Industry is a 2020 television drama series created by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay. The show follows a group of young graduates competing for permanent positions at Pierpoint & Co, a prestigious investment bank in London.[1]
It premiered on 9 November 2020 on HBO in the United States, and on 10 November 2020 on BBC Two in the United Kingdom.[2][3][1][4] In December 2020, it was renewed for a second series which premiered on 1 August 2022.[5][6] In October 2022, the series was renewed for a third series.[7]
Cast
Industry features a large cast, although only Yasmin (Marisa Abela), Harper (Myha'la Herrold), Robert (Harry Lawtey), Gus (David Jonsson) and Eric (Ken Leung) have appeared in every episode. Kenny (Conor MacNeill) and Daria (Freya Mavor) appear in every episode of the first series, while Danny (Alex Alomar Akpobome) appears in every episode of the second series. All other cast members appear infrequently but are credited with the main cast when they appear.
Main
Marisa Abela as Yasmin Kara-Hanani, an ambitious graduate from a wealthy background, fluent in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Arabic, assigned to the Foreign Exchange Sales (FX) desk at Pierpoint
Priyanga Burford as Sara Dhadwal (series 1), the President of Pierpoint London[8]
Mark Dexter as Hilary Wyndham, managing director of FX at Pierpoint[8]
Myha'la Herrold as Harper Stern, an underrated, intelligent, and talented young woman from Binghamton, New York, assigned to the Cross Product Sales (CPS) desk at Pierpoint[9]
David Jonsson as Augustus "Gus" Sackey, a black, gay graduate of literae humaniores at Eton and Oxford, initially assigned to the Investment Banking Division (IBD) desk at Pierpoint, then the CPS desk[10]
Harry Lawtey as Robert Spearing, a graduate of Oxford from a working-class Welsh background, assigned to the CPS desk at Pierpoint
Harper, Yasmin, Gus, Hari and Robert interview for entry level jobs on Pierpoint & Co's trading floor. The concept of Reduction in Force (RIF) day is introduced, a date six months from then, when the grads will be given jobs or let go. It is made clear that half of the new grads will not make it and that impressing their managers is the key to success. Harper is driven, which appeales to Eric in her interview, but as HR keeps asking for her transcripts it becomes clear she has a secret: She never graduated from college. An old friend gives her a forged transcript. Daria invites Harper to a dinner with a client, Nicole Craig. While Daria is accommodating, Harper pushes Nicole as Eric might and makes an impression. After dinner, Nicole makes an advance on Harper, which Harper rejects. Gus and Hari are on the same team. Hari embraces his new role by working all day and night, drinking energy drinks, taking stimulant pills and sleeping at the office before having a heart attack in the bathroom. After a brief recognition of his death, Pierpoint does brief damage control and everyone soon resumes business as usual.
Harper struggles with life in London, continuing to live in a hotel. Harper makes a sale to Nicole. She unsuccessfully looks for an apartment to share but her personality is never a good fit. Yasmin begins to see the sexist culture of the FX desk. At a Pierpoint sponsored dinner for the grads, Kenny begins to verbally abuse Yasmin but Harper steps in, picking a fight and angering a drunken Kenny. Yasmin begins to flirt with Robert, leaning towards manipulative. Robert's manager Clement has a single client and is indifferent to Robert's need to impress management for a permanent job. After Hari's death Pierpoint disbands Gus' team, leaving him with an uncertain future. When he tries to discuss this with senior management he alienates them. Yasmin invites Harper to stay at her house and a friendship forms.
Eric loses a major client, Felim, after offending his wife, forcing grads to drum up new business. Gus is assigned to Clement, working with Robert. Harper is now moved into Yasmin's house, who both struggle to navigate keeping their friendship and business lives separate. Harper finds herself increasingly pulled between Eric, her boss, and Daria, her line manager. Work stress manifests outside of work when she purposely hooks up with a man who looks like Sebastian, Yasmin's boyfriend. Yasmin and Harper agree to a formal rental agreement.
