Ambition is a The curse of high finance. At the prestigious London investment bank Pierpoint, which also serves as the backdrop for the Gen Z banking drama IndustryIn Pierpoint, a group of college graduates vie for money and power. Harper (Myha’la), Yasmin (Marisa Abela) and Rob (Harry Lawtey) have quickly become hooked on the opium of success and are desperate to prove they belong in this world, that they have the mettle to survive the cutthroat arena of the trading floor. But Pierpoint is a special hell: ambition is only as useful as your willingness to lie, cheat and talk your way to the top. As easily as it opens doors, it just as easily stabs you in the back.
“When you go through the long list of what they’ve done and what they did to get there,” co-creator Mickey Down says of his beloved characters, “they can be considered pretty heinous individuals.” But their delightful deception is the reason we watch them. It’s the reason we Industry has become The show of the season, the new Internet meme machine, generating expected but erroneous comparisons to Successionanother HBO supernova. Industry is a beast in itself.
Now in its third season, its most audacious and anxiety-filled yet, Industry occupies the esteemed 9pm Sunday night slot. Game of Thrones and The soporns made a name for herself. The show remains the show many of us fell in love with when it debuted in 2020 — all ego, heart, and reckless ambition. Only Down and co-creator Konrad Kay have upped the ante even further this time around, illustrating how sinister, deep-seated relationships run through media, politics, and finance for London’s privileged class.
This week’s upcoming episode, delightfully titled “White Mischief”; fans of Uncut Gems Rejoice, this one’s just for you: It marks the season’s halfway point. Via Zoom from their respective London residences, I spoke to Down and Kay about where the show has been and where it’s possibly headed next.
JASON PARHAM: I read that the initial pitch for this season was “Coke and boats.” What was HBO’s response?
MICKEY DOWN: We had a general vision of what the season was going to be in terms of the business story. And then we thought, look, we shouldn’t be afraid to have a slight genre element to the show. We were already talking about Yasmin’s father, which we thought was one of the most interesting parts of the second season. We had the idea that her father had disappeared and she’d been bearing the brunt of that in the media. We had all that. We just hadn’t decided yet how to show it. So we said, what if we have a secondary timeline that has a bit of a mystery element to it? What if we start the show from there? So we sent an email to HBO with the header “Coke and boats,” and we said this is where we wanted to start the show.
Incredible.
MARYLAND: We told them that we wanted to dive back into this timeline when we felt the time was right. We wanted to get a broader sense of what actually happened on the ship. And their response was very positive.
The show is constantly testing its limits. Erect penises. Cumshot scenes. Crazy parties on yachts. All kinds of drugs. Has HBO ever asked you to control it?
