The Watch - Breaking Down the Premiere of 'Industry' Season 3

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

Chris and Andy discuss the premiere of 'Industry.' They talk about why this show might be the defining drama of the 2020s (16:56), the introduction of Kit Harington as tech founder Henry Muck, the way 'Industry' lets guest stars shine (39:11), and why this show benefits from throwing the audience into the story with little preamble (52:08). Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Producer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I still have no official title of The Ringer. I'm very happy to be hosting this podcast solo for the first part. Hi, is here with me. Yeah, I'm filling in for Chris while he is doing groundwork at Marlago. You know what I heard? I heard that Chris is actually, you know the way J.D. Vance is following Kamala around? Chris is following J.D. Oh, great. Okay.

To support him just to sort of do the kind of live fact-checking that he often does on this podcast. Right. Just kind of keep an eye on things. We wish him well. You may be listening to us at a different time. This may be Sunday night. I'm hoping it'll be Sunday night. I think it'll be Sunday night. And the reason we're posting early is because one of our favorite shows is back.

Industry is back on HBO tonight for its third season. We couldn't be more excited. Chris was here. We recorded in advance a quite long, in fact, longer than I thought breakdown of the first episode, including a long preamble as to why we think the show is amazing, why we think the show is important. I would say relatively modest amount of back patting in terms of our own long-term championing of the show. Yeah, I think the phrasing was, our investment is doing very well. There you go. See.

I also think the phrase angel investor was thrown out. Those are two of the three finance or investment terms that I know. Great. So I look forward to everyone hearing the other one that I know next week. No other real news that we know of unless something very major happens on Monday. I guess the only other news was that House the Dragon creator Ryan Condal confirmed that the show is only going to run four seasons. And that season three is going to begin shooting or going to production in January for another eight episodes, which probably confirms that it won't be on the air until 2026. Well, I look forward to the show ending in 2030.

Oh, my God, I know. Boy, you don't watch this. Do you just listen to us? I don't. No. It's been a rough couple weeks for me, but in between like Deadpool discourse, House of the Dragon discourse, I just really. Oh, my God. You're the adult in the room.

Are you reading anything good? I feel like this must have been a really rough. I did just finish a nice book of essays from Nora Ephron. Oh, that's nice. Which one? I feel bad about my neck. Classic title. Mm-hmm. That's really good.

Yeah. You know, this is totally uninteresting to Chris, potentially uninteresting to everyone who's tuning in to talk about industry. But I did want to talk to you about the Emma Klein short story collection. You have read it or you haven't? I haven't, no. I'm not a very big short story person. No, me either.

But with your strong recommendation, I'll check it out. It's not strong. I just wanted to talk to someone about it. Okay. So to be very clear, this could be like the way Chris suggested I see Deadpool and Wolverine at 10 of the morning, you could read a relatively acclaimed and quite readable short story collection by an author who is very, very readable. Okay. I did also. I side promise my friends that I would read the Colleen Hoover book.

It ends with us in advance of making. be going to see the movie together. Well, we're recording this right before the movie opens. So, right, it's this weekend? Yeah, yeah. So this could be a phenomenon by Monday morning. I know. Only time we'll tell.

So you have not read this book? No, I've kind of stayed away from Colleen Hoover novels just because I'm, it's just really for purely snobbish reasons. You're the adult in the room. You're just surrounded by all these just popcorn eaters. But, I mean, I am curious to see what all the hype is about, I will say. Will you see the movie first and then dive to? deep into the books or? I don't know. We'll see how the timing works out. It's really just,

it really just comes down to when I'm going to get off the hold list at my library for the book, and when these plans that were very loosely made will actually happen. From what I understand, this movie is about a florist whose name is Lily Bloom. Is that right? I actually did not even get that. That seems to be the takeaway from the trailer. So what I'm kind of following loosely is, Well, first of all, Ryan Reynolds was also involved in this movie. Apparently, he helped write one of the scenes. Wow, he's really feeling himself. Oh, yeah.

But there's kind of some, like, loose internet gossip floating around that Justin Baldoni, I think, is how you say his name, who was both the actor and the director for this. And he actually, like, somehow managed to get the rights to this book, like, long before anybody else did. Yeah. So he basically just made, like, a very smart move. And then was like, all right, well, I'm also going to direct an act in this. He was like, this book by a popular female author about domestic abuse needs to be brought to the screen by me, Justin Baldoni. Yes, yes, great. And so there is rumors floating around online that some sort of cast falling out happened because he's not been going to any press events with them.

He's not been in photograph with anything. There's a clip of Jenny Slate, who's also in the movie, which is also like, I love Jenny. She's Marcelle the shell. I know. I mean, she's done other things, but as far as I'm concerned, that's... Undatting to Nilein, she is Marcel the shell. And she kind of very artfully, someone asked her, like, and what was it like working with Justin, blah, blah, and she very artfully does not give an answer.

Whoa. Does he... I mean, I think I already know the answer to this. Did he cast himself as the hero of this movie? He's the good guy, or is he the abuser? I'm actually not sure. This is entirely based on me seeing the trailer once before I saw Twisters. When I was actually reading Joe Biden's, I am leaving the race letter on my phone.

So I was not fully focused at the time. But it was memorable. It was memorable. Yeah, I really have not looked into this movie more so than half watching the trailer, maybe cast feuds, and also Blake Lively's press run outfits is really the little content I've consumed. As the watch is official youth correspondent. Great. And until the Tim Walls pick, the most online member of this podcast, now I think I'm racing. I have two questions for you.

One, you mentioned Ryan Reynolds now fancying himself a bit of a scribe. Yeah. Writing some scenes in this. You didn't see the movie, which is great. But one thing, because I don't want to talk about that movie anymore. But I wanted to take your temperature on his just online public-facing personality. because I've seen, now that I'm back in these Twitter streets, that he's doing these things being like,

Chan, no one in live was born to play the role of Gambit like you were. Your honesty and generosity, bringing the Cajun card thrower to our screens makes me weep with gratitude. And it's a little... Thick? Yeah, a little much. Yeah. Kind of like Channing Tatum in the Gambit suit.

It's a little... Yeah. I'm not going to engage with that. No, his neck is very big. Go on. I am a Ryan Randall Tater. Oh, you're a... a hateer.

Of long standing? Yeah. For like a couple years now, I would say. I don't like, I don't like his schick. Based on screen work or just on the whole? No, just like his vibe. Wow. I actually don't remember the last time I watched a Ryan Reynolds movie, but I just don't,

I just don't like the like snarkiness, like blah, blah, blah. I don't. Well, I think it's not for me. I don't mind him, but I think he might be the devil. Only because, not because of the like the, these like goppy tweets that he said. out. I mean, everybody wants to share their yearbook messages to their pals. I get it.

It was more that like some of his quotes after the record breaking weekend were like so proud to have contributed in some small part to the first four quadrant global opening R-rated movie. Like he just talks like a corporation. Yeah. I guess he is. Yeah. I just like I don't I don't understand how this movie has made so much money and maybe that's a blinds off for me. I was at trivia last night and one of the trivia questions was what our rated movie has grossed the most domestically. Deadpool and Wolverine. Yeah. Shocking.

Yes. You thought it was terms of endearment? We went with the hangover. No. No, you got recent. That's the opposite of recency bias. I know. I know.

Inflation, man. It's crazy. Okay. So other question, as again, you're in these, you're in the streets. You're talking to the kids. You're TikTokin. You bought one of those Harris Wall's Riz hats. I was tempted.

The RIS ones? No, the Cammo one. Okay. Yeah. When do you think Taylor's going to endorse? What's the word among the real swifties? So on the other podcast I produce, every single album. Shout it out.

With Nora Pinciotti and Nathan Hubbard, they theorized that, so she's going to come back for like one last run of U.S. shows. And I think if I'm remembering correctly, her last final show, are in Canada, like right after the election. My daughters will be there. Oh, yay! That's so exciting for them. It's very exciting for them. Are you going with?

Are you... The tickets were very expensive. Yes. I will not be going. I will not be making this international journey. No. Well, that's so exciting. They're going to have a blast.

But so Nathan and Nora theorized that she has a run of U.S. shows right before the election. It's going to be at one of those. Will Kamala get the 22 hat? we shall see. Probably not. Wait, is that the red hat? Yeah, so every show when she does her red set, she walks down the runway and someone, usually like a young child,

is selected from the crowd to receive that. Do you know that my younger daughter talks only about this? But she says when I get it. I love that. She has, she's making bracelets already. It's August. And then just said, I'm going to trade two. So I get one back to give to my friend when I get the.

the red hat. And then sometimes we'll just be driving and she'll say quietly in the back seat, I wonder how many hats there are. I was like, probably a lot. Like she does a lot of shows. I think if we've learned anything, it's the power of manifestation works. Right. Right. And she saved some hats in Vienna this weekend, I guess. Okay. That's great. So I love that. Right. So yeah, we'll see. I will, I don't know. Who, all right. Pop, again, this is fascinating for me. Do you think it helps or hurts? So for Taylor to endorse, I think that makes sense. I think it's inevitable.

She's going to do only the young, right? Like, everybody's going to be excited. That makes sense. Charlie XX was a surprise. Not American. Not American. Probably can sit the rest of them out. That's fine.

