Raise the bright green flag once more this summer. Industry, HBO’s latest flagpole finance workplace drama, is set to have its own “BRAT summer” this August with its third season premiere, boasting coke, boats, and explosive popularity. Season 3 features hotter sex, higher stakes, and the moral ambiguity of the ethics-driven green tech market.
One of the most highly anticipated seasons of the summer (its newest season currently boasts a 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes preceded by a plethora of positive critical reception), Industry stars Myha’la, Marisa Abela, Ken Leung, Harry Lawtey, Sagar Radia, and the series’ latest addition Kit Harington as their characters embark on the battle for capital in the newly remunerative green energy market.
If you’re unfamiliar with the jargon of trades and the ever-tempestuous “market,” you may find it difficult to follow every play being executed by the cutthroat protagonists, but you’re not alone. Whether by intention or not, creators Konrad Kay and Mickey Down admit to the density of the subject matter, dating back to the series premiere in November 2020.
“Season 1 we don’t hold your hand at all,” said Kay at New York City’s premiere of the third season on August 5. “I rewatched it recently, and I was shocked to see how little we told audiences.”
For those who haven’t watched, Industry Season 1 follows a group of young graduates who embark on a rat race to cement their place in the fictionalized London finance empire Pierpoint. But as the saying goes, these hard workers know how to play. Amid backdoor trade deals and publicly humiliating floor fights, these deeply flawed young professionals balance workplace power hierarchies with enough schmoozing, sex, and drugs to give any HR representative a heart attack. (Now thinking about it, does Pierpoint even have one? Probably not.)
Nick Strasburg / HBO
More intriguing than constructive to those outside of the finance world, the show’s jargon speaks to one of the many strengths of the series. The characters are compelling enough to not only hold your attention but propel the series forward, in a way that is often compared to other localized ensemble dramas such as Succession and Euphoria – you didn’t have to understand media conglomerates to follow the former nor did you have to be a drug-addled high schooler to connect with the latter.
To Game of Thrones’ Harington, Industry can’t even be compared to any other show on the market (no pun intended).
“I’d seen the first two [seasons] and loved it,” said Harington. “I usually don’t like it being compared to Succession and Euphoria and things like that. But it’s entirely unique. I think my challenge was to come in and not ruin it.”
Harington joins as Sir Henry Muck, the eccentric founder of a morally ambiguous green tech company, who lacks the self-awareness to realize his own privilege in an industry in which he wields significant influence.
“He might say he does [recognize his privilege], but he can’t see it. He’s kind of within this net of privilege that he can’t see out of,” said Harington. “He’s that modern guy that’s gone to therapy and understands fully that the world has changed and he as a man has to change with it but will now manipulate women with therapy chat.”
Muck is not the only complex character explored in this workplace drama. Primarily focused on two female characters – and two characters of color at that – Industry plays into the intrigue beyond the outsider’s perspective of a white, male-dominated industry. In a way described by Kay as “organic,” another strength of the show is how it provides audiences with a diverse array of characters that aren’t limited to their race or gender.
Nick Strasburg / HBO
“I have a pet peeve about characters of color in TV shows that are sort of being defined by their identity,” said Kay. “We wanted the show to feel like people we never expected to see in this situation. That was always what was exciting about it, was it was an outsider’s story, but it was also organic. It wasn’t like we were like, ‘Let’s get every single race in this show.’”
A theme of the series is redundancy, the corporate concept of having to let go of employees unrelated to their actual performance. The categorization of “redundant” is more a reflection of the larger industry at hand – driven, of course, by the need to optimize profits – but this new season is anything but. It’s fast-paced, unexpected, and undeniably “BRAT summer” coded.
“It’s bombastic. It’s playful,” said Down. “It’s the best kind of yacht rock.”
This upcoming third season will cover green energy, offering audiences a more focused lens – the world of green tech – compared to the first two seasons. Kay and Downey, who both briefly worked in finance themselves prior to writing the script, feel they’ve finally found the show’s footing.
“Season 1 and Season 2, especially Season 1, the acting has always been world-class in this show. We’re very lucky, like we had lightning in a bottle,” said Down. “Everyone’s ridiculously talented…And I think that’s what made Season 1 a success. I think our writing wasn’t necessarily at the level of their performance. So we’ve kind of grown together with them, catching up.”
Modestly, the creators understate the strength of their writing as their scripts are continually chock full of creative minutiae (such as humorous lines and plot points playing out in the background that audiences can only glean from closed captions). But for Season 3, Kay and Down are excited to make their series more accessible through a specified lens of environment responsibility companies, or ESGs, and the world of “green-washing.”
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“The whole green-washing thing feels like it has some far more coherent theme than the previous two seasons, which I think will make people enjoy it a little bit more,” said Down. “There were too many desks. There were too many trades. It was a real black box. In Season 3, I think we just streamlined everything, and it makes it a bit more accessible.”
Grappling with the politics of corporate workplaces, the power dynamics of sex, and the ways in which our pasts haunt our presents, Industry is ultimately a coming-of-age story – one that everyone can relate to, even if you haven’t had to deal with clubbing with clients or the legality of insider trade deals.
“I now understand that the world of finance has people who look like me and sound like me,” said Myha’la, who most recently starred in the dystopian film Leave the World Behind alongside Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, and Ethan Hawke. “So that’s nice. I can be like, you know, a day in the life type situation.”
Myha’la stars as Harper, the whip-smart protagonist who hustles her way into the world of finance despite her unconventional background in the industry. Despite her character’s success on the floor, the 28-year-old actress makes one thing clear: “It’s always down with the patriarchy.”
Industry, Season 3 Premiere, Sunday, August 11, 9/8c, HBO and Max
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