‘It’s always been bleak – but it’s gotten darker’: How the industry became the most nightmarish show on TV

The HBO banking drama has just begun its fourth series, with more fanfare and a more star-studded cast than ever before. It also takes its story – and its characters – to chilling new places.

In 2020, a new drama about a group of postgraduate bankers trying to make their way in London’s high finance scene was broadcast for the first time on television. At the time, the biggest story about the joint HBO and BBC Industry series was that the first episode was directed by Girls creator Lena Dunham.

Initially, the show failed to generate that much interest on both sides of the pond, resulting in a meager viewership. But six years later, with the fourth series launching last weekend, expectations are very different: ratings have improved 40% between seasons two and three, and it’s been moved to a good Sunday night spot on HBO, while its stars grace magazine covers. Certainly no one at the time could have predicted how loud it would become – or how horrific it would be.

From the beginning, the industry had always presented the superficial glamor of twenty-somethings partying and hooking up in luxury locations, but this was frozen by the toxic workplace culture they found themselves in, where horrific behavior – bullying, misogyny, harassment and sexual assault, among other things – seemed completely normal.

Now comes Season 4, which is more highly-anticipated than ever, featuring some star-studded additions, including The Handmaid’s Tale’s Max Minghella and Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton. From the opening episode, the tone was pitch black. Within minutes, a one-night stand reveals itself to be something far more sinister, putting a young woman (Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka) in a vulnerable position; While later, in a scene played for dark laughs, anti-heroine Harper Stern (Mihala) berates an investor with “If you’re going to have a stroke, please do it outside my office” — before he has a stroke in front of her, swerving and smashing her glass desk.

What to prepare for

Industry fans have been asked to buckle down: it’s going to get much more shocking as subsequent episodes unfold. Roxana Hadidi of Vulture said: “The industry operates in a state of perfect gloom… The cynicism is so high that it is practically in orbit.” Mashable’s Belaine Edwards described the new season as going “nightmarish cycles” with a “stomach-churning fall,” while The Wall Street Journal likened it to a “vampire tale.” As the closing credits of the eight-part series roll in March, viewers may be wondering if this is indeed the darkest show on television right now.