Drugs, Sex, the British Class System: ‘Industry’ Is the Banking World’s ‘The Devil Wears Prada’
LONDON — HBO knows what makes a good watch: power dynamics, solid writing, sex and class systems as witnessed in “Succession,” “Euphoria” and “Game of Thrones.”
The network’s banking television series “Industry” — currently airing its third season and renewed for a fourth — takes it further with heaps of cocaine, male office tyrants, golden showers and fancy boats.
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The show is to the finance world what “The Devil Wears Prada” was to fashion magazines. The show is set in the fictional bank of Pierpoint & Co, which loosely takes inspiration for its name from American financier, John Pierpont Morgan, who was head of the bank J.P. Morgan & Co. from 1895 to 1913.
Writers Mickey Down and Konrad Kay have won critical acclaim for their dramatization of real-life events they or their peers experienced while working in banking. They both had stints in the sector after graduating from Oxford University.
“People project their own experience onto [the show] — especially with assistants and junior people, as it reflects a cutthroat and fast paced [work environment], be it television, fashion [or finance],” Down says.
In the new season, the writers dig deeper into the nuances of the British class system, green tech energy, nepotism within finance and the British press rather than focusing purely on storylines.
For the first half of the series, the plot revolves around Henry Muck, played by Kit Harington, an English aristocrat who is chief executive officer of green tech energy company Lumi. Pierpoint is managing its IPO, which quickly fails in the marketplace after being oversold.
Down and Kay invited their friend from university, Pippa Lamb, an angel investor and partner at Sweet Capital, to star in the scene when the company goes public.
The show has had a polarizing reaction from those who work in finance, according to the creators.
“Half of them love it and can’t get enough of it, saying that it’s a reflection of their experience, meanwhile the other can’t watch it at all because it’s a reflection of their experience,” Down says.
“When I first started watching ‘Industry,’ I distinctly remember texting Mickey saying how it was almost too close for comfort and several friends who had also started out in banking said the same thing. It was too much for some of them to watch,” says Lamb, who spent five years at J.P. Morgan & Co. in London and Hong Kong.
“I went through my photos and pulled out a bunch of pictures from my time working in public equities — they were strikingly similar: my Bloomberg terminal, my managing director speaking on CNBC, my headset, the birthday cakes served at the desk and the office Christmas parties,” she adds.
“Industry” adds a sheen of glamour to the long hours of banking. Out of office, the Pierpoint team gallivants about town searching for their next big high.
“Everybody has the capacity for indulging their worst impulses and there’s a vicarious aspect of watching people indulge in all the things they would like if they were free from their wives, families and bank accounts. It’s the darker side of humanity and there’s a wish fulfillment aspect to it, which is just always very intoxicating,” Kay says.
He compares the audience’s intrigue to the show to a black box. “It’s an exclusive world and rarefied air, which people think they don’t really have access to,” he adds.
People have even messaged Down on LinkedIn telling him they got into the industry because of the show.
“The show does make that world look sexy, much sexier than it is,” he says.
“Industry” is also a cautionary tale of flying too close to the sun — and burning out.
In episode one of the first season, a death occurs that’s based on Moritz Erhardt, a Bank of America Merrill Lynch intern who died in 2013 after working 72 hours straight — an arduous rite of passage, otherwise known as the “magic roundabout,” where graduates work around the clock and get a taxi back to their homes in the early hours of the morning for a change of clothes and shower before returning back to their desks.
The shows actors are put through grueling character arcs.
Yasmin Kara-Hanani, played by Marisa Abela, grapples with losing her wealth and being in the press for her father’s financial mishaps; Harper Stern, played by Myha’la Herrold, gets caught lying on her résumé; Robert Spearing, played by Harry Lawtey, becomes Muck’s whipping boy, and Rishi Ramdani, played by Sagar Radia, confronts the realities of marriage and race.
It’s in the moments of humility that the audience catches a glimpse of who the characters really are behind the banking jargon, excessive swearing and calling each other c-nts.
“They’re toxic people in a toxic environment — they have to be toxic to succeed and survive — that’s the status quo of the show. Maybe at their core, they’re not like this. They’re constantly in conflict with themselves,” Down says.
“Industry” is a tragedy laced with comedy, cocaine and sex — and it’s moved into HBO’s prized Sunday slot, previously occupied by “House of the Dragon.”
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