Industry Season 4 Review – Truly Quirky, Top Notch TV | television

MAny dramas – especially good ones – don’t become an overnight hit. Think of series like Game of Thrones or Succession, which needed time to warm up, and some amazing episodes (like Red Wedding and Kendall bumping into a waiter, respectively) to really get going. Industry is one such show – the slow-burning HBO/BBC series that hit its stride in season three. Good news: Season 4 is the best, truly top-notch television and definitely destined for year-end lists, which is a serious accomplishment when we’re only a week into January.

The Industry, of course, is one that revolves around young investment bankers, a drama that initially led to comparisons with This Life, a show where our recent graduates were as likely to socialize with each other as they were to stab each other in the back. Fast forward to season 4, and it definitely feels more dark and debauched, while still holding together with perfect dialogue. Kiernan Shipka – here, closer to Don Draper than his daughter Sally, who played him in Mad Men – Max Minghella, Kal Penn and Charlie Heaton are among the big names joining the cast this time around. They blend seamlessly with our existing heroes – Myha’la, Marisa Abela, Kit Harington – to create something more complex and complex than viewers might expect. Props also to Ted Lasso’s Tohib Jimoh for blending in flawlessly; His jaunt over the Atlantic with Myriam Pechey as Sweetpea is a special treat.

According to Industry, the series smartly and bravely steers clear of the headlines: Much of Season 4 revolves around the payment provider, Tender, which is about to become a bank. She is, naturally, keen to sever ties with the OnlyFans-esque platform, Siren, as a new online safety bill is being debated in the UK. Partying at a club, financial journalist James (Heaton) chats with Tender company employee Hayley (Shipka) in a horrific scene that hurt my eyes, but is key to setting off the twisty cat-and-mouse game that follows. Harper (Mihala) continues to convey a lot through the quick twitch of her jaw as she chews gum. Having fought her way out of countless situations that seemed to have ended her career, she now runs a specialist short-selling fund, on behalf of financier Otto Mosten, who – like many of the characters in this season – proves to be a power-hungry piece of work, with a timely hatred of “woke” culture.

Harper is enraged at being held back at work by Mustaine while trying to make money from Tender, leading to the series’ first great line, after she bemoans being viewed as an angry black woman (“You’re an angry black woman!” to which her doting mentor, Eric (Ken Leung), replies). Former bankers Mickey Down and Conrad Kaye – the industry’s writing double act, this time directing several episodes – are often given credit for their financial situation. Experience. They should also be commended for how well they observe and criticize race, class, desire and sexuality, and for not being afraid to say the unsayable in the pursuit of not only black humor (and potential sextortion plots) but also reality. (They remain undefeated in funny background gags and easter eggs as well, among which are the various Enya songs that play at pivotal moments in the series.)

There’s a stark reality to much of Season 4. Heaton’s character undertakes a risky investigative mission, fearing that “Paddy Radden Keefe”—that’s Patrick Radden Keefe of The New Yorker, to the rest of us—will get there first. Henry (a career-best Kit Harington) and Jasmine (Marissa Abella) grapple with the hardships of married life, as Henry tries to rebuild his career after the collapse of his green energy company, Lumi. As for Yasmine, it is not an exaggeration to say that her story seems inspired by Ghislaine Maxwell this time. Death, too, hangs in the air at every turn, starkly foreshadowed and subtly hinted at, not least around the troubled post-monastery Rishi (Sagar Radheya). All this, and the industry also retains its elegant essence – not least when Jasmine is allowed to wander into the dress-up box as Marie Antoinette for Henri’s 40th.

Much of the industry is still focused on “rich people’s problems,” things that might seem trivial — in the grand scheme of things. But by delving deeper than it previously dared into the tortured psyches of its main characters, it manages to be more disturbing and more relatable than ever before. You may notice that the soundtrack leans more 80s this time around, and it doesn’t seem to be an accident: at its core, this series is finding a societal rot that’s been around for a long time, and bringing all its horrors out again.