HBO’s Industry has quickly become one of the best streaming shows, filling the void left behind by Succession. Now in its third season, the series continues to evolve from Season 2, with characters talking more business and making morally questionable decisions that create palpable drama, hooking the audience.
Industry revolves around a group of recent graduates working their way up the endless ladder of success at Pierpoint & Co., an elite finance firm in London. While the business setting might seem mundane, the stakes feel like life or death.
But what is it about shows like Industry and Succession that make them critically acclaimed hits with adult audiences? Let’s dive in.
Since the dawn of prestigious TV, HBO has treated power struggles as entertainment. From the fantasy kingdoms of Game of Thrones to the mob politics of The Sopranos to the media dynasty of Succession, audiences are drawn in by the intrigue of people vying for power.
Industry is no different.
Set in the niche world of finance—a heightened version of a familiar reality—drama and tension ooze from the screenplays created by co-writers Konrad Kay and Mickey Down. Whether it’s fighting to land a job after a six-month internship or clawing for professional validation, Kay and Down crafted a series that explores power dynamics and the soullessness of ambition.
It helps that Kay and Down are writing from personal experience. Before Industry, the co-creators were investment bankers who witnessed firsthand the fast-paced, ambitious lives of those in finance. Down, who interned in private wealth management for a year, didn’t last as long as Kay, who “did about three years before I was fired—I mean, made redundant—in 2013.”
But their experience was enough to spark the idea for a series about the fast-talking world of high finance.
“The best thing about it is that it presents a world that is sometimes nasty and really kind of ugly,” Down told The Guardian. “When it was first commissioned, HBO [the series is a co-production with the BBC] said that we had an opportunity, as new writers, to do something that was pretty against the grain—and they told us to lean into that.”
There are a few ways to bring the drama of a business-centric story to the screen. Let’s break down the two most important factors that will make or break your story.
Media is about exploring worlds outside of the one you know. Audiences like to feel as though they are peeking into the inner workings of a world far removed from their own. The Bear has been praised for its depiction of a chef’s life, resonating so strongly that some real-life chefs find it hard to watch.
As Down said on the Marco Hive Conversation podcast, HBO likes shows that depict “confident subcultures,” which he describes as “worlds that people think they understand, but they don’t.”
Writing a series about niche subcultures requires thorough research. Why does it function this way? What is truly at stake? Can you identify the patterns within this culture that shape it into a “genre”? While these are key questions for every TV show, they are often overlooked in genre writing. Structure, tropes, and realism, however, are what draw an audience and hook them with the story’s brilliance.
Viewers enjoy the thrill of discovery and initiation. They want to learn about unfamiliar parts of the world, so lean into the specifics of the community, whether through your personal experience or extensive research.
One way Kay and Down brought authenticity to Industry was by leaning into the jargon of the finance world. Like most prestigious dramas, much of the tension in Industry lies in the dialogue, and the characters are constantly using industry-specific terminology that risks being too dense for viewers.
Down told Vulture in 2020 that “constant dialogue” is necessary “because, obviously, on the page, you think, What am I talking about? The actors did actually want to understand what they were saying. I don’t know if by the end they did.”
The audience doesn’t necessarily need to understand the jargon either. Industry’s use of financial terminology is akin to how Moneyball talks about baseball or Succession discusses the media business. The audience may not grasp all the details, but the emotional weight and delivery of the lines build tension. It’s the emotion behind the words—or what remains unsaid—that ultimately raises the stakes.
—
Writing a business-centered drama requires more than just setting a story in a corporate environment. At its core, it’s not really about the business. It’s about understanding the power dynamics that drive characters’ decisions within niche cultures, creating the tension and drama that hook audiences, episode after episode.
By incorporating authentic jargon, rich character development, and heightened stakes, screenwriters can craft a series that feels both thrilling and relatable, even to those unfamiliar with the world being portrayed.