Industry (HBO): Review of Season 4 and the Entire Series So Far

Season 4 of Industry on HBO just ended, so it seemed like a great time to revisit the entire show.

If you’re not familiar with it, Industry follows several university graduates who start working in sales & trading and investment banking at JP Morgan “Pierpoint & Co.” in London.

Over the seasons, they get promoted, switch firms, change careers, and struggle with challenges ranging from office politics to porn and cocaine addictions.

I’ve written reviews of the previous seasons, but the show has changed significantly between Season 1 (2020) and Season 4 (2026).

On the positive side, it has become a more exciting, dramatic series that’s closer to shows like Succession or Breaking Bad.

On the negative side, it’s now quite far removed from reality, so you won’t necessarily learn much about finance careers by watching.

This will be a “spoiler light” review in which I’ll describe story elements without attributing them to specific characters or revealing anything major.

But if you want to go in completely blind, you should probably not read this:

The Short Version: Watch Industry, But Don’t Take It Too Literally

Here is my TL;DR version:

• I recommend the show, and I agree with the IMDB consensus that the later seasons become a lot more entertaining.
• The best parts are the character development, the acting, and the “vibe realism” (it gives you a good flavor of the finance work environment, even if the details are off).
• The worst parts are some illogical/rushed writing and drama winning out over realism, especially in later seasons. Also, Season 1 did not quite grab me right away.
• If you want to learn about the finance industry (mostly sales & trading and hedge funds), Seasons 1 and 2 are the best; if you want more of an exciting, prestige drama, Seasons 3 and 4 are better.
• Seasons 3 and 4 do not necessarily “jump the shark,” but they do get into territory far outside the original premise.

Industry’s Journey from Season 1 to Season 4

In Season 1, the show follows several entry-level recruits at Pierpoint: Yasmin Kara-Hanani (wealthy nepotism hire), Harper Stern (aggressive non-target hire), Robert Spearing (working-class Oxbridge graduate), and Gus Sackey (polished/wealthy Oxbridge graduate).

The senior staff at the bank play supporting roles; examples are Eric Tao (sales MD), Bill Adler (Head of FICC), and Rishi Ramdani (head execution trader).

The initial drama is about which recruits will receive full-time return offers based on their performance, networking, and macro factors.

Season 2 follows these characters as they move up the ladder and deal with a possible consolidation of Pierpoint’s NY and London offices.

To survive, the London-based staffers need to bring in serious new business, which means catering to the whims of a hedge-fund titan (Jesse Bloom) and getting more involved in U.K. politics.

Season 3 is mostly about Pierpoint executing an IPO for a renewable energy company (Lumi) and how different characters play that.

Some are “along for the ride” (they do the deal to earn the fees), some bet for or against it, and some use it to reveal troubling information about Pierpoint itself.

Finally, Season 4 moves far beyond Pierpoint, as new characters join and existing ones have switched firms or careers.

The main story is about a shady/fraudulent fintech, Tender, and how the characters navigate the situation as it goes on an acquisition spree.

Some join the company in executive roles, while others bet against it and try to make money by shorting the stock.

Wait, So Does Industry “Jump the Shark”?

The early seasons of Industry are somewhat grounded.

Yes, there are too many sex-and-drugs scenes, and characters get away with things that would get them fired in real life (mis-booking trades and lying about them, consistent insider trading, etc.), but it’s mostly in “It’s a TV show, so I can accept it” territory.

But in later seasons, the show progresses to events such as:

• People getting shot in their homes by organized criminals.
• Entire firms collapsing and being bailed out or acquired in fire sales.
• Foreign spies infiltrating companies and setting up money-laundering schemes.
• Jeffrey Epstein/Ghislaine Maxwell-style stories emerging and characters turning to their “services” for extortion purposes.

Some will say, “Well, these things happened in real life! They’re not that crazy.”

However, fiction must be consistent with the world it establishes for itself, not with real life.

Yes, sex trafficking happens in our world, but should it really be part of a show that was originally about workplace conflicts on the trading floor?

These issues didn’t ruin the show for me, but they may detract from it if you’re watching to learn more about finance.

The Best Parts of Industry: Characters, Acting, and “Vibe Realism”

Industry has excellent production values, but my favorite parts are the characters and the acting.

