Critic’s Rating: 4.1 / 5.0
4.1
Gosh damn, it’s great to have Industry back.
While much of Industry Season 4 Episode 1 revolved around establishing characters we still don’t fully know, the premiere did deliver something that embodies the series at its best: Harper and Eric on the same side.
Forgive me, Whitney is hot, ruthless, and diabolical. And the betrayal of Logan was top-tier. But I am, and always will be, a Harper and Eric girl.
(Simon Ridgway/HBO)
Seriously, the hour remembering that it’s Harper Stern who is the face and beating heart of Industry assures me that perhaps this final season has gotten off on the right foot.
We dive right into Harper navigating her new world, being a total boss lady, and pissing people off in the process. It’s typical Harper stuff.
But she’s someone who plays fast and loose, doesn’t always do well with authority, and often challenges the upper-crest, bureaucratic bullcrap that is navigating the elitist financial world of London.
Industry never lets us forget this, and they definitely were hitting that point hard during the hour, lest we forget just what Harper deals with as a Black, female American expat from a rough background living in London.
At every conceivable turn during the hour, we had someone reminding Harper of her “place,” but what’s always so damn fantastic about our ruthless queen is that she doesn’t give a damn about places or staying within the confines of whatever box someone tries to place her in.
(Simon Ridgway/HBO)
I rolled my eyes when the government contractor had the audacity to point out that she didn’t get her position because of merit but essentially because she was a Black woman.
It’s laughable hearing some fuddy old white guy who works for the royal family snidely speaking down to anyone about “merit.” The entire institution of their world and the country itself operates exclusively on social standing and who you know.
But that’s what makes Harper one of television’s most compelling characters. She faces these types of obstacles, the microaggressions, the bullcrap, and she’s so unfazed by them that it gets under everyone’s skin.
What makes her so loathable to so many around rests exclusively on the fact that this tiny Black woman is so audacious, confident, and powerful. She moves through the world around her with all the entitlement, hunger, and ruthlessness of any wealthy white guy, and no one ever really knows what to do with that.
Most can’t appreciate or respect that in her either. She defies social norms and etiquette — some build on misogyny, racism, sexism, elitism, and more. If anything, she bends all of that to her will, and people hate that. How dare she be so bold!
(Simon Ridgway/HBO)
But alas, let me not go on a tangent about my Harper love.
Harper is impulsive, but she also has good instincts. The problem is that others don’t always see the forest through the trees with her. The email she sent was well-intended, and she was thinking about the clients and trying to get ahead of something.
But instead, she started a firestorm that literally had a client having a stroke in her office. Someone having a stroke should not have been the least bit amusing, but you have to appreciate Industry‘s ability to lean into all the things we shouldn’t embrace.
Kwabena, bless his heart, seems to operate differently from Harper and seems intent on stopping her from sending that email, but no one tells Harper what to do. However, that relationship is one that I’m intrigued by.
Again, they seem to come from different worlds, and that’s reflected in their approach to things, and it’s always interesting to see that contrast. In some ways, I’m wondering if he’ll be a more laid-back and confident version of Rob, and I wonder if he’ll have that same effect on Harper.
(Simon Ridgway/HBO)
Sweetpea is around, but she felt a bit understated, likely because she’s still bouncing back from the leaks of her having sex.
And it’s evident that Harper and Yasmin are in good graces for the time being, but we didn’t get as much of Yasmin in the premiere.
But if there’s anyone who understands Harper — really gets her, it’s Eric, and it’s always been Industry’s most fascinating dynamic of the series. I make no apologies about how obsessed I am with those layers.
Harper, restless, at her wits’ end with her company, and antsy to have her name on the door, is precisely what we’ve come to know and love best about Harper. So, her reaching out to Eric (You came; you called) was enough to make a girl yelp in glee.
A conversation with no bullshit and brutal honesty, regardless of how much it felt like an exorcism, is precisely what those two needed.
(Simon Ridgway/HBO)
When it’s all said and done, they’re essentially mirror images of each other.
Harper may be the only legacy Eric’s envious of yet proud of, and there’s a connection between them that Harper can never let go. The idea of them partnering up, for real this time, equally, with a passive agreement not to actively destroy each other, is enticing, even exciting.
And Harper’s line about not wanting to be a punching bag for men’s fear was poignant.
They see each other; they know each other, maybe even better than they know themselves. And they also have a similar approach of being ruthless, navigating these elitist white spaces, and challenging the perception of the roles they’re supposed to play.
Only Eric could get away with calling Harper an Angry Black Woman and pulling her up short about it because it’s true, and he gets it.
(Simon Ridgway/HBO)
I’m ready for Harper and Eric against the world.
Or maybe Harper and Eric against Whitney and Tender. It’s already messy. From the looks of things, Yasmin is clearly plotting to get Henry positioned well with Whitney, especially now that Jenni has won the Minister of Labour position Henry was vying for.
There’s a sense of respect among the women for achieving specific goals, even when those goals are in direct conflict with their own desires. It’s interesting.
And Whitney orchestrated a brilliant takeover of Tender, ousting his obnoxious, partying friend and now-former CEO, Jonah. Backstabbing and betrayal are what the Industry does best, and the takedown of Joanh was a work of art in the end.
My investment was nil at the start, of course. They dumped these new characters on us without much fanfare, and it’s hard to care about anyone but the ones you already know and love.
(Simon Ridgway/HBO)
But as the hour progressed, Whitney became interesting. A man proclaiming to usher in a new era and change, with this quest to bring down the banks, cut through the class lines (with the help of an esteemed billionaire, of course), and project a specific image.
Separating Tender from the porn industry money Jonah brought in was a start. But now, he’s thinking bigger.
But clearly, Tender isn’t what it appears or claims to be, and Harper knows it. Her phone call exchange with Jim, the financial investigator, suggests so. And I’m already entertained by this partnership, too. After all, essentially, they both got into bed with those tied to Tender for ulterior motives.
This is going to be fun.
Additional Notes:
(Simon Ridgway/HBO)
- It was good to see Rishi, yet heartbreaking that he may have tried to kill himself, and his world is so bleak that he listed Harper as his next of kin. Also, she cleared his debt. I’m eager to dig into that dynamic more.
- Harper calling Eric a fetishist over his young, Black girlfriend reminded me of the tension between them in the first season. There’s always been that Freudian layer to their dynamic.
- These powerful men and their sexual proclivities always get me. Why am I not surprised that Whitney had Harper put on a strap-on? Also, it was black. There was so much commentary surrounding the fetishism of Black people.
- In other moments of “the quiet part said out loud,” the all-white board strips Jonah of his title and then goes on and on about his “odor,” all the while Whitney “Pretends to be PC” Halberstram won’t even make eye contact. Savage.
- I can’t wait to see how Harper’s destruction of the card her mother sent her comes back to bite her.
- So, no disrespect, but I don’t give a damn about Henry.
Over to you, Industry Fanatics!
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