Review: 'Industry' reveals a broken world that looks scarily like our own
It's not often that a series gets better with each year (even "Games of Thrones" and "Lost" ended with a whimper). But here comes the third and best season yet of HBO's "Industry," with eight powerhouse episodes streaming weekly on Max as of Aug. 11, after moving from Mondays to the cooler Sunday spot once occupied by Emmy juggernaut "Succession."
Whether or not you think this frisky financial drama can hold its own with the high jinks of the Roy media dynasty, it sure does its low-down best.
One new attraction is the cast addition of "Thrones" hero Kit Harington -- yup, the seductively moody Jon Snow -- in a boisterous change of pace as Sir Henry Muck, the aristocrat behind a fishy-sounding green tech energy company.
Do you need to watch the first two seasons of "Industry," which began in 2020, to catch up? Nah. But you'll have a blast digging in.
At the end of season 2, the coked-up, bed-hopping trainee analysts at the fictional London investment bank of Pierpoint & Co. were at each other's throats, which is exactly where show creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay want them.
Take the ruthlessly ambitious Harper Stern, the transplanted New Yorker played with such skill by Myha'la ("Bodies Bodies Bodies") that you can practically watch a thick skin grow over what's left of her fragile feelings. Harper has been canned by her mentor and father figure, Eric Tao (Ken Leung in in a standout performance that rises to Emmy level in season 3).
Call it Backstabbing 101. Harper's phony college degree ostensibly got her fired, but treachery runs deep at Pierpoint. Harper does retain her connection to her Pierpoint bestie Yasmin Kara-Hanani, the publishing heiress played by Marisa Abela, who just knocked it out of the park portraying Amy Winehouse in "Back to Black."
Can Yasmin fill Harper's place or is her co-worker and temporarily platonic flat roommate Robert Spearing (a terrific Harry Lawtey) next in line, as he and Yasmin curry favor with Sir Henry? Is sex a factor? You bet.
So is Yasmin's relationship with her hissable father (Adam Levy). Flashbacks of the two aboard the yacht daddy named after her hint at shocking trauma.
Despite hectic scenes on the trading floor that feel like gladiator contests, it's the emotional bloodletting that cuts deepest. Episode 4 plays like a white-knuckle thriller as trader Rishi Ramdani (the brilliant Sagar Radia) risks his job and his life on his gambling addiction.
And where is Harper in all this? She's hustled her way into a green American investment firm where a new mentor, Petra Koenig (Sarah Goldberg), takes her in, despite ethical lapses that include insider trading. Series newbie Goldberg, so good as Bill Hader's acting and love partner on "Barry," is stellar in a role that cuts to the core of how greed eats away at morality.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the paths taken by Harper and Yasmin, both trying to justify their actions by leeching away any trace of feeling or responsibility.
The measure of what they've lost as humans is taken by the indelible performances of Myha'la and Abela, as their characters lose touch with the bruised emotions that connected them in the first place.
As in "Succession," the beautiful people in "Industry" are avatars of the lies told in the name of gaining power.
At the end of season 3, these young trainees in deception are set adrift in a society choked of possibility. As hot-blooded and hilarious as the series is, every laugh comes with a sting that reveals a broken world that looks scarily like our own.
