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This article contains spoilers for Industry season 4 episode 1… and the Stranger Things finale, funnily enough.
When it comes to acting talent, Industry boasts a pretty deep bench.
Through its first three seasons, the HBO financial drama about London stockbrokers has enjoyed the presence of burgeoning stars like mononymic Instagram genius Myha’la, erstwhile Amy Winehouse portrayer Marisa Abela, and definitely-should-be-the-next-James-Bond Harry Lawtey. And that’s not even to mention impressive bit players like David Jonsson (who would go on to Alien: Romulus and The Long Walk fame) or Sagar Radia (who plays Industry‘s beautiful human train wreck Rishi Ramdani).
And yet, none of those now-established performers are present in the opening minutes of the gruesomely titled season 4 premiere “PayPal of Bukkake.” Instead the episode begins with a protracted, voyeuristic zoom in through a window in which viewers witness an anonymous man squeeze some eye drops past his heavy lids. As the man grabs his jacket and exits his apartment it becomes clear that this isn’t an anonymous man at all. Or at least he’s not to anyone with a Netflix subscription and a pulse. It’s Charlie Heaton a.k.a. our old friend Jonathan Byers from Stranger Things, now in need of a job and using some artificial tears to wash away the sight of his mom chopping Vecna’s head off.
We are invited to follow Heaton’s character, investigative financial journalist Jim Dycker, as he stalks a potential source, a beautiful young woman named Haley Clay. Jim pursues Haley into a nightclub where she slinks her body around the DJ booth, moved by the blaring of New Order’s “True Faith.” The pair make a connection on the dance floor and they’re soon back at her place, which Jim notes is well out of his price range.
“I don’t want to take advantage of you,” an intoxicated Jim mutters as an equally intoxicated Haley grinds in his lap.
“You can use your tongue wherever you want. My ex said my pussy looks like pink bubblegum,” Haley whispers back.
Now is probably the right time to reveal that Haley Clay is played by Kiernan Shipka a.k.a. Mad Men‘s Sally Draper and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina‘s Sabrina Spellman. Industry has just successfully opened its fourth season with two unfamiliar characters played by two very familiar young actors working far against type.
To be clear, this article is not going to be about the novelty of former child actors suddenly emerging in adult roles. Playing different characters in various projects is kind of the whole point of acting. Nowhere in the rulebook does it say that Charlie Heaton and Kiernan Shipka have to be Jonathan Byers and Sally Draper forever. What it is about, however, is Industry‘s clear delight in becoming HBO’s welcoming home for wayward TV actors looking to try something completely new.
“The new people we’ve got on the show are amazing,” co-creator Mickey Down told reporters during an Industry season 4 press conference. “The thing I was really so excited by is seeing them do something that is so anathema to what I’ve seen them do before.”
Created by Down and Konrad Kay, Industry isn’t merely an adept TV acting talent scout… it’s a TV acting talent incubator. The most recent and prominent example comes from the show’s third season that introduced former Game of Thrones star Kit Harington as Henry Muck. A member of the British aristocracy and founder of energy start-up Lumi, Muck is about as far as one can go from Lord Commander Jon Snow’s day-to-day life in Castle Black.
Over the span of eight episodes, Industry season 3 chipped away at Muck’s trendy tech CEO identity to uncover that he’s the same species of old money lizardperson that always dominates the upper echelons of British industry. It’s a riveting watch – one that melds the futuristic aesthetic of Silicon Valley into the pastoral vistas ofDowntown Abbey. The arc is so successful, in fact, that not only does Harington’s Henry return for season 4 but the premieres saves him for last like a treat. And what a treat he is.
“PayPal of Bukkake” closes with the sight of a depressed and disheveled Muck crushing some pills with a shoe on a piano in the bowels of his family’s mansion. He doesn’t even utter a single line, just glowers out past the viewer as the camera draws out, the inverse of the first scene’s zoom in. It’s pure aura farming; the show delighting in having the presence of a big star to stage in the center of a frame to look like a perverse renaissance painting. What makes it even better is that Harington’s command of the screen has little to do with Winterfell ‘memberries and is instead the result of a truly compelling season 3 arc.
It’s exciting to imagine what kind of similar image transformations that Industry can pull off with actors like Heaton and Shipka. On paper, the roles of a finance journalist and a secretary don’t carry quite the same dramatic potential as a British aristocrat cosplaying as a tech bro does, but it’s still clear from season 4’s opening scene alone that Heaton and Shipka will have plenty of room to explore this year. It’s also clear that Industry season 4’s TV actor image adjustment service isn’t confined to just those two. Yes, that’s Toheeb Jimoh a.k.a.Ted Lasso‘s cheery Sam Obisanya putting in work as Harper’s new employee Kwabena Bannerman.
“One of my first days on set was a complicated day. I think my first note from Mickey was ‘harder,’” Jimoh laughed to reporters. “But it’s a great show, especially for young actors. There aren’t many shows that require you to flex your muscles in such a way. It forces you to pull on parts of yourself that you might not have had to use for other work.”
Industry is not a perfect show. It’s captivating and gorgeous but often thematically thin. Through three seasons and counting, the drama has grasped around for a point to make about outrageous wealth and fortune but come up largely empty. Still, it’s a very good series and more importantly: one that has found its purpose in a crowded TV ecosystem. Industry is where good actors go to get even better. May it last another hundred seasons of one-night stands and spreadsheets.
New episodes of Industry season 4 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.
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