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The creators of HBO/BBC smash Industry have talked up how Season 3 “broadens the canvas” to show how “finance sits within a larger ecosystem of politics, the media and how it all actually works.”
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay opened up about some of the mistakes they feel they made on the first two seasons of the hit banking drama, with Konrad Kay saying “we were naive and arrogant” when forging the first, which he described as a “toxic combination” of traits.
Fast forward to this latest season, which launched on HBO last week and will premiere on the BBC in October, Kay’s co-writer Mickey Down said the pair have massively ramped up their scope. It has just replaced House of the Dragon as the Sunday night drama.
“It was very narrow and subjective at the start – we never broke away from the characters’ experience,” said Down. “Season 2 broke a bit more, we realized we could do storylines that had larger stakes than salad orders and going to the gym. And Season 3 we wanted to broaden the canvas and throw everything at the wall, but also show how finance sits within a larger ecosystem of politics, the media and how it all actually works.”
Vince Gilligan praise
The creators heaped praise on Breaking Bad auteur Vince Gilligan, who they said had inspired them to broaden the show’s scope and shoot for the stars with plot points. “Vince says that if you use your best ideas and give the audience a satisfying conclusion you might give yourself the challenge of saying, ‘This will be even more fun’,” added Kay, citing the decision to fire main character Harper, played by Myha’la, at the end of Season 2.
“By the nature of renewal and jeopardy of getting another season you can’t take anything for granted,” added Kay. “The most satisfying way to tell a story is to make sure each season comes to a heavy period.”
The third season of the Bad Wolf-produced drama introduces new character, Henry Muck, played by Kit Harington, the British CEO of an environmental, social and governance (ESG) outfit in the midst of going public. It focuses on the growing trend and discussion point of ‘woke investing’.
“We are constantly asking whether it is possible to be a good person in [finance],” added Down. “Is it possible to invest in a way to make the world a better place? The show tries to present both sides of the argument but has a take on it, starting with a position of altruism but one that has been corrupted by those within it.”
“New writing doesn’t have to be marginalized”
in Down and Kay, the show’s exec Jane Tranter said having two young showrunners “reminds broadcasters that new writing doesn’t have to be marginalized.”
“When the industry is contracting and going through a crazy time, we remind broadcasters of this,” she added. “You can give people a chance and this is how to do it. Mickey and Konrad started as good writers and then became really good EPs. This is what we should do to keep the ecology of our industry fresh and percolated.”
Thinking back to the start of Industry, Tranter said she had “taken for granted” being given a shot by the HBO and BBC on a drama that felt niche at the time. She implied it may not have been commissioned today.
“A TV drama commission is the stuff of dreams but particularly now it is so much harder because so much less is being done on both sides of the Atlantic and it’s so much harder to get work by new voices done,” she added.
She described former banking intern duo Down and Kay’s first draft as “like a flatline on a heart monitor,” but with “the most distinctive voice.”
“I’d never had a piece of work come in from writers who’d never written for TV before that was as strong as that,” added the His Dark Materials and Doctor Who exec. “I said to HBO, ‘Give us three years and they will be the best showrunners you have,’ and it took eight years.”
Down said his first draft was “almost documentarian, a reflection of our experiences of banking which was mainly monotony and the minutest drama.” “It was soulless and lifeless,” he said. “We didn’t have any of the humor.”
The panel was speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, which kicks off in earnest tomorrow with talks from Warren Littlefield, Anne Mensah and singer will.i.am.
