Industry Season 3 Continues to Push Its Characters to the Brink

HBO has always been home to television shows where characters can be morally corrupt. From The Sopranos to Game of Thrones, it’s almost as if the company specializes in shows where bad people do equally bad things. With the release of Succession in 2018, bad people on screen became a contentious discourse beat, with pieces written for almost every major publication about why these characters shouldn’t be rooted for, or even think pieces discussing why we should hold empathy for them.

In the midst of Succession’s four-season run, a show set up to be its successor was released. Industry, created by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, focuses on a group of young professionals competing for permanent positions at Pierpoint & Co, a cutthroat investment bank in London. At first glance, it’s a show about bad people doing bad things, but once the episodes unfold, it’s clear that this series allows all of its characters some grace. 

While they do bad things, the characters in this series are quite easy to empathize with. But, perhaps most importantly, the series is never concerned with having them be absolved of their sins. That’s what makes this show stand out amongst some of the others airing right now. In Season 3, Industry‘s characters are becoming forced to bear the weight of their humanity, and it’s making the series even more fascinating than it already was. 

At the heart of this is Robert (Harry Lawtey). Introduced to us as a smarmy young adult, Robert has slowly become one of the most sympathetic characters to grace our screens throughout the series. Season 3 sees Robert dating his coworker Venetia (Indy Lewis), who last season reported that Pierpoint client Nicole (Sarah Parish) had assaulted her. We see Venetia sleeping in his bed as he sneaks out to have a tryst with Nicole. As he sneaks out, Robert’s unfaithfulness paired with the actions of the person he’s leaving to be with add a harrowing layer to his characterization, establishing him as not only a cheater but also an enabler of this specific violence towards his newfound girlfriend. 

In the final minutes of Episode 1, Robert wakes up with Nicole on his lap, and the camera pans out to reveal that she has died from an overdose. We know from previous conversations that Robert’s mother died when he was a child, and his continued mommy issues is a part of why he continued to see Nicole. Waking up next to her dead body is undoubtedly going to bring back some childhood trauma. With her death, the power imbalance that Robert has submitted himself to is no longer a factor, and it is obvious that this traumatic change is going to continue to wreak havoc on him for the rest of the season.

Robert had remained one of the series’ most sympathetic characters. He’s browbeaten by life and his job at Pierpoint, which as the show has progressed, has allowed viewers to see his most raw parts. But, at his core, Robert is a good friend and person. Despite this, Industry is not afraid to showcase his faults, and instead of shying away from it, forces Robert and his coworkers to explore their darkest impulses and desires. 

That’s what makes Industry one of the best shows of the decade. While the characters in this series are almost all incapable of apologizing for their deeds or even seeing themselves as “bad,” there’s a self-loathing inside of all of them that makes Industry’s ensemble the best cast around. Mickey Down and Konrad Kay have crafted a series that forces its characters to continually exist in a perpetual state of limbo; they aren’t able to simply learn from their mistakes, but continue to make even worse ones. Thus, their suffering can never truly end, but this is what gives the show an edge.

It’s refreshing to watch a television show in which the central and side characters are people we can hate just as much as love. Like the characters in this show, we as viewers are incapable of being morally sound all the time, and Industry is one of the few shows that allows its characters to bask in reality. Unlike a show like Succession, where the central characters don’t feel the brunt of their misdeeds, Industry wants its characters to suffer the consequences of their actions. Nothing in the show is free flying; Yasmin’s (Marisa Abela) wealth has dried up, Eric’s (Ken Leung) wife has divorced him, Kenny (Conor MacNeill) has been fired, and Harper (Myha’la) now finds herself in a mindless job that doesn’t fit her standards. 

With Season 3, it appears that these characters are all reaching the point of no return. However, this point comes with allowing them to show more emotional sides of themselves. Gone are the strong facades they wear like a mask, and instead tears gleam from their eyes as their voices wobble under the strain of their jobs and lives. It’s a bold choice, to make characters so awful subsequently so easy to empathize with. Working at Pierpoint and Co. forces these characters to shed their layers; in turn, becoming more volatile versions of themselves. While some like Harper excel in this, there are other characters like Rob who, in Season 3, continue to struggle with the ruthlessness of the world they find themselves in. 

The writing in Industry makes it easy for us to want these characters to succeed, even when they’re stepping on their own friends to get to the top. This new season seems directly aware of how much its characters have suffered, and although this is a show where the stakes can shift in the blink of an eye, these characters are finally given the space to give themselves some slack. While I doubt Industry will ever let these characters indulge in therapy—which many of them should—they’re finally being allowed to attempt to cope in the only way they know how.

It’s satisfying to watch the darker side of these characters coexist with their most tender parts as they fight against the myriad of demons they’ve let run loose inside of them. While yes, we can hope for them to come out on top, Industry thrives when it’s allowing these characters to suffer from their mistakes. There are real consequences that come with the decisions these people make, and as Season 3 unravels, these consequences become even more unsettling. 

The reality which Industry is grounded in is one where its characters are neither evil nor patron saints. They exist in a chasm that modern television is further opening up, becoming some of the most multifaceted television characters of all time in the process. Each of them are reactive like any other human is, and it aids in the vulnerability that then comes crashing in. Watching this unfold and watching these characters change is one of the greatest viewing experiences we’ve been graced with in years.

Despite this, Down and Kay seem adamant that none of these people—from Eric to Rishi (Sagar Radia)—are completely morally corrupt. It’s a bold choice, which ultimately adds to the tragedy of all these characters. At their core, they are insecure in not only their jobs but their lives as well, and it makes them the most interesting ensemble cast since Succession. As they continue to become more fractured, Industry’s characters react like changed dogs; biting the hand that feeds them, and cowering when that hand decides to strike back. 

Kaiya Shunyata is a freelance pop culture writer and academic based in Toronto. They have written for Rogerebert.com, Xtra, The Daily Dot, and more. You can follow them on Twitter, where they gab about film, queer subtext, and television.

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