Third time’s a charm: How Industry quietly became the best show on TV

This story contains spoilers for the season three finale of Industry, Infinite Largesse.

There is a moment in the final episode of the third season of Industry, HBO’s buzzy drama set in the world of high finance, where Eric Tao, the managing director of the investment bank Pierpoint (think Goldman Sachs on steroids), decides to address the trading floor. It has been a tough few days, and with the legacy bank facing potential oblivion, he must inspire the team.

“Money tames the beast,” Eric explains. “The end of the story is money.”

Once considered a risky investment for HBO, the network’s sexed-up series about the world of high finance is finally blowing (and growing) up. Credit: HBO/Binge

For a show driven by money – the making of it, the spending of it, its power to corrupt – it’s a neat trick. Yet, in season three, Industry broadened its scope, exploring a world beyond Pierpoint’s anxious trading floor where money is only the beginning of the story.

Across eight episodes, the latest series offered commentary on almost every contemporary issue imaginable, from sexual politics to the monopolisation of media, green energy, white privilege, mummy issues, daddy issues and cocaine’s stranglehold on the upper middle class.

“I think we finally figured out how to write the show three seasons in,” laughs co-creator Konrad Kay. “Everything feels more expansive, and it goes to places it was afraid to go to in seasons one or two.”

Kay created Industry alongside Mickey Down, two Oxford graduates who stumbled into banking, hated it, and wrote a show about banking. Premiering in late 2020, the first season focused on a group of grads – Yasmin, Robert and protagonist Harper – vying for permanent positions at Pierpoint & Co. in London. On paper, Industry had all the hallmarks of prestige TV – rich people in suits, transactional relationships, gratuitous sex – but initially received mixed reviews.

Industry co-creators Konrad Kay and Micky Down (front).Credit: HBO/Binge

In summing up season one, The New York Times said: “Industry retreats from complex adult drama to functional enough YA [young adult] show.”

Down and Kay agree. “Season one was a reflection of what Konrad and I wanted to write about; it was very particular to the grads’ experience going into a workplace for the first time, living in London, and navigating office politics and relationships,” Down says. “So yeah, season one was sort of a YA show.”

Season two saw Industry tackle the pandemic from a financial standpoint, displaying the increasing appetite for risk and relevancy that would come to define the latest series.

“We wanted to write about stuff that is very topical in the UK and elsewhere; we wanted to tackle class more explicitly, unpack the interconnectivity between media, politics, and finance,” Kay says.

The first season of Industry focused exclusively on young graduates working for a fictional investment bank. Credit: HBO/Foxtel

“And that becomes easier after two full seasons because you’ve set up the world and the characters.”

“Personally, it felt like the self-censoring stopped in season three,” adds Down. “We took the stabilisers off our writing, and we were prepared to kind of shock each other and shock the audience with the rawness.”

The result was a noticeable lift in quality, reflected in HBO’s decision to finally hand Industry its coveted Sunday night slot, which has historically been home to The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, and Succession. According to the network, the shift to primetime combined with the addition of HBO favourites Kit Harington and Sarah Goldberg paid off—Industry nearly doubled its audience in America for season three.

For Ken Leung, who plays Eric Tao, it’s proof that making TV, like investing in the market, requires talent, timing and a little luck.

According to Eric Tao (played by Ken Leung), the end of the story is money.Credit: HBO/Binge

“Things lined up for us because Succession left HBO, and there was a vacuum. Then, the writers’ and actors’ strikes had people desperate for content. Add in Mickey and Konrad writing with a devil-may-care attitude, and what do you get?” asks Leung. “You get a show primed to capture the zeitgeist.”

Much of that comes down to Leung himself, his portrayal of Eric – a baseball-bat-wielding Pierpoint lifer who weaponises his best friend’s cancer diagnosis to further his career – the kind of performance that lingers long after the final credits roll.

“What I love about the character, and by extension all the characters, is that they are really a proxy for us,” Leung says. “Eric can be tender, but he can also be callous; this show doesn’t trade in happy endings because that’s not how real life works.”

Are happy endings just a fantasy? It depends on who you ask, though Leung’s co-star Sagar Radia might beg to differ.

Radia plays Rishi Ramdani, a volatile desk trader who spent much of the first two seasons in the background, only popping up occasionally to deliver a wicked one-liner. (To a co-worker: “I think about you less than I think about climate change.”)

However, Radia’s enigmatic performance has made Rishi a fan favourite. This season, he was given a stand-alone episode – White Mischief – which is widely considered a high point for the show.

“Felt like a dream, to be honest; I was so happy when Mickey and Konrad told me, and the response has been remarkable,” he explains – a happy ending for Radia, though, not a happy time for Rishi.

White Mischief was tough viewing, as audiences shadowed an increasingly frenetic Rishi as he battles several addictions – to sex, drugs and gambling – while his personal life crumbles.

Sagar Radia’s enigmatic performance has seen Rishi become a fan favourite.Credit: HBO/Binge

“What I thought was so great is that the episode became a capsule for everything Industry is about,” says Radia. “These are people who are incredibly self-serving, selfish and self-centred, and you realise, much to your frustration, that they are aware of the consequences of their actions but act this way regardless, without fear of retribution.”

In the finale, retribution arrives for Rishi in a shockingly violent act, setting the tone for the fourth season recently confirmed by HBO.

“That was a long conversation with HBO because they had concerns it felt like a huge departure of the show, to have actual physical violence on screen,” says Kay. “They were never sold on it, but we shot the scene and showed HBO, and it all clicked for them.”

“We see it as a turning point for Industry,” adds Down. “It is something you can’t walk back from; we’ve opened up the possibility there is an undercurrent of threat in this world, which we are keen to explore next season.”

Having successfully nurtured Industry from a “functional enough YA show” to a complex adult drama, one thing is abundantly clear: money might make this world go round, but it’s far from the end of the story.

Industry is available to stream on Foxtel and Binge.

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