Amazing third season “industry” It’s not a packaged order from the London-based banking firm Pierpoint & Company, but aboard a ship not far out at sea. Over the past two seasons, the financial drama, co-produced by HBO and the BBC, has grown steadily in scope and ambition, as has its central protagonist, but the decision to literally set out on the open waters can only seem deliberate. Metaphor: “industry” is now a sea of endlessly exciting possibilities.
Season 3 shifts “Indústria” from a Max Binge show to a first season and a second-to-late schedule to a second season for HBO’s biggest culturally relevant provider, a Sunday-to-late schedule. As such, the show feels like a bigger deal than its scope reflects. When we last saw the series’ protagonist, Harper Stern (alias Mihala), she was nowhere near what could be described as a mercy killing. Under the sun of morality and ethics, her teacher, Eric Tao (Ken Leung), gets rid of Harper Pierpoint before her ambitious quest goes beyond its legal scope, revealing that she falsified her school’s history.
When the plot begins, Harper and Eric, always entangled, are together without being present in each other. Harper has taken a new job as a table assistant at an eco-friendly farm, where she tries to take care of her potential new mentor, Petra (Barry star Sarah Goldberg). Eric, on the other hand, is getting a divorce and is looking to replicate and replace the relationship he once had with Harper in both Jasmine (Marisa Abela) and Robert (Harry Lauti). Behind all this is Pierpoint’s ambitious decision to invest heavily in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments, helping to bring Lumi, a green energy startup founded by Sir Henry Mook (Kit Harington, The Best Moment of His Life), to market.
From a purely mechanical standpoint, in Harper’s absence, the show’s pre-established MO allows co-creators Mickey Down and Conrad Kay to expand the series’ opening. “Industry” is never overlooked when it comes to compellingly drawn characters, but we don’t always get the most consistent or well-rounded arc. That’s not the case in the eight-episode third season (all of which were sent to critics for review), as Pierpoint’s ESG branch provides a natural and logical extension for the series to tell a more directly interwoven story, one that goes far beyond its scope. Don’t ask for political backchannels, British tabloids, and more.
The main focus is also on the added benefit of turning Indústria into a true ensemble series, with nearly every cast member getting an episode to share. Abela now sees himself as a more-than-capable co-leader alongside Myha’la. The series spends much of the season unraveling a scandal involving Yas, providing many interesting moments for Abela, one of our best empaths. Robert and Yas’s complicated relationship becomes even more complicated as Pierpoint and Lumi become closer companions, both increasingly drawn into Mook’s orbit. Lauti, in particular, benefits greatly from his storyline alongside Harrington, as the two’s contrasting social differences become a rich text for both actors. It’s a long way from the eventual reunion between Harper and Eric, which is worth the wait, as he delivers the best work of Myha’la and Leung’s career in a dinner that’s as tense and explosive as you’d expect.
Dawn, Kay, and the rest of the Rotrista cast do some amazing work in building the characters of this world that you wouldn’t find when diner thief Rishi (Sagar Radia) gets a plot (which has already been widely revealed) only in the form of “an inelegant getaway,” one of the series’ highlights. When viewers realize that actors like Harington and Goldberg are on board, it’s easy for more talented stars to come together on a series, or for relative newbie Miriam Beach, whose character Sweetpea makes such an indelible impression that she’ll become a new favorite, if they do. She’s instantly added to the excellent roster of “Indústria.”
Despite its great growth and improvement, “Indústria” does not lose sight of what makes it unique. The show relies on its audience or enough to accompany what is happening with explosive dialogues, or that continue to transform it into a more lively and unscripted series. As the plots advance with a wrapped motive; the easiest comparison is that the series seems to be preparing eight episodes of Michael Mann's bank robbery series “Heat”. It is not uncommon for an episode to tell a narrative that other series take a whole season to unfold, only to have another set of cleverly wrapped entanglements behind it. I do not want to say that the show also does not have quieter moments. It is the case of Yas and Rob out of town at the end of the season to the field that is very shocking as financial conspiracies occur inside the bank. And in all this, there is a continuation of all the important themes that have become the calling cards of “Industria”, such as class, masculinity, identity, capitalism, profit, ambition – to name a few.
Fairly or unfairly, “Industry” initially drew comparisons to other recent, popular HBO series, like “Succession” or “Euphoria.” Given the nature of when and where the show arrives in the U.S., HBO is betting big on the show, moving the highly anticipated schedule after “House of the Dragon” in the 9 p.m. Sunday night time slot. Season 3 will likely find a bigger audience than the previous one, and much of it will be compared to its predecessors. But the show’s best launch, which also serves as one of the best shows of the year, confirms that this has been true all along: There’s no need to compare “Industria” to anything other than its consistently superior formula.
“Industry” premieres at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 11 on HBO and streams on Max.
