Robb in particular is still one of the show’s most fascinating characters, and Lawtey continues to deliver the show’s most unwavering emotional performance. “I don’t know why i’m still here,” He says at one point this season, and while he’s talking about his job at Pierpoint, it’s impossible to not think that he’s talking about his life as well. And he’s not the only one. He’s joined in this misery by Eric Tao (Ken Leung), the CPS managing director, and “Industry’s” standout performance.
Often found as side characters in films, Leung belongs on the screen as a leading man. Leung’s performance is one that since “Industry” debuted at the beginning of the decade, should have garnered him an Emmy nomination. Like “Succession’s” Jeremy Strong, Leung toes the line between good and evil quite well, tightroping it until he inevitably sways either way. Hopefully, with “Industry” finally getting the famed Sunday-night slot, the series and its masterful performances will get more attention, and Leung–54 years of age–will finally get his flowers.
As Eric, he is calculatingly cold as always, but like the younger workers at Pierpoint, he too is becoming fractured. Newly separated from his wife and reeling from the severing of his connection with Harper, Eric’s life is at a standstill. He haunts the Pierpoint offices like a ghost, and leaves it to hook up with women much younger than him, desperate to know if, in the bedroom at least, he’s incapable of failing. Harper too is at a standstill in her life since she and Eric parted ways, and spends this season desperately trying to make and maintain a thrilling albeit volatile connection once again.
But sadly for both her and Eric, without the other, they feel stifled. There’s not enough at stake in their jobs or their new relationships, and it further pulls them towards each other, fleeting at times and final in others. The relationships–romantic, platonic, and all those in between–are put to the ultimate test in season three, and it is glaringly apparent that along with the show’s narrative structure, its relationships will be fundamentally changed by the final episode as well.
What makes this show standout is that things can go well as quickly as they can go south–showcased this season in episode two, one of the most thrilling hours of television this year–which puts this series above its peers. But, with its first few episodes, it’s clear that with season three, “Industry” is unfurling into a different kind of beast. Instead of transforming the series into something unrecognizable, what creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay do is even bolder. The two mold the series to the point that while there’s a clear evolution happening, everything that initially made “Industry” one of the best shows of the decade still remains intact. It not only allows the series to grow but forces it to become the most impressive version of itself.
Whole season screened for review. Third season premieres on HBO on August 11th.