Trading up🗠
A show worth investing in.
Ever get the feeling when you’re watching something that you can understand the words that the characters are saying, you know what these words mean individually, but if someone asked you at gunpoint what was actually happening, you’d get shot? No, I’m not talking about a Nolan movie. I’m talking about an HBO show about the world of high finance.
Industry (2020- )
A great thing about not understanding the majority of the text of the dialogues in this show is that the subtext is pretty clear. I’m kidding, but really, the most I know about this world is what I’ve seen in The Big Short and you don’t need to have seen that to see two coworkers staring daggers at each other. Does it matter what they’re doing? It’s not about the plot, it’s about the characters.
I watched this show to scratch my Succession itch (2023 can’t come sooner) and Industry is just as excellent at giving you completely hateable characters who make too much money while making you feel smart because it is an HBO drama after all. And hey, for a change, it’s not all white men. It’s got a diverse cast of characters and every single one of them sucks because everyone is an equal-opportunity asshole. Now that’s the sort of representation I want to see.
Industry follows a group of new graduates who join the international bank Pierpoint & Co’s London office. You think you’re rooting for the underdogs but a clean surgical removal of your morals seems to be a compulsory condition for working here because even the smallest shred of kindness is seen as a weakness. Not to say they’re not good at their job, but you have to do a lot more to be considered prime Pierpoint material. You work hard and then you play hard, doing too many drugs, having too much sex with the wrong people, and making terrible decisions that have big repercussions.
The acting’s phenomenal and the basic plot isn’t too hard to follow. Once you become familiar with the characters and their motivations, just two episodes in, the show is great at building dramatic tension by hooking you on people’s best and worst human desires - ambition, pleasure, greed, insecurity. There are complex office politics in play here and you never know who you can trust or who will fuck you over - it can be your boss, it can be your “best” friend. It would be a nightmare to work here, but it is great on the screen, at a distance.
There are two seasons out, with the second season post-pandemic, and even better than the first as it adds a new character, an eccentric billionaire who provides a high risk-high reward situation as he’ll either help you make bank or completely tank your career. There is lots more happening too, but I’ll let you find out for yourself.
Until next time,
V