Harper has a wild birthday celebration with Robert, Yasmin, and Greg. Her lack of focus the next day causes problems as she trades on the wrong currency, putting her team at risk for major losses. Given a chance to break even, Harper instead pushes her luck and makes her losses worse. Harper appeals to Nicole Craig to make a purchase and save her, which she does. Eric later talks to her and reveals that he knows she never graduated from college. The two bond over being upstarts hungry for success among colleagues of privilege. Yasmin and Robert represent Pierpoint at a college recruitment event, but are attacked with dye by a protester, bringing them closer. At home, Yasmin is becoming distant from her actual boyfriend. Frustrated by his position, Gus further alienates his coworkers and insults Clement.
A former Pierpoint VP writes an expose on the bank's toxic culture and management goes into damage control. Eric goes offsite, leaving his grads unsupervised. Gus covers trades at his desk, unauthorized. Harper has a meeting with Felim, a major client Eric lost. Both go too far and get in hot water. An angry Eric confronts Harper in a conference room, telling her he gave her a bonus double the other grads, but then locking her in when he leaves. Clement brings Robert to the Netherlands to meet their only client. The meeting goes well and Clement buys Robert a fitted suit as a gift. Clement reveals that, like Robert, he was born of lower class and strives to fit in with those born of privilege. Robert also discovers Clement is a heroin addict. Yasmin attempts to get a family friend, Maxim, who runs a large fund, to bring his business to Pierpoint. She brings Kenny, who gets drunk, is inappropriate and completely humiliates Yasmin and kills the deal.
Pierpoint holds its annual holiday party. Sara, the president of the London office, makes clear to Gus that she has plans to change the culture at Pierpoint to be less toxic and more inclusive. Maxim's unexpected arrival aggravates tensions between Yasmin and Kenny; Maxim pushes for Yasmin to go to human resources while Kenny is jealous of Yasmin's privilege. Greg parties a little too hard with Robert and Usman, hurting himself by running into a glass door and having to go to hospital. Harper confides in Daria about what happened with Eric and being locked in the conference room; Daria tells Sara. They push Harper to file a complaint against Eric. Harper is clearly a pawn in a battle of cultures but signs the documents. Eric is fired from Pierpoint.
Reduction in Force Day (RIF) looms. Daria and Harper's relationship is strained as Daria tells Harper she might have to give half of her bonus back as Eric was not authorized to give her that much. It becomes clear to her that in the new Pierpoint she needs to know her place, which rankles her. Having failed to land Maxim's business and increased verbal abuse from Kenny, Yasmin considers leaving the FX desk. As Yasmin's boyfriend Sebastian struggles to find a career, he tries to throw a fancy catered meal. Although it is her party, Sebastian wants to charge guests, much to Yasmin's embarrassment. The dinner is a failure as the food is late and grads fight, the excess drinks and drugs causing resentment and jealousy to come out. In the midst of it all, Harper divulges her large bonus. Yasmin's boss Hilary learns about how Kenny had harassed her because of monitored communication with Maxim, but encourages her to be a "team player" and not say anything.
On RIF day, grads present to the managers but their presentations are also broadcast on the trading floor. Bill Adler, the CEO of Pierpoint, drops in for the presentations. In his, Robert talks about client relationships, getting Adler's positive attention and a job offer. Yasmin gives an uninspiring presentation, but her boss vouches for her being a "team player" and she is hired. Gus reads a note to begin his presentation, a line of which was part of a bet, and then leaves the room. He is not hired. Harper has an anxiety attack and leaves the presentation room without saying a word. Among the managers, Daria supports Harper. Adler invites Harper to a private meeting with Eric and encourages her to recant, as Eric is too valuable to the firm. Sara pulls Harper aside and tells her that they can create a new culture at Pierpoint. Seeing how Daria expects her to know her place while Eric encouraged her hunger to succeed, Harper recants and is hired, Eric returns, and Daria is let go. Yasmin, who was going to leave FX to work for Daria, is angry at Harper for reinforcing the worst parts of Pierpoint's culture.
