Industry Season 4: When Growth Leads to a Narrative Collapse
The fourth season of Industry, the acclaimed HBO and BBC drama set in the cutthroat world of London finance, has taken a bold but controversial turn. Co-created by former financiers Konrad Kay and Mickey Down, the show has always explored themes of ambition, greed, and moral compromise. However, this latest installment has maxed out on elements like sex, nastiness, and nihilism, resulting in what many fans see as a major miscalculation.
From Underrated Gem to Overblown Spectacle
Initially, Industry was a hidden jewel on HBO, cherished by a niche audience for its verité depiction of a fictional investment bank's graduate program. The show's early seasons offered a soundbath of financial jargon and a sharp portrait of late-millennial work culture. But with the third season, Kay and Down torched the original conceit, shutting down the central bank setting and shifting focus to the ultra-wealthy elite.
This expansion continued into season four, which introduces new characters like Kit Harington's Sir Henry Muck and alums from bigger shows such as Mad Men and Stranger Things. While these additions aim to flesh out a cross-section of UK wealth and power, they risk inverting the show's signature bottom-up perspective, losing the relatability of striving junior employees.
Excess Without Substance
The fourth season plunges viewers into a groundless fever dream of excess, wealth, and technocratic bluster. Protagonists Harper Stern and Yasmin Kara-Hanani, now ensconced in halls of power, spar with a ludicrous array of antagonists, including vague Russian threats. Sex, drugs, and power games, once integral to the show's DNA, now carry a whiff of self-satisfaction, pushing HBO's limits on provocation without delivering genuine surprise or depth.
Hallmarks of the old show remain, such as the sparkling frenmity between Harper and Yasmin and the complex bond between Harper and her mentor Eric Tao. These moments still pierce with sublime stress, but they are drowned out by a sprawling narrative that spans Parliament, private jets, and shell companies in Accra. The stakes feel inferior to the vibe of depraved chaos, making the viewing experience stimulating yet exhausting.
Popularity Amidst Criticism
Despite these flaws, season four has become the most acclaimed yet, averaging 1.7 million viewers per episode and securing a fifth and final season. Viewers have responded to its narrative of elite bluster and infectious amorality, as well as its meta-story of ambition, positioning it as a potential successor to HBO's Succession. The comparison is apt: if Succession mirrored the toxic times of the first Trump presidency, Industry feels true to a second term where everything worsened.
Kay and Down dabble in UK politics, basing plotlines on the 2024 Labour sweep, but their pitch-black view of power and sacrifice of specificity for spectacle feel very of the moment. The final scene of the penultimate episode brings Harper and Yasmin back to a bar, reflecting on how they arrived amidst international scandal and possible ruin. It's a poignant moment that hints at nostalgia for the show's earlier, more contained drama.
In summary, Industry season four is a testament to the capitalist mantra of "grow or die," but in its relentless pursuit of expansion, it may have lost the very essence that made it a cult favorite. Fans are left wondering if bigger truly is better, or if the show has sacrificed its soul for scale.
