The first two seasons of HBO‘s banking drama “Industry” were about Gen Zers overcome by the viciousness of high finance. The show’s third season focuses on the characters embracing their monstrosity head-on. Full of breathtaking betrayals, horrific choices and new deplorable characters, Season 3 of “Industry” proves that its central figures are done with child’s play: They’ve sharpened their claws, and are ready to go in for the kill.
Created by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, “Industry” Season 3 opens on the coast of Mallorca, Spain. A bikini-clad Yasmin (Marisa Abela) is seen partying on her father’s yacht. This space is in direct contrast to the claustrophobic banking floor of Pierpoint & Co.’s dreary London office. Having her fill of the sun, Yasmin ventures into her cabin to see her father, Charles Hanani (Arthur Levy), sprawled on her bed, performing oral sex on a pregnant yacht worker. Just as quickly, the series flashes forward six weeks. Back at Pierpont in the U.K., the publishing heiress sits at Harper’s (Myha’la) former desk on Eric’s (a stellar Ken Leung) sales team. Unfortunately, her naivety and her father’s recent disappearance after embezzling millions from his own company have made her both a target of the paparazzi and a liability to the bank.
Having advanced to the associate level at Pierpoint, Robert (Harry Lawtey) is the only character harboring a sliver of humanity. He is tasked with babysitting the volatile Sir Henry Muck (an impeccably cast Kit Harington) in the wake of the disastrous IPO of Lumi, his green energy tech company. Having been ousted rom Pierpoint at the end of Season 2, Harper (who has somehow become even more vicious) has found a role as an assistant at the ethical hedge FutureDawn, run by Anna Gearing (Elena Saurel), and her conniving portfolio manager, Petra Koenig (Sarah Goldberg). But Harper is no desk minion. Seeing a kindred spirit in Petra’s barely contained ambition, and desperate to return to trading, Harper forms an alliance with the stone-faced blonde. It’s a partnership that could rejuvenate her career at the expense of her former employer and Yasmin, the one person she seems to have any emotional attachment to.
That’s what is so distinct about “Industry.” Amid its oft-bewildering finance-laden jargon, Down and Kay’s series has never been timelier. It manages to center “woke investing” through Lumi while showing just how absurd the notion of ethical investing truly is. Throughout eight episodes, viewers see at every turn how perceived social responsibility cannot mask a rotten core.
Harper has been the pillar of the show, but this season makes way for increased screen time for both new and old characters. The show introduces self-assured Sweetpea Golighlightly (Miriam Petche), a new hire with TikTok and OnlyFans businesses on the side. Moreover, a thrilling Episode 4, “White Mischief,” centers on veteran market maker Rishi Ramdani’s (Sagar Radia) rapidly decaying home life and how his cocaine habit and other vices have pushed him to the edge. During one exceptional scene, his bewildered wife asks him, “Do you know what being a man is?”
But it’s Yasmin who stands at the center of this season. Though she is desperate to get away from predatory men like her father, she is being pursued by the kinky and emotionally stilted Sir Henry. While harboring a shocking secret, Yasmin must decide in the final hour whether she’s truly willing to carve out a life of her own or would rather lean into the monetary security and social standing she’s always had at the expense of true liberation.
Some of us have opted out of pledging allegiance to corporate entities. However, for Eric, who has finally made partner at Pierpoint following a lifetime of service, money and power are still his North star. Although he’s showcased his heinous behavior previously, the audience witnesses an even darker version of the banker, who will do anything to outlast the volatility of the business and perhaps even this iteration of the towering bank.
The inner workings of banking may have initially been the selling point for “Industry,” but in its third season, the thrilling drama has moved well beyond that. Instead, what has emerged is a series about the erosion of relationships, why certain people will always choose themselves and why others thrive under a cycle of cruelty and malice.
“Industry” Season 3 will premiere on HBO and Max on August 11 at 9 p.m. ET, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Sundays.
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