Industry

Down and Kay keep expanding the canvas, bringing new players in while exiting others. It makes Industry feel kinetic, electric, even while it’s giving you no one to root for and nothing to believe in.

Good news: season four is even better, truly top-tier television that’s surely destined for end-of-year lists, a serious feat when we’re barely a week into January.

The risks “Industry” and its creators are willing to take prove that the series is one of the best post-pandemic television shows to grace our screens. By allowing these characters to become their nastiest, most immoral selves, Down and Kay continue to push them to the point of no return, allowing their actors to inhabit them in a way no other television ensemble cast does.

Yet another spectacularly bold, absolutely brilliant, and shamelessly brash season of television, but it’s also darker, grander, and more culturally relevant than any season of the show before.

Industry's fourth season is so expertly crafted that the few things that don't entirely work can be forgiven. .... Season 4 makes it clear that this show has fully grown into its own very unique animal.

You may not always like what you see, you may not always know what they’re saying, and you may not always like how you feel. But in the end, the season’s honest appraisal of their new world and our persisting one is so clear it’ll send you soaring.

Industry’s potent blend of contemporary finance drama and its characters’ doomed attempts at self-actualization is running on max in Season 4. By putting Pierpoint in the rearview mirror, the series has graduated to a bigger playing field where the consequences are much more dire.

The dialogue is dense and poignant, the performances are as layered as Russian dolls, the cynicism is so high that it’s practically in orbit. .... Everyone’s unbelievably wealthy and everyone is miserable, and it makes for Industry’s best season yet.

Potential for wildly divergent paths in the meta arc of the show. One is that “Industry” rises from the ashes to become bigger and more ambitious than ever, joining the upper tier of HBO’s roster. The other is that, without its distinct angle and grounding ballast, “Industry” tips over into grandiosity, never quite establishing a sound basis for moving past such a natural endpoint. Over eight episodes, Season 4 hews much closer to the former end of this spectrum than the latter.

There are major character shifts that serve as a testament to the foundation built by all involved, from Abela and Myha'la's performances to Down and Kay's thorny and compelling scripts. Once again, the pair write themselves into a corner, but now, the best part of Industry is watching how they'll thrash and claw their way out of it and who will survive the bloodshed.

Although there’s never the sense that Industry is holding itself back, the wider canvas that Season 4 operates on suggests that the series could continue to evolve to keep up with reality's increasingly unbelievable events. Industry may share similarities with previous HBO dramas, but it's evolved into a definitive show of the moment.

Four seasons in, it’s still the sexiest series ever about banking and this time with a new twist that redefines twisted.

Considering everything that has gone down between Eric and Harper, I am not expecting an easy road ahead. Nor do I want it to be friction-free. However, there is something heartening about the way they hash out terms in person, with Myha’la and Leung firing on all emotional cylinders.

“Industry” has produced what is perhaps its most conventional season yet—a tale of corporate intrigue in which Harper works to uncover the fraud and extralegal tactics that have allowed Tender to thrive. The righteousness of her crusade means that there’s less of what I think of as the show’s signature effect: a simultaneous awe and nausea at the characters’ Machiavellian maneuvers. .... In most respects, though, “Industry” still feels like “Industry.”

“Industry” is still perfectly good as a thriller, but this new genre styling gives way to even better human drama this year. While the investigation might move quickly to uncover the truth behind Whitney’s company, the show itself takes a notably more brooding and melancholic pace in interactions between characters.

The characters are all terrible people who spend their daylight hours operating as professional psychopaths and their downtime coming up with perverse ways to make themselves miserable. The bedroom antics and boardroom battles are, of course, delicious to watch, but the tiny glimmers of vulnerability that the players display is enough to keep us invested in their success.