ cosmic, your 30s is not being middle age! if anything they are the new 20s.
I'll be honest, the only reason I started watching was because it had a gay character, although he was really off putting at first, there was a much better way to make a non sterotypical flamboyant gay guy, and I'm glad they did! the show grew on me, but I'll be honest again, they remove Max and I'll probably stop watching.
Reminded me of this interesting quote from the documentary the celluloid closet, we are so starved for images of ourselves that anything, even if little, catches our attention.
On the topic of Max, all the characters are stereotypical in some ways. That's why the show is good in my opinion: because you don't burden yourself with fair representation of every minority (black, gay, etc). The interesting thing is that for once the flamboyant gay guy stereotype (which can be fun if well done [Modern family], horribly offensive if not [The New Normal]) is actually fulfilled by a straight guy (Brad).