HBO isn’t going to be replacing the record-setting viewership of House of the Dragon Season 2 on Sunday nights anytime soon. But at least the network has an acclaimed (albeit little-watched) replacement for the Game of Thrones prequel series already in place and wowing critics. It’s Industry, a drama about the cutthroat world of finance that mixes elements of Thrones and Succession — Season 3 of which has just arrived.
And speaking of Thrones, Jon Snow actor Kit Harington joined the Industry cast this time around, playing a knighted and obscenely wealthy British CEO who runs a green tech company and also “ends up ripping off its customers.” Harington, whose character name here is Henry Muck, basically turned his fandom of the show’s first two seasons into a role as an all-new character, a scheming corporate titan with basically no redeeming morality whatsoever — a far cry, in other words, from the way Jon Snow tried to always remain on the side of the angels.
As for the show itself, Industry hasn’t generally had strong viewership. But what it lacks in audience, it makes up for in praise from critics. From Vox, for example: “Industry is the soapy, sleazy spectacle prestige TV is missing.” Along that same line, the show’s third season debuted with perfect 100% critics’ and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes, numbers that will absolutely slip in the coming days but an impressive achievement all the same.
Industry is built around an insider-y yet dramatized version of what life is like for young bankers working in high finance, as a group of professionals in the London office of an international bank navigate that pressure-cooker world fueled by drugs, sex, and fierce ambition. In the show’s new season, that bank is keen on making a big bet on so-called ethical investing, with the show’s central characters front-and-center in the splashy IPO of Muck’s green tech energy company. Meanwhile, we also catch up with Harper — after her departure from the bank, she’s eager to return to the addictive thrills of working in finance.
