Part of the reason this works as a dark comedy is that the people who surround him are mostly unsympathetic characters. There’s his personnel officer Stella (Elizabeth McGovern), but she’s the only one in the office or in his home life who seems to have any respect for Graham.

 

His wife is a bit abrasive, always nice but with a passive-aggressive undertone when it comes to money and power. When he leaves for a business trip the day after letting her know he didn’t get the promotion, she says she “forgives [him] for failing”.