There’s Much More Than Money On The Line In The New HBO Drama INDUSTRY

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede The new HBO drama INDUSTRY is set in the competitive world of high-stakes finance, but that’s really just a backdrop for everything that’s happening. Debuting Monday at 10 p.m. ET exclusively on Crave, INDUSTRY asks many philosophical questions, such as: How can companies reconcile officially encouraging a work-life balance for employees, while at the same time unofficially encouraging – and rewarding – workaholism? How do young people breaking into the business deal with those pressures, either healthily or unhealthily? Does everyone with power tend to abuse it in one way or another? And what are the consequences when a business that purports to be a pure meritocracy still is a cesspool of stifling hierarchy, questionable personal relationships, and office politics? And yet if you’re ambitious and good, the opportunities still can be endless. “My favourite things to watch – TV, movies, whatever – are all about presenting me with a question, and not telling me how I’m supposed to feel about it,” said Myha’la Herrold, who plays lead character Harper Stern in INDUSTRY. “I think Mickey (Down) and Konrad (Kay, creators, executive producers, and writers) do a really good job of that. It makes for really good television when you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, how do I feel about this?’ They’re not telling me how to think. How do I feel about morality and money? I have to interrogate that within myself.” INDUSTRY is set in 2008 in London, England, at a leading international investment bank called Pierpoint & Co. The story follows a group of young graduates – all intensely ambitious, but for different reasons, and with very different backgrounds – who are competing for a limited number of permanent positions. Herrold’s character Harper is an American, from upstate New York, who is dealing with culture shock in addition to all the challenges at work. Harper is brilliant, and longs to be judged merely by her capabilities, but as viewers begin to detect in the first episode, there’s some murkiness in her past that she would prefer to leave hidden. On the other hand, Yasmin Kara-Hanani, played by Marisa Abela, has arrived at the same spot as Harper, but from a completely different direction. Yasmin had a privileged upbringing, so she’s motivated not by the promise of money, but rather by the dream of forging her own identity and accomplishing something that her parents didn’t ostensibly set up for her. Both the Harper and Yasmin characters face extra hurdles because of systemic sexism in a field that traditionally has been dominated by older males. With that in mind, Abela was asked if she did any particular research before taking on the role of Yasmin. “Yeah, I met with a girl that I know who works in banking – she works at a private hedge fund, so it’s slightly different to the vast world of commercial banking, or investment banking,” Abela recalled. “But she was just like, ‘you have to be a (bleep). Even if you want to cry, cry in the toilet. And if your ‘Day 1’ is trying to make anyone like you, you’re out.’ And I think that’s why Yasmin gets it wrong. But it was nice to hear that was her advice, and to know that Yasmin is getting it wrong. Yasmin spends her entire first month trying to make everyone like her, which puts her at such a disadvantage.” Despite all the differences among the characters in INDUSTRY, there has to be some common ground between them, right? If money isn’t necessarily the driving force for all of them, what is it that lures them to this cut-throat profession? “I think something that’s interesting about this world is that it kind of takes away all subjectivity,” Abela said. “Objectively, if you’re good, you get through to level two, level three, level four. And that’s all that matters. They all want to prove their worthiness, and money is a great way of proving that. But to quote (American business tycoon) Warren Buffett, money is just a way of keeping score.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv