"Industry" Stars on How Their Characters Would Navigate "Suits", "The Office" and More TV Workplaces

HBO is finally giving the show the coveted Sunday-night slot previously occupied by Succession and Game of Thrones, and has cast the latter series’ star Kit Harington as a series regular, its most high-profile addition. The show’s relatively low cost compared with prestige dramas full of expensive A-listers and CGI dragons had been a selling point for the network. Showrunners Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, who previously worked in finance, were green and inexpensive, as was much of the young cast.

The cable network is in desperate need of an Emmy-worthy series that will attract eyeballs after Succession wrapped last year, especially with Euphoria and The White Lotus not returning until 2025. Industry borrows elements from all those shows: Like Succession, it delights in skewering the ultra-wealthy; like Euphoria, it’s filled with sex and drugs and, despite having both in abundance, its Gen Z characters have the bleakest of outlooks; and, like White Lotus, this season plays out like a whodunit.

Despite a dedicated online fandom and critical acclaim, Industry has never enjoyed the robust viewership of these other HBO darlings. But that can be attributed, at least in part, to HBO’s declining to spotlight it as a prestige offering. It has a reputation as a show catering to Gen Z even though the writing and performances are equal to those of other prestige-branded series. Can the network position it now, with 16 episodes to catch up on, to appeal to older viewers in search of their Sunday-night watch?

Read more about Industry: https://ti.me/46EaXy6
Subscribe to TIME’s YouTube channel ►► http://ti.me/subscribe-time
Subscribe to TIME: https://ti.me/3SExJQA
Get the day’s top headlines to your inbox, curated by TIME editors: http://ti.me/the-brief
Follow us:
Twitter: https://ti.me/3WUsPl3
Facebook: https://ti.me/46ANJZP
Instagram: https://ti.me/3SKSeLB