As Pierpoint traders return to work after COVID, Harper continues to work remote, living in a hotel. There, she meets Jesse Bloom, a notorious hedge fund manager. Eric tells Harper she needs to return to the office, frustrated that she's lost her edge. Rishi underscores this sentiment, calling her out in front of the entire floor on her first day back. Having bitterly fallen out almost three years prior, Yasmin and Harper continue to hate each other just as much, although it is now clear that Yasmin is far more vitriolic than before. Daniel Van Deventer arrives from the New York office as talk of closing either the London or New York office looms. Eric is further frustrated as Robert is on his desk but makes few calls. Robert is sober and is struggling with confidence. Yasmin is essentially leading her desk, using personal contacts to bring in business while Kenny is away in rehab. But she has become what she disliked, bullying the desk's female grad in the same manner as she was bullied. At a party where Maxim tells her his fund is closing and she is losing him as a client, Yasmin meets Celeste Pacquet, a manager in the private wealth management division. As Kenny returns more reflective, Yasmin's aggression falls flat and without a client she considers a move. Eric is stood up by Harper at a client meeting as she instead goes to see Bloom speak.
Rishi has pre-buy stock options that Eric guarantees he can sell to Felim. Worried about his position, Eric pushes Robert to call inactive clients. Robert cold calls Nicole Craig, winning her over by admitting he is out of his depth. At dinner, the two connect on both being of modest beginnings trying to find their identity among the elite. She makes a successful advance on the drive home. Yasmin begins a relationship with Maxim, which is complicated when her father Charles shows up unexpectedly. Celeste invites Yasmin to a client dinner, but Yasmin misinterprets her role as being sexual. Feeling lost at the FX desk, she tries to get her father to move his assets to Pierpoint and away from Maxim. Harper begins to court Bloom as a client. Van Deventer was mentored by Eric in New York, but now that he is in a position of authority Eric feels threatened. Harper is stuck in the middle. When Van Deventer insists Harper answer a call from Felim against Eric's orders, she blows the deal. To cover, she gets Bloom to buy the stock at the last moment, leaving Eric feeling even less in control.
Pierpoint hosts a shooting holiday to celebrate the stock purchases, but had assumed Felim not Bloom would be the major buyer. Felim and Bloom are antagonistic, as Felim rejects his modest beginnings while Bloom embraces his. Gus is hired by Bloom to tutor his wayward son, Leo, on a university essay. After trying to help, Gus tells Leo that success is true rebellion. At a meeting with Celeste, Yasmin's father treats her like a child and not a professional, embarrassing her. When Yasmin reluctantly brings Kenny to a client meeting, he winds up connecting more than she does. Eric pushes Harper to get in line and have Bloom to sell his shares to Felim. Harper bristles at this and senses Bloom and another investor is being lied to and has to decide who she supports: Pierpoint or her client. She confronts Eric who reminds her that he is the boss. Yasmin drops by Harper's apartment looking for advice. Harper is still away, but she and Robert chat. Robert acknowledges the control she had over him and advises using her manipulative power on her father. Against Eric's orders, Harper advises Bloom to keep his shares and buy those of a social conscious investment fund for a controlling interest.
Eric has taken two weeks off and Dan takes over his duties. This includes handing out bonus checks, which causes Eric to feel displaced and pushes him to visit the New York office. Harper receives the maximum compensation after a great year. In trying to get her family's money to Pierpoint, Yasmin discovers their finances are in disarray. At a party, Celeste flirts with Yasmin but later mentions she has a wife. Now having an affair with Nicole, Robert learns she made advances on Harper their first year at Pierpoint. He feels conflicted. Gus is now working for an MP. His interest in good works interferes with his relationship with Leo Bloom, who just wants to have fun. Yasmin visits Harper at her home, late, worried about a life without family money. Harper has no sympathy. The next day, Harper and Dan share their family backgrounds and later sleep together. That same night she advises Bloom to go against advice Dan gave him. Gus helps a difficult constituent. Yasmin's father's money is going to pay for NDAs to women he had affairs with, but he claims the family is still rich. In New York, Eric tries to have Dan fired but Dan has already maneuvered to take Eric's place. Defeated, Eric is assigned a meaningless position and given a corner office.
