Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Industry’ Season 2 on HBO Max, Where The Young And Vicious Investment Bankers Return To Turning On Each Other

Industry (HBO Max) returns for its second season with a mind to assess the splintering effect of COVID on the financial world in general, Pierpoint investment bank specifically, and its gaggle of veteran and newly-minted staffers. Yes, the bright young things were offered full-time gigs at the end of last season. But with that comes expectations, and all the pandemic did was make an already cutthroat environment that much more bloodthirsty. Industry Season 2 also adds a few new faces to the mix, including Jay Duplass as a hedge funder whose COVID financial bets paid off handsomely.  

INDUSTRY SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: It’s a workday morning in post-pandemic London. While Harper (Myha’la Herrold) plunges into her hotel’s pool, Yasmin (Marisa Abela) prepares to leave her flat, and Rob (Harry Lawtey) strolls onto the sales floor at Pierpoint as financial data scrolls endlessly across the omnipresent LCD monitors.

The Gist: Since the events of last season, Harper Stern has been physically absent from Pierpoint and ensconced in her hotel room, where she’s both living and working. But post-COVID, people are returning to the physical work environment, getting back to normal. “How many weeks’ grace have I given you, while people have been trickling back in?” Harper’s boss Eric (Ken Leung) asks her over the phone, and tells her it’s time to return. For Yasmin Kara-Hanani, the stress of her job on Pierpoint’s Foreign Exchange Sales desk is tempered with partying hard on school nights. She pops pills. She does lines. She sleeps with whoever she wants. And she happily, mercilessly hazes Venetia Berens (Indy Lewis), her FXS desk rookie. As for Robert Spearing, his affability remains intact. But Eric and the other higher-ups have noticed how he hasn’t made any outgoing client calls in like a year. With Pierpoint NYC sending an emissary to snoop on London, the pressure’s on to perform.

“Production,” says New York honcho Bill Adler (Trevor White). “The people covering the biggest accounts and those bringing in new clients. Your worth at the firm is who you know outside the firm and how those relationships are monetized.” Daniel Van Deventer (Alex Alomar Akpobome) has also arrived from NYC, his grinning finance golden boy disposition doing nothing to mask his bloodless certainty. Producers survive and eat. Everyone else is chum.

As you’d imagine, Harper and Yasmin are still at odds. “Bitch,” Harper says; “Cunt,” Yas mutters. Rishi (Sagar Radia) isn’t happy with Harper’s return, either. What was she up to while they held it down on the financial desks? Swimming at the hotel? Practicing avoidance? Eric, still volcanic, does seem like he’s in Harper’s corner. No one else is. But speaking of the hotel, she might be in position for a real big fish. Staying on her floor is none other than Jesse Bloom (Jay Duplass), a hedge fund guy who made a huge splash betting big during COVID. If she can land a piece of his business, it’d show up her competition at the office. Yasmin, meanwhile, is watching her biggest client dry up. “My fund is no more!” cries Maxim Alonso (Nicholas Bishop). He’s a rich friend of Yas’s also rich family. But without his fund, her Pierpoint portfolio will run short. Which is probably why she’s so intrigued with Celeste Pacquet (Katrine De Candole), who works with Pierpoint’s cache of private wealth elites. Might Yasmin aim to join the firm’s rarified upper floors?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The cutting sarcasm of Succession rings in the margins of Industry, where characters mix their wisecracks and clap backs with straightforward fighting words. And though Billions focuses mostly on the already haves, Industry is populated with the could maybe haves, the young talent hungry for power.

Our Take: Midway through “Daddy,” the first episode of Industry season 2, after first demanding she get back in the game physically – “The person I’ve been talking to over Zoom or whatever isn’t the person I hired” – Eric challenges Harper to cut into one of Yasmin’s foreign exchange calls and make her client a better offer. Now, without knowing a lick about investment banking, this seems like a bad idea just from the perspective of mindful business practices. But at the same time, that’s certainly the reason Eric did it. Mindful business practices? Not in this reality. And when Harper freezes up in the moment, whether from being rusty or being scared, it’s just more fuel for her feud with Yasmin. Financial world jargon flits through Industry like stock ticks on a chyron – “meme stocks,” “dormant client list,” “corporate diktat” – but it’s ultimately just background. What matters most here are the stakes of each character’s personal battles. Everything they say or do is just a weapon used to gain ground.

Harper and Yasmin are squared off in the octagon from the jump. But what kind of tectonic shift would it be if Yas drifted into Celeste’s private wealth sphere? Does Rishi step into the breach as Harper’s main sales floor enemy? Industry can make you queasy, with all the bad its characters wish upon each other. But that only means it’s doing its job, letting these people loose to be as terrible as they wanna be. The gloves aren’t off because they were never on.

Sex and Skin: Yasmin and Maxim spend the night together, Rob’s hookup reveals his frustrations in the bedroom, and Harper’s drunken evening leaves her without her shirt in the harsh light of day.

Parting Shot: It probably wasn’t smart to stand up Eric at their scheduled breakfast meeting with Pierpoint whale Felim Bichan (Andrew Buchan). But there’s Harper, front and center at the Q&A where Jesse Bloom is speaking.

Sleeper Star: Ken Leung is a beast. The veteran of Lost, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and NBC’s The Night Shift is terrific in every single scene as Eric Tao, Pierpoint’s manager of cross-product sales. Even when Eric likes someone, the wrath boils. “You’re passive,” he tells Harper upon her tentative return to the sales floor. “You’re sloppy. New York will notice.”

Most Pilot-y Line: A drunken afterwork event leads Yasmin to drop all pretense with her biggest work enemy. “Frankly, Harper, I don’t have the energy to listen to your fucking whining, your bullshit, your rationalizations. I’m over it. You’re a black hole.” These two are gonna spend all season sparring.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Industry is chock full of people being deliciously awful toward one another and making blatantly personal plays for financial gain, making all of their machinations eminently watchable. Their greed is good … for viewers like us.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges