62 Time November 23, 2020
TimeOff Reviews
TELEVISION
A Working Girl for the
age of ‘woke capitalism’
By Judy Berman
The finance guy has been a sTock characTer ever
since Gordon Gekko slithered onto the screen in 1987’s Wall
Street, preaching the gospel of greed. We’ve seen nominally di-
versified variations on the theme, from Working Girl to Show-
time’s Black Monday. Yet the genre has barely evolved since the
’80s, despite significant shifts in public opinion on banking.
Which is why it’s been surprising to see HBO’s Industry at-
tract so little attention. The smart, thoroughly contemporary
drama follows postcollegiate recruits at fictional London firm
Pierpoint & Co. In an atmosphere thick with performative
confidence, where a tiny mistake could end a career before
it’s begun, new hires must prove their mettle while account-
ing for how their race, class, gender and sexuality might affect
their prospects in a field that isn’t known for its tolerance.
Instead of giving us Wall Street with smartphones, the
show’s young cast reflects a financial-services industry that
is at least trying to appear inclusive. Thatcher worshipper
Gus (David Jonsson) attended Eton and Oxford; he’s also
Black. Yasmin (Marisa Abela) is a rich girl who struggles to
assert herself. Hari (Nabhaan Rizwan) is the workaholic of
the bunch, while Robert (Harry Lawtey) is the working-class
striver who bought the wrong kind of suit.
The show’s most mysterious figure is its protagonist Harper,
a mixed-race American played with insight and low-key inten-
sity by relative newcomer Myha’la Herrold. In a job-interview
montage that introduces each character, state-school grad
Harper proclaims: “I think mediocrity is too well hidden by
parents who hire private tutors.” Her bold statement pays off;
not only is she hired, but she finds a men-
tor in her interviewer, Eric (the always
excellent Ken Leung), another outsider
who’s proven to be a sales superstar.A simpler drAmA would make Harper
an easy-to-love underdog. Instead, cre-
ators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay do
her justice by writing a layered character
who wavers between hero and antihero.
We’re led to believe that—like Tess Mc-
Gill in Working Girl and The Wolf of Wall
Street author Jordan Belfort—she’s a bit
of an imposter. How far she’ll go to stay
is an open question.
There’s a soapy element to Industry:
love triangles, closet cases, BDSM.
The sheer number of explosive secrets
among the graduates strains plausibil-
ity. Thankfully, a spare visual style cuts
the silliness. Down and Kay add to the
verisimilitude with dialogue that feels
both cerebral and, most of the time, re-
alistic for such an overeducated crowd.
Most perceptive is how the show de-
picts the social dynamic within this very
specific milieu. The 20-somethings of
Pierpoint know how to be politically
correct. Yet the most privileged among
them delight in offending liberal sensi-
bilities, and others realize it behooves
them to be seen as good sports. A
coked-up white guy rants about “woke
capitalism,” in which “I pretend to care
about Black people” and “you pretend
to hate capitalism.” Harper proves she
can hang by teasing him: “Do you pre-
rehearse those little nuggets?”
In fact, Harper openly reveres
capitalism—and that says more about
her than it might have during the Rea-
gan years. Their many differences aside,
this is what she shares with her col-
leagues: they’re misfits within a gen-
eration more critical of capitalism than
its predecessors. In some of its best
moments, the show demonstrates that
they know it. Within that social context,
Industry is itself a risky wager: Is there
even a market for characters like these?
I’m feeling surprisingly bullish.INDUSTRY airs Mondays on HBO‘We picked
something
that is
rather the
opposite of
cinematic in
many ways.’
KONRAD KAY,
Industry co-creator,
on bringing the
world of finance
to the screenAMANDA SEARLE—HBO
◁
To succeed, Harper (Herrold) must
impress her mentor, Eric (Leung)