Dan and Harper continue their sexual relationship. Yasmin travels to Berlin to transition a client to Jackie. Harper talks her way on to the trip, hoping to find her estranged brother, John. She does. The two bring Yasmin to a disco and take drugs, breaking John's six months of sobriety. Later, John shares the pressure he was under from their mother and why he disappeared. As Harper tries to take care of John, he rejects her and calls her selfish. Robert finds out Clement has died. He is sent to Oxford with Venetia, a grad on the FX desk, to recruit a much sought after recruit. There, he struggles to reconnect with his father, a local publican, and breaks his sobriety. At dinner with the recruit, drunk, he successfully sells Pierpoint as the goal of all of her work. The next day, sober, he makes peace with his father. Gus is invited to do more important work for the minister he is working for. Yasmin connects with her former nanny, but is turned away when she asks if she had an affair with her father. Back in London, Harper is cold towards Dan. When he asks her if she had an affair while in Berlin, Harper rebuffs and insults him.
Yasmin flirts with Celeste, who declines. Harper, having convinced Bloom to go short on a brick-and-mortar drug store chain, finds the market working against them. Bloom visits Pierpoint, angry at Harper. Seeing the tension and hoping to help her, Dan confides in Harper that Adler is shutting down the London office, but she alone is being invited to come to the New York office. Yasmin tries to reconnect with a distracted Harper on her last day at the desk. She meets Celeste and the two sleep together. Later, Kenny tearfully apologies to Yasmin. Gus decides to turn down his promotion, much to the dismay of his family. On a smoke break, Eric gives Harper advice, warning her to not trust Dan. Bloom tries to reconnect with his son Leo, who is dating Gus. Harper convinces Bloom on a plan to get rid of their holdings, against Pierpoint's interest. Rishi realizes he was played and Dan admits he was listening to Harper's conversation with Bloom. Dan kicks Harper off of the trading desk. Looking to save her career, she goes to Bloom, telling him its not about money but the "game" and to push their position at his speaking engagement. Gus' sister tells him he needs to "stop dancing" and think of his future. Inspired, he tells Leo to make amends with his father, which Leo does. But his call comes right before Bloom takes the stage, causing him to cancel and scuttling Harper's play. Feeling her career is in ruins, Harper goes to Eric with a plan.
Harper, Eric and Rishi make an uneasy alliance to sell themselves as a team in order to leave Pierpoint for another bank. Harper sells herself as Bloom's manager, but that is in question as he will not return her calls. What Eric thought was a done deal for them to go to another firm is actually a ploy by that bank to force another team's hand. That prospect gone; word is now out about their wanting to leave Pierpoint. Bloom meets with Gus, who thanks him for helping his son Leo. Even as Leo did not get into Oxford, he showed a desire and Bloom sees that as progress. Gus connects with a tutor at Oxford and makes a deal for Leo to get in, leveraging his ministry work. During a party at her house, Yasmin admits to Maxim her regret at sleeping with Celeste. Later, when Maxim attempts to have sex with her, Yasmin gets angry and throws everyone out. Venetia invites herself to a tense dinner between Robert and Nicole, attempting to get client experience. Feeling scorned, Nicole fights with Robert, who leaves. Knowing Nicole's history of assaulting grads, he returns to the restaurant but finds they have already left. Nicole assaults Venetia, who goes to Yasmin afterwards, only for Yasmin to brush it off. Venetia then goes to Kenny, her supervisor, and also confronts Robert, accusing him of knowing it was going to happen. After denying it, Robert tells Dan the truth. Dan goes to Adler, who tells him to bury it as they are closing down the entire London office. Kenny confronts Yasmin about brushing Venetia off; she responds with anger, reminding him about his sexual harassment of her before he was sober. Dan, disgusted at Adler's attitude and made aware of Harper, Eric and Rishi's move decides to join them in leaving.