You can’t take the stories too literally (see above), but the show does a great job illustrating the types of people you meet in finance.

Initially, characters like the two leads (Harper and Yasmin) come across as unlikable and not especially interesting.

But as the seasons progress, they develop and become far more interesting, even though no one on the show is “likable.”

For example, Harper starts out seeming like a huge cheater who faked her academics to get into the industry.

She also makes many mistakes on the job and is rescued several times.

But she also comes up with some “creative” ways to win clients and make profitable trades, and she uncovers serious fraud through her short-selling activities in later seasons.

You also learn more about her past and family background, which informs a lot of this.

Much of what she does is unethical or outright illegal, but it’s in the service of a greater purpose, which makes her character a lot more interesting.

Most of the acting is also excellent, and I was especially impressed by Kit Harington as Sir Henry Muck in Seasons 3 and 4.

He plays a fatally-flawed-but-still-idealistic aristocrat who gets pulled into several “shady corporation” schemes, and he delivers an outstanding performance that far exceeds anything he did on Game of Thrones.

Finally, Industry does a great job with “vibe realism.”

The specific details of trades and deals are not accurate, but you still get a great sense of the work environment at a bank.

In the early seasons, there’s a lot of banter and “side talk” on the trading floor, and you can pick up on key jargon by turning on the subtitles.

The Worst Parts of Industry: Drama vs. Realism and Illogical/Rushed Writing

It’s easiest to explain this issue with a high-level example.

In Season 4, some of the characters are at a short-only hedge fund that is betting heavily against Tender, the shady/fraudulent fintech firm.

They raise capital for their fund based on this idea and then establish the position.

Then, they do a ton of investigative research, including a physical trip to Ghana in one episode and some on-site visits in the U.K.

As they’re doing this, the company’s fortunes and share price fluctuate in response to announcements and interactions with the government.

This story is dramatic but also highly unrealistic because the order of operations is wrong.

No hedge fund would raise capital based on a single idea and then start trading before they have done serious research; it would be like starting construction for a new building and then drafting a blueprint for it.

They also fail to consider other critical elements in a stock pitch, such as proper catalysts, position sizing, and risk relative to the portfolio as a whole.

In another episode, a fraudulent-and-under-siege company makes an acquisition offer for another firm to “hide” its illicit activities.

Yes, these things have happened in real life, but in the show, this offer comes right after the news breaks publicly about all the acquirer’s issues.

No legitimate company would even entertain this offer when the entire market is debating the acquirer’s solvency.

In short: The show is so technical that you will probably not understand everything unless you have a finance background…

…but if you do have that finance background, you’ll also be scratching your head at some of the story choices.

Illogical/Rushed Writing

On this second point, the main issue is that there’s a “consequence mismatch” with many characters.

For example, with one of the troubled/fraudulent companies in Seasons 3 and 4, the government needs a “fall guy,” so they blame everything on the newly installed CEO.

OK, fine.

But then his wife, who also worked at the company in an executive role, and several other people close to the scandal, get away with everything and just reinvent themselves a few months later.

In another case, the writers bring back a character who had been forced out of his job and taken a huge payout, only to be… forced out again due to another scandal, without adding much to the story.

Much of this feels contrived; it’s like the writers decide who’s in the show and who needs to exit, and then they write story consequences around real-life logistics.

Also, I think the later seasons needed more time to breathe.

They try to fit in so many exciting twists and turns that there’s not enough time to watch for logical conclusions and reflections.

My Final Thoughts on Industry

I’ll wrap up this review with two final thoughts.

First, I can nitpick the finance details and the plot holes all day, but I was still highly engaged with the show, looked forward to it each week, and thought about it afterward.

So, in today’s bleak landscape of AI slop and assembly-line “content,” Industry stands head and shoulders above 90% of other shows.

Second, I am looking forward to Season 5, but I’m also glad it will be the final one.

You can use the phrase “up or out” to describe the finance industry, but it also applies to the characters in this show.

The journey up or out is interesting, but there’s only so much the writers can do once the characters arrive at their destination.

And if this show went to Season 10, we might be getting plots about bankers defusing nuclear bombs or riding ICBMs by the end.