She contributed already wildly beyond anyone's expectations to this electoral cycle. Chaparone have anything to say, or does that hurt her brand to get involved? So the hat is gone. Yeah. So the only response so far, that I've seen from Chapel Rhone is, I can't remember the wording of the exact tweet, but someone tweeted at her with the camo hat

because that is a play on her merch, Rise and Fall of Midwest Princess. And she said, is this real? Okay. If I'm remembering correctly. She was in the past invited to the White House to perform, and she declined. She was invited.

Who do you think invited her? Do you think it was Joe? Yeah, I think Joe, Biden can surprise us. He continues to surprise us. That's true. All right. All right.

Is there anything else in that space of like pop culture and politics that is of interest to you? Are people tracking anything? Like I know that we've already, we're already over like scouring the online personalities of Olympic athletes to see who they follow. Yeah. Is there anything else in the pop culture space that this podcast doesn't usually cover, which to be clear is anything that's not a band of 50-year-old indie rock? on merge records or spy movies? You know, I think the Sabrina Carpenter endorsement is something they should be going for, probably. Yeah, she has a new album coming out in a couple weeks here, and I suspect it's going to be fairly big.

Do you think that she's registered as a foreign agent since she's dating Barry Geegan? Do you think that that's... That might be a concern. Yeah, I mean, she might flee to Ireland. And what does, so when Tim Walls is like, these tweets are resurfaced that, you know, the greatest sin is that Warren Zivon is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I wish we were on video. I could show what your face did. Does that have any impact on your dad who I think is roughly my peer? Like, is that message resonating in the McMullen diaspora? I don't know who Warren Ziavon is. But I will ask my dad next time I chat with him. I watched a video from, this just shows how totally brainbroken I am from Green Bay Packers training camp where they went up to the players, like the star players, like Jordan Love.

And they said, how many songs fit on a CD? Okay. And they were like, 400. And then they said, what's this? And they held up a floppy disc. And one guy said, I don't know. And Jordan Love said a cassette tape. And they were like, okay.

Tough. This is really, being on the wrong side of history is really, really humbling. All right. So back to the youth vote industry. Very excited. I, for some reason, got it in my head that I reappear the last Wednesday to the point where I was having this whole conversation with myself in my head being like, now, why would HBO run industry? They're like, arguably their most popular show on a Wednesday. Of August. The most popular. I mean, House of the Dragon was just on. Okay, but their most popular show after now that House of the Great. And I was like, why would they run that on a Wednesday? And I'm like, that just seems so weird.

So you thought that about this Wednesday, even though Chris and I already recorded a podcast about it that we aren't putting up until Sunday, until this moment, this podcast. Yeah, I don't know. And then I told my boyfriend, who's also a fan of industry. And I was like, I think industry's back. We can have some industry to watch. And he was like, oh, great. That's amazing. And I was like, I know. And then I went to HBO Max and I queued it up. And I was like, nope, sorry. I think this is more an indictment of how we've been sort of encouraging you to do independent study this summer as we've talked about things that are profoundly uninteresting. So, okay, that's on us, really. Anyway, suffice to say, Chris and I talk about it a lot, but it is really exciting to see something that I think we all kind of predicted, which was that industry was ready for this moment, that something, sometimes beautiful things happen when you make something good and you let it develop, not in obscurity, but when it premiered, it was a Monday night HBO show. It was no one checking for it from the beginning. True diehards and sickos like us were into it in the second season. But the long buildup to the third season, allowing people to catch up or discover it on their own terms,

and then really being able to take advantage of the gap in HBO's schedule because of the strike and just step into that prime post-dragonspot. And then I feel, again, super online over here. So I know what's real. It does seem like the show is ready to take a leap culturally in terms of people watching. and not just culturally, purely in terms of audience, too. I think it's ready. Yeah, I would agree. Do you think that Warner Brothers' discovery was premature in writing down the worth of its networks by $10 billion yesterday? They should have waited until after industry premiered? I think that industry bump, man. Yeah, a lot of bumps on industry, especially this week.

So, okay, without further ado, we're going to throw to Chris, Ryan, the host of the watch podcast in absentia today, but coming roaring back into your speakers for a conversation about the season premiere, third season premiere of industry on HBO. We'll be back on Thursday, I think with Chris, probably from the campaign trail. I think he'll be in Arizona supporting Kerry Lake at that point. He can stay in my crash pad that I have there. That is really my home away from home. It's been 98 degrees here in L.A., and it's too cool for me.

