Industry ends its sensational second season with a hard lesson learned
Over these last eight episodes, the show has become one of the best workplace series of the 21st century
TV Reviews Celeste
We will get to that final moment (because OMG what a closer of a scene!), but this recap bears starting not with the specifics of where Industry left its characters at the end of this impeccable season but with the thesis that clearly dominated this eight-episode offering. For, regardless of where the likes of Harper, Robert, Rishi, Danny, and Yas ended up, their storylines collectively painted a bleak picture of what it means to try to live and work within a system that, as one character puts it, corrodes you in real time.
Perhaps Celeste said it best while being aghast at Yas trying to virtue signal with her choice of clients: “Do you want to operate within the system and be successful or do you want to dream that you can change it and be left behind?” In many ways, Industry has been asking this question over and over throughout the course of the season. The role models these young professionals have had—everyone from Eric and Jesse to Nicole and Celeste—have stood for the value and gravitational pull of the status quo. Things have been done a certain way for decades (if not longer!) and accepting them has been the only way to move forward and upward in this world.
Time and time again, we’ve been shown that being a craven individualist is a surefire way of getting one’s way. It’s how Harper has gotten herself out of many a sticky situation. And, for much of this episode, it looked like she would once again dodge a bullet and come out on top. Sure, it would’ve meant burning Danny, ditching Rishi, and even needing to come to terms with the fact that she’d inadvertently (maybe!) committed a very obvious case of insider trading. But it would have allowed her to not only stay at Pierpoint and in London but to do so alongside her mentor, whom she’s grown to trust. Only, she should’ve known all along that such trust is a fickle fiction in this business. If Industry season two has taught us anything, it’s that relationships at Pierpoint are only (and can only ever be) transactional. Just as she had handily thrown Danny and Rishi under the bus, it dawns on Harper much too late that she’s been similarly discarded by Eric once she proved she could be of no more use to him.
But maybe that’s too cynical a read of what happened in that final scene. Might there be a kind of paternalistic impulse at work here as well? Is Eric truly looking out for Harper by making her own up to her own deception and forcing her to start anew on her own terms, ideally away from the corrosive power of Pierpoint and its employees, himself included? My bet is that it’s a bit of both; selfless care and selfish survival are not here mutually exclusive. Not that that makes Eric’s final chess move sting any less. There’s a lesson here to be learned about how to stay afloat in this business. And it is not a pretty one, especially as it was the second time Harper had been played by someone she thought she could trust, or someone she didn’t think she’d need to be wary of. Watching her realize in real time that Jesse had used her should’ve served as foreshadowing for the way she’d soon find out that she was never really in as much control of her fate (or her career, or even her standing in the company) as she thought she was.
That feeling of powerlessness in the face of a system that rewards brutal moves like those Jesse and Eric play was likewise felt by Yas and Robert. The former tried to make her work feel more in line with her values only to be lectured about how, just as perhaps there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism, there may not be ethical employment (or financial trading) under it either. So long as you’re dealing with the kind of wealth (and the moneyed folks who own it) that Pierpoint handles, you’re never going to be able to draw a line along ethical, let alone personal, parameters. Such a realization would have hit Yas like a ton of bricks had she not also blown up her life by trying to prove to her father that she could stand by her own newfound moral center. The lesson here is equally insidious: Quiet, performative virtue signaling is okay so long as you’re perched atop a privileged high horse.
As for Robert, try as he might, he clearly can’t quit Nicole. Especially as he can’t disentangle his own feelings for her from the “predator” image he’s tried to form of her in his head. Just like Celeste, Nicole is blunt about the way she moves through the world. Sure, she gets handsy when drunk, what of it? “Things happen, and then things are fine,” she explains. Is there a better mantra for the impunity that folks with privilege (be it money, power, or likely both) so carelessly wield on any given day? That could be Yas’ father speaking. Or Eric. Or Jesse, even.
And it’s them who get what they want. Their protégés and underlings (Gus notwithstanding!), in contrast, end up needing to swallow their pride and admit they may not be ruthless enough (yet!) to work the system nor blindly naive enough to think they can actually change it.
If Industry ends with this season finale, the two-season HBO wonder will serve as a terrifying inquiry into contemporary workplace culture. This isn’t just a Death Of A Salesman-type take on the way workers are chewed up by a system. Instead, it’s something all the more dispiriting: a portrait of an institution—and of the people that institution creates, nurtures, and depends on—that corrodes those inside it in order to sustain itself. It’s a tragic story precisely because it feels so inevitable. And familiar.
Stray observations
- Sometimes a small, quiet moment grabs you for what it tells you about a character. Like Harper arriving at Eric’s office asking for water only to grab the entire jug of water and downing it, a rare instance of the young employee losing composure in front of her mentor.
- “She was a woman when she wanted me.” This entire #MeToo/NDA storyline has been a highlight of the season. Mostly because the show never shied away from the thorny issues of consent and agency—and because it kept stressing the way these many instances are premised on power imbalances and depend on the stories those involved tell themselves and others.
- I never did touch on it mostly because it felt gauche, but among all the folks we’ve met during the series, Jesse has to be the most despicable, yes? It’s a race to the bottom on the show, I know. But somehow his smarmy demeanor, not to mention the casual cruelty he doles out with a smug smile, is unsurprisingly off-putting in a way that puts him head and shoulders above the rest of these soulless, ambitious pricks. (Also, after that “poison” comment, you have to put Rishi, now “happily married,” right up there, as well).
- I was so happy to see Yas and Harper getting along at the wedding—laughing at their own cruel comments to one another, no less!
- Series co-creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay wrote this episode and deserve every single praise I’ve heaped on the series’ second season. Expanding the world of Pierpoint while also making the company a microcosm for a morally bankrupt system without ever making the show feel like it’s giving you a TED talk on late-stage capitalism would be an accomplishment in itself. Doing so while making a funny, sexy, thrilling television series that’s driven by character is just outright remarkable. And yes, I will continue to rank it alongside the likes of Mad Men as one of the best workplace series of the 21st century.
- So… season 3 renewal, when HBO?
31 Comments
So… season 3 renewal, when HBO?I’m pretty sure that’s it for the show. None of the original main characters are employed by Pierpoint any more; without Harper as a throughline, I’m not really sure how you would keep the show going. (I’m not 100% clear on Rob’s status, since he was arrested but just made a big sale, but everyone else is pretty clearly out of work at the end of this episode.)On a more practical note, I don’t think anyone’s actually watching. A lot of the media coverage when the new season came out was about how it was the best show you hadn’t heard of, and the comments section on these recaps has been pretty dead–even by new AV Club standards.
I agree with you that no one watches. But HBO is weird sometimes with critical darlings. You are also right though in that I have no idea what the continuity thread is.
Leaving Pierpoint isn’t leaving that world. I could easily see it continuing.I wonder how the show does in the UK? It’s a BBC co-production which could help its chances.
I’m not saying there aren’t other things they can do with the characters. But at that point we’re just following a bunch of random 20-somethings as they stumble through London looking for meaning.Although that description does sound like a lot of BBC shows now that I think about it…
Season 3 explores how these young Thatcherites cope with the death of their beloved Queen.
bunch of random 20-somethings as they stumble through London looking for meaning.So it’s basically Euphoria, or Girls, only the British investment banker version. I tuned into this thinking it was going to be like Billions, MadMen or Succession at least.The ratings for this show in the US are at rock bottom. Worse than Westworld. I don’t see this getting renewed for another season.
But the show isn’t about Pierpoint and they’re not going to be leaving “The Industry.” Even if they do all drift— which isn’t a given, I mean Yas now needs a job more than ever and could be back on the floor, Robert probably isn’t going to get fired, Harper is wily enough to land somewhere in their orbit— they’ll still be in the same small world. And I mean, the creators seem to know what they’re doing and I doubt they would write themselves into a corner where there’s nowhere else to go. If being renewed is on the table I am certain they have a game plan.
Maybe? I’ll be honest: I don’t know enough about television funding to have a clear sense of how to weight the importance of the BBC’s investment vs. the HBO/Discovery merger.People are talking about this being a “critical darling,” but at least in terms of the American press, it’s really not. It got some minor coverage about the existence of the second season, and that’s been pretty much it. I don’t deny that it’s well written and acted, but that’s not always a sign that a show will be renewed, especially when there’s no one breakout star attached. It’s a cast of TV character actors and two showrunners no one in the U.S. has ever heard of. The average CW show has a higher rating on IMDB. In terms of being about the finance “industry,” both Billions and Succession have a much more robust critical foothold/American audience.
Well, any show could continue under that logic. But every show is grounded in a setting which in the center of the entire idea of a show. Trying to follow characters after the setting is no more is usually a recipe for disaster, as yes, you could follow the further adventures of Harper, Yas and Robert..but why?
Harper gets a job with Bloom, leveraging the insider info she gave him (like Gus did). Yaz moves in with Harper as she has nowhere else to go in a role reversal from S1. Robert remains the whipping boy for whoever is having a bad day.
I’ve tried to watch this, but, and I’m a Minnesotan married to a Brit, I frequently cannot understand what the fuck they are saying. Are they low-talkers or mumblers? It’s all hushed and none of them appeal to me so I can’t bother with it.
Subtitles might help. Unless you’re secretly Lea Michelle.
I’m British and I could barely understand any of them, so don’t worry. It seems like a weird kind of naturalistic mumble-acting with a few strong accents thrown in. I’m going to watch it all again with subtitles!
probably more the latter IMO…this is yet another show that pre-pandemic I would have been all over, but these days I can’t wallow in so much dispiriting cynicism. Same for Succession, seems like an absolutely brilliant series but I can’t handle watching a bunch of family members emotionally abusing and fucking each other over week after week.
