The third season of Industry — the HBO drama that follows the chaotic and cut-throat lives of a group of financiers working at the fictional bank, Pierpoint & Co.—is a season of television that will go down with the greats. In the extended finale episode , which aired Sunday night, Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela) announced her surprise engagement to Lord-in-waiting Henry Muck ( Kit Harington ), breaking the hearts of fans everywhere who hoped she would ride off into the sunset with soft-boi banker Rob Spearing (Harry Lawtey.
) Pierpoint’s London operation collapsed, leaving ruthless boss Eric Tao (Ken Leung) as “yesterday’s man,” with his protege Harper Stern (Myha'la) becoming Forbes magazine’s face of the future. And Rishi Ramdani (Sagar Radia)? I’m still processing that scene. Whew.
The show’s third season has been operating on a whole other level. The script has become noticeably sharper, and the show seems more confident about what it really wants to say. The quality of the writing and performances has drawn inevitable comparisons with Succession .
On the surface, this seems a little lazy. (And the show’s co-creator, Konrad Kay, recently shared an article arguing just that.) Although these shows are both made by HBO and are ostensibly about wealth, they are quite different.
Industry dissects the British class system , specifically, and how parental trauma influences people from a variety of backgrounds, whereas I see Succession as more of a case stud.