‘Industry’ Season 4 review: A corporate thriller-led fever dream

Four seasons later, if there is one thing consistent about HBO’s Industry, it is the show’s constant aversion to being easily definable. London’s financial markets are now Harper Stern’s playground, but prove to be the most profitable for Industry showrunners Mickey Down and Konrad Kay. They invest heavily in the show’s narrative of moral depravity and reap decent returns. In its penultimate season, Industry takes big swings. Some of them land, some are too divisive to digest immediately. Almost all are impressive.

Industry is a show about greed, and it is also a greedy show. Now far away from Pierpoint’s trading floor, the show grabs itself a much bigger financial playground with significantly higher stakes. Harper Stern (Myha’la) and Eric Tao (Ken Leung) reunite this season to kick off a scrappy short-only fund, ‘SternTao’, from an opulent hotel suite. In another part of London, Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela) attempts to deal with her less-than-ideal marriage to Henry Muck (Kit Harington) by pushing him to take up the CEO role at ‘Tender’ — a payment processing startup.

Myha’la in a still from ‘Industry’ Season 4
| Photo Credit:
Warner Bros. Discovery

Across the eight episodes, Industry turns more and more inwards to venture deep into the interior lives of the infamous London financial players. Undertaking an ambitiously vast narrative, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay push the envelope on provocation and reach new heights of maximalist characterisations. Industry also continues to take inspiration from, if not completely replicate, the headlines. This season, therefore, delves head-on into fintech apps, adult content creation, and the politico-corporate nexus. It would appear to be a tedious juggling task to execute a corporate thriller alongside personal character dissections, but the expanded cast does considerable heavy-lifting to deliver a solid season.

Within Industry’s universe of pretence, vulnerability is an oasis. Myha’la, Harington, Minghella, and Petche’s performances drive home an impressive chunk of whatever little vulnerability Industry allows its characters.

Max Minghella stars as Whitney Halberstram, the shifty CFO of Tender, who convinces Yasmin and Harper to join his shady startup. Halberstram’s furious ambitiousness against Henry’s deadbeat approach, cushioned by his aristocratic background, harkens back to the initial dynamic between Yasmin and Harper. Stranger Things alum Charlie Heaton delivers a nifty performance in the supporting role as James Dycker, a journalist digging into Tender’s past. Kiernan Shipka and Toheeb Jimoh also join the cast, while Miriam Petche’s Sweetpea Golightly returns to find herself in the middle of another financial exposé. 

Myha’la, Toheeb Jimoh, Miriam Petche in a still from ‘Industry’ Season 4
| Photo Credit:
Warner Bros. Discovery

However, not all ventures land for Industry this time around. Its corporate thriller plotline morphs into an almost caricaturish espionage-adjacent story. At other times, certain characters struggle to be memorable in overstuffed scenes. The series’s most glaring difference comes in the form of its execution. Season 4 trades the more subtle, underhanded approach in favour of, sometimes, overt shock.

Over the last four seasons, Industry has taken pleasure in documenting the nadir of human desperation. This season’s finale sets up the show for a haunting final season, as it continues to follow the money.

All episodes of Industry Season 4 are streaming on JioHotstar