If you’re looking for your next favorite drama, look no further than the streamer whose channel originated the Golden Age of Television.
On HBO Max, you can find plenty of compelling shows to dig into: crime dramas like The Wire, fantasy shows like Game of Thrones or medical melodramas like The Pitt.
But today we want to talk to you about Industry. The hit financial thriller recently debuted its fourth season, and it has fans in a chokehold. Indeed, the show is well worth the buzz and obsessive online takes.
Watch With Us breaks down for you why Industry should be your next binge-watch this February.
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The High-Stakes Drama Is Invigorating
Industry season 1 begins by focusing on university graduates accepted for entry-level employment at the prestigious London investment bank Pierpoint. At Pierpoint, business is beyond cutthroat, and the financial jargon, betrayal, histrionics, cursing and sexual indulgence may remind some viewers of The Wolf of Wall Street. Pierpoint grads not only have to adapt or die, but they also have to prove their worth during the first six months, after which the company executes “Reduction in Force Day,” when grads will either be let go or hired full-time. The first season starts with a shocker when a recent graduate kills themselves in one of the company bathrooms.
The remaining grads — Harper Stern (Myha’la), Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abel), Robert Spearing (Harry Lawtey) and Gus Sackey (David Jonsson) — have to fight their way to the top, which includes plenty of double-crosses, sexual affairs, cheating and otherwise doing whatever it takes to cement themselves at Pierpoint. The constant drama of the show keeps things interesting even when you don’t really understand the concepts that anyone is talking about. That’s what makes a good drama — the mechanical details about banks and finance aren’t important, because the emotional drama is always present between the characters. You always understand the stakes at hand.
The Cast Is Both Sexy and Talented
As Industry has gone on, its narratives have become even more wild and salacious, with season 4 boasting the series’ most thrilling and insane arcs yet. But from the jump, the show makes it clear it’s not just a story about making it in the financial world: it’s also about beautiful, crazy people having sex with each other.
Of course, the cast isn’t just good to look at; it helps that they’re genuinely talented. As Harper, the show’s initial focal point, Myha’la steers the ship with sultry verve and confidence, at first acting as the audience proxy by being a fish-out-of-water. But Harper undergoes a subtle transformation in season 1 that isn’t really a transformation — it’s revealing who she was all along.
The rest of the cast does an excellent job at portraying characters who are deeply flawed, compelling people. Yasmin is a rich girl with daddy issues, Robert is an alcoholic who is estranged from his father, Gus is from a wealthy family, conflicted in his career goals and forced to deal with the immediate emotional fallout of the grad suicide that partly acts as the show’s inciting incident.
And the cast keeps changing, with Lawtey and Jonsson long gone and new additions Kit Harington, Max Minghella and Kiernan Shipka providing even more “WTF?” moments and Emmy-worthy performances. The main thing with Industry, though, is that there are no wholly good characters, just as there are no wholly good human beings. And of course, hot people with lots of problems in proximity together are bound to get a little wild.
‘Industry’ Offers a Voyeuristic Look Into a Nightmarish World
Part of the thrill of watching Industry is getting a window into a world that seems highly unappealing to most people, to the point where it’s hard to understand why anyone would even want to do it in the first place (well, because money…we get it). Still, it’s fun, in a voyeuristic sort of way, to glimpse into this type of career path that hinges on cultivating an atmosphere of intensity and ruthlessness. Indeed, Industry’s creators come from finance backgrounds, and they drew directly on their own experiences when crafting the tone of the show.
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On its surface, you might not think that “investment banking” would be a brutal business because banks are boring, right? But that couldn’t be further from the truth, and the Cross Product Sales (CPS) floor at Pierpoint is more like the killing floor. Thus, as with watching horror movies, there’s something fun, in a macabre sort of way, about watching a show that revolves around a world so stressful, traumatizing and horrible.
But Industry isn’t just characters emotionally abusing each other for no reason; the show offers thoughtful commentary on the nature of ambition, systemic corruption and moral erosion. Sometimes the most monstrous creatures are human beings, and Industry is a fascinating (and erotic) exploration of these real-life monsters.
Stream Industry now on HBO Max.