Harper, Eric, Rishi and Dan get an offer from another bank, but will have to relocate to New York. Not wanting to leave London, Harper and Eric agree to decline but tell no one. A frustrated Gus gives Harper insider information, who then passes it on to Bloom. Bloom goes on television, causing his holdings to profit. Gus' minister is promoted, but Gus is let go for the leak. It becomes clear Bloom played everyone. Harper and Eric go to Adler and pitch a lean London office, offer up Rishi and Dan as disloyal, and threaten to expose Nicole's multiple assaults and Pierpoint's indifference to them. Adler accepts. On the eve of Rishi's wedding, Harper learns he will be fired but says nothing. Fed up with Pierpoint's rape culture, Yasmin confronts her father about his affairs. In response, he cuts her off financially, even changing the locks on Yasmin's apartment. With nowhere else to go, she visits Robert. At Rishi's wedding to Diana, Robert agrees to get coke for Yasmin but is arrested. Bailed out by Nicole the next morning, she reestablishes her control over Robert. Gus is hired by Bloom as an assistant. At work the next week, Dan is fired along with most of the London office. Harper is surprised to find Rishi at his desk. Eric brings Harper to HR. It is revealed that she never graduated college and lied about it, forcing Eric to fire her.
Production
This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: Kit Harington casting. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2023)
In November 2017, it was announced that HBO had put the series into development, with Mickey Down and Konrad Kay set to write the series with Jane Tranter set to serve as an executive producer, under the banner of her Bad Wolf British production company.[37] In June 2019, it was announced that HBO had greenlit the series, with Lena Dunham set to direct the pilot.[38]Principal photography began in June 2019, in Cardiff, Wales.[39] In December 2019, it was announced that Myha'la Herrold, Marisa Abela, Harry Lawtey, David Johnson, Nabhaan Rizwan, Freya Mavor, Will Tudor, Conor MacNeill and Ken Leung had joined the cast of the series, with Tinge Krishnan, Ed Lilly and Mary Nighy set to serve as directors, and Sam H. Freeman and Kate Verghese to serve as writers.[1]
In December 2020, HBO renewed the series for a second series.[5] In July 2021, Alex Alomar Akpobome and Adam Levy were cast as new series regular while Indy Lewis who guest starred in the first series was promoted to as a series regular for the second series.[16] The second series filming wrapped on December 8, 2021.[40] In March 2022, Jay Duplass, Sonny Poon Tip, and Katrine De Candole were cast as new series regulars for the second series.[17] The second series premiered on 1 August 2022 on HBO.[6] In October 2022, HBO renewed the series for a third series.[7] Production is not expected to be suspended amidst the WGA and SAG strikes due to the series' talent working under the UK-based union Equity.[41]
Release
The series premiered on 9 November 2020, on HBO and HBO Max in the United States. In the United Kingdom, it premiered 10 November 2020 on BBC Two. The second series premiered on 1 August 2022.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the first series holds an approval rating of 76% with an average rating of 7.7/10, based on 38 reviews. The website's critics consensus states, "Though Industry's social critiques tend toward the superficial, sharp writing and an excellent ensemble make it easy to enjoy its soapy workplace drama anyway."[42] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[43]
The second series has a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 8.10/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Finessing complicated financial jargon into scathing repartee, Industry's stock is way up in this superlative sophomore series full of frustrated ambitions and tested loyalties."[44]Vanity Fair described the series as the "missing link" between Succession and Euphoria.[45]
Notes
^Episodes 4–8 of Industry were released on HBO Max on November 27, 2020, ahead of its weekly HBO premieres.[21]
