Industry Season 4 Review: Power, Desire, and at the Cost of Winning

Reel Perspectives

January 12, 2026

HBO Max

The highly addictive fourth season of Industry, created by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, is wilder and bolder, elevating the series to new heights and immersing it in a world of chaotic unpredictability that is maddening, erotic, and mesmerizing.

Following an already impressive Season 3, our favorite financial bankers returned on January 11 exclusively on HBO Max and have left Pierpoint behind ready to conquer the world - quite literally. The official logline reveals: "At the top of their game and living the lives they set out to have as Pierpoint grads, Harper and Yasmin are drawn into a high-stakes, globetrotting cat-and-mouse game when a splashy fintech darling bursts onto the London scene. As Yasmin navigates her relationship with tech founder Sir Henry Muck and Harper is pulled into the orbit of enigmatic executive Whitney Halberstram, their twisted friendship begins to warp and ignite under the pressure of money, power, and the desire to be on top."

Returning and new faces emerge for the 8-episode season, and this season is about domination, and Harper's quest for it, played by a fantastic Myha'la. When we last saw her, she was managing her own fund for Petra and was in striking distance of becoming a major power player. This season sets her on a collision course to ruthlessly dominate, fueled by ego, more importantly, by insecurities.

Harper is always one step ahead intellectually and a step behind emotionally, and that tension drives almost everything she does. She’s constantly improvising, constantly gambling, and you can feel how much of her success comes from instinct rather than control. Myha'la continues to portray Harper as raw and unpredictable. Even when Harper is being manipulative or reckless, she’s brilliant, but she’s also exhausted from having to be brilliant all the time. What works exceptionally well in Season 4 is how Harper exists outside any clear moral lane. Sometimes she burns bridges to prove she can survive the fire. That honesty makes her feel real in a way few TV characters do. Harper remains the engine of Industry. She’s frustrating, impressive, self-destructive, and weirdly inspiring all at once, bringing her full circle back to Ken Leung's Eric in a new dynamic that is absolutely one of the best of the new season.  

HBO Max

When we last saw Eric, he was forced into retirement with a healthy severance package after being told his services were no longer needed. For Eric, hearing those words might have well been a death knell for his lofty ambitions, which had always led him to backstabbing and cutthroat maneuvers, ultimately ending in pain and loneliness. Now unhappily retired, a once-invisible Eric is reserved and unwilling to take risks that once defined his precision. Eric Tao remains one of Industry’s most compelling forces, and in Season 4, he proves - yet again - why the series is unimaginable without him.

What makes Eric so effective this season is the precision with which he balances menace, vulnerability, and hard-earned self-awareness. He’s no longer just the volcanic embodiment of Pierpoint’s brutality. Season 4 sharpens him into something more unsettling - a survivor who understands the cost of power. Every scene he's in hums with tension, whether he's mentoring, manipulating, or silently calculating his next move. Season 4 leans into Eric as a cultural and generational bridge - someone who’s mastered the old rules of finance while adapting to a landscape that’s eager to discard him. That friction gives his storyline real emotional weight. Eric’s authority doesn't come from volume anymore, but from timing and restraint. Most impressive is how the series allows Eric to be sympathetic. In a series full of ambition and moral compromise, Eric remains the clearest mirror of what the Industry actually rewards. He's still manipulative, still ruthless, but there's more awareness and more vulnerability, as we haven't forgotten his past, which makes his choices hit harder.

HBO Max

At the end of Season 3, Yasmin (Marisa Abela) chose Henry (Kit Harrington) and a life of wealth and privilege over Rob (Harry Lawtey), and we see the fallout of her decision. Yasmin’s Season 4 arc is one of Industry’s quiet triumphs, offering a deeply compelling evolution of a character long defined by contradiction. Her marriage to Henry is a constant train wreck of wealth and trauma, but Yasmin isn’t scrambling for approval in the same way anymore. She’s still deeply shaped by privilege and family baggage, but she’s more aware of how those things work—for her and against her. That awareness makes her sharper, and sometimes colder, but also more interesting. She’s learning how to move through the world without constantly apologizing for taking up space.

This season, Yasmin feels more self-possessed, even when she's vulnerable. The frantic need for validation that once drove her has softened into something more controlled and observant. She’s still marked by privilege, trauma, and emotional volatility, but her power now lies in perception rather than performance - a careful calibration in how she speaks and listens, that signals real growth without erasing her fragility. You can see her clocking dynamics in real time. Her choices aren’t always admirable, but they are coherent, rooted in a growing sense of self-preservation rather than confusion or fear.

What sets the new season apart is its clarity of purpose. Industry has always thrived on chaos, but Season 4 channels that energy into more focused storytelling, letting tension build through character decisions rather than constant escalation. The stakes feel more personal and more permanent, as the show reckons with what survival actually looks like after ambition stops being theoretical.

The writing remains incisive. Scenes are allowed to breathe, and silences carry as much weight as explosive confrontations. Power dynamics shift subtly and often cruelly, reflecting a financial world that no longer rewards raw hunger alone, but calculation, adaptability, and emotional armor. The series' understanding of capitalism feels sharper here - less flashy, more fatalistic.

Performances across the board are exceptional. The ensemble works in lockstep with each character feeling shaped by accumulated choices rather than plot necessity. No one is static, but no one is redeemed either. The season excels at letting characters grow without softening them, honoring the show’s commitment to moral complexity. Rishi's Sagar Radia arc remains tragic, and Sweetpea (Miriam Petche) comes into her own, proving her worth.

Season 4 is confident in its heightened eroticism. It doesn't shy away from it but doubles down, constantly pushing the envelope and our perceptions of sex. It confirms Industry as one of HBO’s most intelligent dramas - unsparing, character-driven, and increasingly assured in its critique of modern ambition. It doesn't reinvent the show, it refines it, proving that its sharpest edge comes from knowing precisely what it wants to say.

 “Industry” Season 4 airs Sundays at 9 EST on HBO and HBO Max.