I don’t like to be out of the loop when it comes to great, big HBO shows, so one of the goals I set for myself in the first few months of 2026 was catching up on HBO’s Industry, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay’s acclaimed financial thriller-drama. which started way back in 2020 and has changed shape over the years. Back in the day, I tried to get into the show, but despite liking the first episode, I didn’t manage to make time for it then. The fourth season of the show, which I recently learned was going to be the penultimate season, premiered in January of this year, and I managed to catch up to it two weeks before the final episode hit in early March. I was really happy I made it a goal to find time for it, because this is a show that is much more than the ‘new Succession‘ that some have branded it. Although I see the comparison and acknowledge there are certain comparable elements (e.g., a race to the top of the ladder of one’s field, complex characters, and a focus on corporations, wealthy customers, and wealth management), it is very much its own thing entirely.
From the solid first season and all the way to this year’s fourth, it has transformed itself from a show about the lives of the young people on the trading floor of a major investment bank (Pierpoint & Co.) to being an incredibly ambitious thriller with an eye on geopolitical developments. It is still very much about finance, trading, and the people who have worked themselves tirelessly from the trading floor to different, and sometimes opposing, positions on the ladder to financial success, but seeing that gradual transformation and watching Mickey Down and Konrad Kay take big swings is one of the great joys of watching the show, which is now a genuine prestige television show.
The eight-episode-long fourth season sees Yasmin (played by Marisa Abela) try to fix her marriage with Henry (played by Kit Harington), who has grown increasingly despondent following his losing his seat in parliament in a recent election, by lobbying for him to become the CEO at a payment processing startup known as Tender, which is a position that its CFO Whitney Halberstram (played by Max Minghella) is actively searching for the right candidate for. Meanwhile, Harper (played by Myha’la) is considering going back into business with her old mentor Eric (played by Ken Leung), with whom she shares a complex working relationship. Harper and Eric are in the short-only business, and when she receives a tip that Tender may be covering up gross misconduct, she sets her sights on the startup as their primary short target, thus potentially putting Yasmin and Harper in opposition with each other.
Like I mentioned earlier, one of the fascinating aspects of this show is watching the show morph into different shows right in front of us. This is something that you feel especially in the season-opening episode, which has a notable time-jump, a changed landscape essentially, and a lot of new characters being frontloaded. The creators put the pieces back on the table, but throw in new additions to change the feel of it all. Immediately, Max Minghella, who is the major addition to the series this season, makes a strong impression. Throughout the season, he comes across as a cold and secretive character, whose deep voice only adds to the mystery of the character. This is the best work of his career, and his scenes with Kit Harington are sensationally good. Although it is fair to say that the creators of the show are betting on us buying into the old adage “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t,” it is, however, a bit of a reach to ask audiences to buy into Eric and Harper teaming up so easily here again, given how little they’ve been able to trust each other in the past. That said, their link-up has often been the best part of the show, and the time-jump does allow them to change things up a bit, even though their being back together feels like the show is almost rebooting in the season opener. I will say, though, that there was some unrealized potential with their SternTao partnership because for large chunks of the season, the titular short fund duo of SternTao is stuck in this almost passive, inoperative mode, which can be frustrating. After all, we know how good the actors who portray these characters are when they’re given more of an active part in the engine of the plot. Eventually, the duo does spring into action, and Leung, especially, gets to play different facets of his character, who walks into a trap this season and, at one point, decides to go on the offensive on live television.
I had fewer negative notes when it came to the Yasmin and Henry storyline. So much of the season is all about their relationship and growing role with Tender, which has many secrets and surprises tied up in it (and genre elements that throw the series into the territory of geopolitical thrillers). I was especially wowed by the second episode, The Commander and the Grey Lady, which was a sublime episode that beautifully showcased how far this show has come and how much it has evolved and reinvented itself from season to season. It is rich visually, in production design, costuming, writing, and performance. It is one of several episodes in which Abela delivered some of her best work on the show, while Kit Harington did deliver career-best work. Harington must be over the moon about the opportunity to play Henry on this show, because it has completely transformed the way I see him as an actor. In several episodes, his pathetic, privileged character is the highlight of the show, and the way he plays his character’s weakness and how his character tries to play strong has always been incredibly entertaining. That second episode is so far removed from anything in the first season, and yet it is one of the best episodes of the series. Harington is also fantastic in the season finale, in which he gets to speak with venomous anger and discontent at a villain in the show. Someone who would rather be infantilized but comfortable than risk his neck, go into hiding, and lose the privileges and capital given to him at birth. I am in awe of how good Harington has been in this show
Eventually, as the season comes to a close, the showrunners take big swings as they take one character down an irredeemable path. It’s a character turn into pitch-black darkness. It is bold of them to go in this direction by, one might say, having the finger on the pulse and holding a mirror up to our bleak current political moment. Abela and Myha’la’s final scene together this season is equal parts heartbreaking and sickening, and it is all around difficult to watch, but incredibly well-acted by the series’ mainstays. It is a memorable conclusion to what was a terrific fourth season that had it all: lavish parties and buildings, complex characters struggling with the ghosts chained to them, extortion, the worst aspects of humanity, and a broader focus on politics and the darkness of international influence on the systems that make up our world.
– Review written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 