Industry seemed like the fakest show in all the world. In August I heard about this supposed “season 3” of this show that no one ever heard of before and was reportedly good. I was very suspicious. A trusted friend though assured me it was worth watching, and I was shocked to discovered that Industry was in fact an Actually Good show.
4. Season 2: Looking Back
Season 2 felt like a significant dropoff for the show after an impressive debut season. Why? Simply put, the pacing and tone were off. This show is about awful people being awful in the worst business at a breakneck pace. This season slowed things down and attempted to go deep into the pasts of the main players. This was a miscalculation. We learn everything we need to know about the characters by how they ACT now – we do not need their biographies spelled out in more explicit detail. This felt like a season where a show fundamentally misunderstands what it does well. It is not a “prestige” show. It is high-end trash. Trash not recognizing that it is trash is always a dangerous thing for a television show.
3. Season 4: “I don’t want you to remember me that way.”
Season 4 of Industry felt like the beginning of the end in an authentic way. The structure and setting of the show had finally so radically changed that it no longer felt like the same show. It felt like the show heading towards the endgame with characters getting picked off (in a variety of manners) one by one. There is nothing really profound about this show or what it has to say about the world and being alive. But it is fun to hang out with my close personal friends as they make the world a worse place and prevent themselves from healing their pain in any real way. This season also featured some damn fine work from Kit Harrington – he should forever play pathetic dweebs. He is hopefully never cast as a hero again.
2. Season 3: Jon Snow
Season 3 was a return to form for this little show. It course corrected essentially in every way and returned to doing what it does best: awful people being awful in the worst business and zooming through life at a cocaine pace. This season also stood out for the jump scare Uncut Gems very special episode with Rishi and for hiring Kit Harrington to play a douchebag startup front man. Both of those ideas sound terrible on paper, but they both managed to work very well and not feel phony in any way.
1. Season 1: Worst Period Generation Period Ever Period
I was delighted to discover in season 1 that Industry utilized some of the very best ideas that make for great television. It is a show about awful people treating each other terribly. Centering the show around young people in their twenties who have entered the worst business in the world before they had a chance to become complete adults is an incredible setup. What is the cost to yourself for rising to the top in this world? This was a dynamite premiere season television.
The Reel World 