Industry, a Gen-Z Succession set in UK high-finance, is brutal and entertaining. Here’s why you should watch it.
Does anyone enter high finance for charity? Ha! That is absurd in Industry, the most cynical show on TV. Thanks to its cynicism, it’s one of the best. The show about young professionals at Pierpoint, a big investment firm, in London is brutally honest about its harsh business and its competing individuals, who are ethically questionable. They are gorgeous snakes, slithering around and selling each other out in high-tension trades and privileged lives driven by sex and narcotics. Watching is fascinating and pleasant.
One sequence in the third episode defines the show. Pierpoint heiress Yasmin (Marisa Abela) smokes cocaine lines with her boss, Eric (Ken Leung), which is problematic for several reasons. Yasmin adds, “I think that deep down Harper is a good person.” Erik mentored Harper (Myha’la), Yasmin’s buddy, before firing her at the end of last series. Eric says, “I don’t think she is.” They’re high because Industry viewers know such question is pointless—good and bad don’t matter in this show. Not that its characters are uncaring. We’ve seen their emotional trauma over two seasons, which doesn’t explain their betrayals and manipulations but gives us permission to root for them. Few series have been better at making us like unlikable characters.
There’s precedent. Industry is sometimes compared to Succession, with its high-stakes commercial deals and cold-blooded protagonists, and Euphoria, with Gen Z sex and drugs. Both analogies are valid, but Industry has a distinct tone and energy. Euphoria’s polished, cool office isn’t grim. Unlike Succession, it has a diverse population. Harper is a middle-class black American and Robert (Harry Lawtey) a working-class white British scholarship boy attempting to fit in at Pierpoint. Their backgrounds sometimes haunt them as they battle for success, a realistic issue.
Climate change and environmentalism are frequently presented as sincere warnings, but Industry’s cynicism challenges any easy assumptions
The series has been overlooked for understandable reasons. Finance stories can be boring or scary. Industry is neither. Personal relationships drive the story, and the storylines are so clear you don’t need to understand the traders’ financial jargon.
Industry is bolder than ever in the new episodes, taking a new approach to ecology. Lord Henry Muck, played by high-profile actor Kit Harington, is a misogynistic pig but also ultrarich and charming. Pierpoint is IPOing Lumi, his green energy firm. More importantly, the plot asks if public good and profit can coexist. Smooth-talking Henry argues both are possible. His peers are more skeptical. Financial watchdogs and competitors question green companies’ viability. Eric dismisses such firms as “just a bunch of suits cosplaying environmentalists”. Climate change and environmentalism are frequently presented as sincere warnings, but Industry’s cynicism challenges any easy assumptions.
The trailer showed Henry and Yasmin’s sexual attraction, which may or may not be deeper. Sexuality is sometimes fun and sometimes a commodity traded like stock in industry. But true love is possible. Robert has lusted after Yasmin for years, and she trusts him as a buddy she can flirt with. The season teases a prospective romance or hookup between them, exacerbated by Henry. He’s quirky, but Harington plays him as Prince Charming, with an enticing smile and an ancestral house that lends opulence to this story about money and power.
Characters return, but better. Harper became Pierpoint’s unscrupulous opponent in a new company. Maybe she was always a serpent or Eric taught her. He still terrorizes and betrays anyone who stands in his way at Pierpoint.
In industry, toxic gender assumptions are everywhere
Yasmin and Robert now dominate the show. Her dad and mommy issues are severe. We meet Yasmin on her father’s boat, the Lady Yasmin, where things get worse. Rob gets out of bed with a Pierpoint girl to meet Nicole (Sarah Parish), the wealthier, older woman who sexually assaulted him in London. Yasmin and Robert make bad choices yet are the most likable. No one in Industry has a golden heart, yet these two are often outwitted by more cunning game-players. Both of them may break viewers’ hearts by season’s end.
The show’s uncompromising view of society makes the Yasmin-Robert story’s tenderness, highlighting the steep cost of cutthroat ambition, unique. Recent episodes show how sexist attitudes endure. The worst mentor, Eric, makes Robert yell, “I’m a man and I’m relentless!” as a pep talk. Rishi (Sagar Radia), their aggressive Pierpoint coworker, gambles heavily. His wife shouts, “Do you know what being a man is?” It seems odd for a young lady to make such a backward claim, but Industry’s toxic gender stereotypes are always present.
Industry’s final big move seems to blow up its own plots, changing all the characters so much that the show would have to be remade. One executive producer told Vulture she wants more seasons. HBO doesn’t say. We must figure out how to reassemble this exciting, fascinating series, a pleasant game.