Yas could end up working with the hedge team and Harper could end up working under Jesse. In fact the argument can be made that Eric jettisoned her from PP in exactly the right way to guarantee she could capitalize on her relationship with Jesse. Theres plenty of meat on the bones still.
What a strange comment. The show is finished because you can’t envision any future storylines? It might not get renewed but the cast and crew, writers and showrunners, etc. didn’t know that during production. I’m sure they’ve already been in pre-production and brainstormed ideas and storylines for a potential season three; if they did get the green light they would want to be ready to hit the ground running.
This show is remarkable. I’m going to get my hopes up for a S3. Maybe it’ll be a late bloomer like AD, so the next season will take a while. HBO gets such great ratings with GoT, it’d be nice if they also invested in a show that can be up there with TW, TS, and SFU. Like, there were times when I had to pause the episode just to take it all in. One thing I’m curious about is how Eric/HR justified the termination–if the same company is willing to bury bigger matters, it seems incongruent they would terminate Harper–given her book of business–over a technicality like a degree.
Absolutely loved this show and season from start to finish. The way every episode, especially in the latter half of the season, had its own distinct flavor and felt almost like a mini movie. The show is asking complex questions and induces a feverish anxiety and moral ambiguity for its characters like nothing else on right now.
This is an excellent summary but I disagree completely about Jesse Bloom, who I think is the most sympathetic character in the show.
Disagree mildly…Harper remains the most despicable.
I never did touch on it mostly because it felt gauche, but among all the folks we’ve met during the series, Jesse has to be the most despicable, yes?Were we watching the same show? It’s obviously Harper, a sociopath that has taken every chance to ruin people’s careers and sometimes lives when possible. In this episode, she used her sexual assault (now the second time she’s wielded it to save herself) to finalize a deal to get two coworkers fired for the reason of “America would be bad for me.” Jesse is a capitalist, one the show honestly kind of valorizes uncritically, and I’m not sure what he did that was so bad compared to the truly vile and horrendous things every single character has said and done every episode. Even within the realm of shows that explore “unlikable” characters, this one really just was a remarkably unpleasant and unfun show at some core levels. But it’s Jesse that’s the worst! Wild
I think “Industry” is one of the best shows currently streaming on TV, but agreed, Harper is the worst. She screwed over a number of people (including attempting to stick it to Rishi twice, the latter instance occurring after attending his wedding and having a tryst with him the night before his nuptials). She’s just a really nasty piece of work, and it became increasingly clear over the season that her brother’s assessment of her character was wholly accurate. Although I had a feeling that Eric was not going to forget how she screwed him over, the irony is that he didn’t use the insider trading to do her in, but rather her lying about her college degree.
she’s the worst but also the fucking best. long live harper.
I admit I’m confused by how much all the characters want the others to lose their jobs. Why did Eric/Harper throw Rishi and DVD under the bus? (And would DVD’s card really just stop working, given that we saw how firing works in this very episode?) For that matter, is Eric now somehow the sole member of some elite trading group, and what’s he got that’s so great?
At that point Eric’s pitch had become to establish a new “leaner and meaner” unit; two are leaner and meaner than four. Eric’s animus toward Danny had been evident from the first episode, but Rishi would have just been collateral damage.
I feel the show sometimes reaches “prestige drama” highs, but nowhere near as consistently as Mad Men. And many of the character interactions I do not think would be soo forgiven and forgotten as easily as this show does it. The last scene with Yas and Harper lampshaded it (to its credit). People do and say horrible things to each other on here, and it would take years, if ever IRL to forgive such things.And I never saw this as a institution that corrupts or late stage capitalism is bad theme (even if that was the creators intent) but more like the new, maybe more diverse generation is just as bad with power as the one they replaced. Harper is a black hole nightmare who betrayed I am pretty sure everyone in two seasons. No one made her do that at her work. That is how she is. And Yas is a privileged rich good looking woman. She took advantage of that until she finally tried to confront her daddy issues. She knew what Celeste was “after” (in more ways than one) and gladly gave it. No one at work made her like that, she was always like that.
It’s one of the best shows currently streaming, imho. I hope HBO gives it another chance and picks up a third season.
I mean, it worked as torture porn; but other than that it’s kinda hard for me to see the point.
I hope this gets another season and knowing a few bankers I find their reactions interesting. They hate it, insist that’s not how they really are, so coked up and callous etc. And then I observe their actual behaviour and how they talk and they just can’t see the parallels between themselves and what’s on screen (though a little heightened and an accelerated schedule)
Don’t have much to add, just thank you for your weekly reviews.
A stunning show, although there was an apocalyptic momentum to the whole season – like the end was always nigh. I felt like this would have been a better ‘season 3’, and a different ‘season 2’ couid have given us more of the characters’ regular day-to-day shenanigans. It does feel like the end of the show as the characters have all been so rotten to each other (especially Eric and Harper), and I can’t see how Harper can go back to the company – and she’s really the lifeblood of the show.