Yeah, right. I like a nice baking, you know, like 115, 120. Triple digits just miss me. So this is me and Chris. We're talking about industry, season three, episode one. Enjoy. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. Ever have a plan come together out of nowhere

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everyday low prices on 365 brand items. Enjoy the fresh flavors of spring. Save at Whole Foods Market. Andy, what's up, man? Chris. Our show's back. Our big, bright, beautiful boys are back. Great decisions being made by all characters at all hours of the day and night. Let's take a public, Baby. Industry is back. Season three, a show that obviously has some winded. It's back right now, I think, at least critically. I think there's also a huge desire

for a show like this right now. We have had a long year of intellectual property, of franchise storytelling, some great, some good, some not some memorable. And if I may, a list of Emmy nominees where the drama category is mostly made up of

things that kind of got squeezed to fit-in limited series that suddenly became unlimited for words purposes. What was missing and what caused me to have a mini freak out was like, where are my stories? Where is my ongoing show? This is the ongoing show and these are your stories. Like, this is it. And by the way, a show that really reflects well on our investment strategy. I feel like we're reaping big returns. Well, I mean, I don't want to say that we were angel investors, but in a way, I feel really happy by my portfolio. We're recording this a little bit early, but I think that our bet on the yen is really going to pan out. I noticed Chris has his screen open.

A week in advance. I hear him muttering about Jerome Powell. Jerry, come on, brother. Here's the thing. I want to start here. Let's start with a broad... Let's start with a declaration, and you tell me if you think that this is accurate.

Okay. Is this the defining show of the 2020s? Whoa. Wow. I only say that because it came out at a time unbeknownst to the creators when they started developing the show in 2017 and got a greenlit in 2019 and everything it came out in the fall

of that first COVID year. It has aired every two years since and in those four years while a lot of the behaviors on screen are probably foreign to a lot of the viewers to me it's the show that I would be like this is kind of what it's like to be alive

at this period of time, both in terms of the anxieties of the characters, the way that money has sort of wrapped its arms around every single thing in the world and everything from the dollar store to the cocaine-addled sushi binges is defined by, like, what companies are invested in it

and what companies are devesting from it. And I also just find the style in which it's made, this sort of incredibly sleek Verote style, just makes it, feel more like I'm watching this like incredibly aesthetically pleasing version of pretty recognizable real life

take place. It feels very much of a place in London, but it has this sort of international cast. I don't know. There's something about it. I'm trying to scratch this itch that's like there are other shows, obviously Succession and Atlanta

and all these other shows, Reservation Dogs that you could point to. But this is the one that started at this time when I feel like a lot of stuff changed. I think you're making a very strong point. And I would say that I would also like to have a separate conversation, which takes the opposite attack, which is the reasons I love the show are because it is so defiantly not the show from an

industry perspective of this era. Like if you were going to talk about what is representative of, I mean for us. Yes. What is representative of TV right now? It's probably Gen V, which is, you know, a spin-off of a- It's Boys Mexico. Yes. That's honestly where we're at as an industry. In terms of if we're looking to, as you and I often do, looking to art to be. illustrative of and reflective of and also make us go deeper into what it means to be alive right now. There's no question that this is our favorite show of the moment and it is that show. I think it also does something pretty unique that you touched on when you were talking about the way the show tells its story through almost like a Russian nesting doll visions of economy and economies,

which is some of the best shows of the previous eras have taken very large subject matter, such as the struggles of the white man in American society and then microscoped into one particular person and the choices that he, in this case, I'm talking about, like a Walter White made, right? I think what's so interesting and so brilliant and successful about industry is it, in many ways, it assumes the intimacy with the characters who are often fully intimate and new and actually telescopes out the other way and making it, making us understand how the kind of what you could perceive of as cynical or hedonistic choices that individual people make are really just the smallest, you know, the remainder of the wind.

that was created by the much larger butterfly flapping its wings of global capitalism. Yeah. It goes much bigger. And I think that's kind of unique in a way, too, for storytelling. It's very hard to tell a bigger illuminating story on week-to-week television. And I think that the way that these characters engage with topics that are a part of our lives, maybe not the Omicassee cocaine binges, but why things are expensive, whether of, you know, I drive an electric vehicle, and does that make me a better?

good about that. This show is relentless about boring into the, it goes beyond optimism and cynicism. And it's just like we're actually all just puppets on a string. Yeah. So we're going to get into this first episode and break down a lot of the scenes. But that interconnectivity really came to the forefront for me because I realized, like as I was watching it,

that this is my, this is in some ways that like, fantasy show where I, and I mean that is a genre where I rewatch to find, not Easter eggs, but to uncover layers that were lines said by Rishi off screen or a casual throwaway reference to trading places or just something that someone says about like how Yasmin's father used to park his car at college or whatever. And there's a moment in a scene in this episode where Kent Harrington's character is playing handball with family members and friends of this family in a secret club

in the basement of like a cavernous old gentleman's club and one of the other players. Is it a club or a house? I couldn't even tell. I didn't know if that was a private residence that she was brought to. I thought it was like a social club. But maybe...

You spend more time in a game than I do. And this guy basically goes up to Yasmin whose life is being destroyed by the English media and is like basically like, No harm, no foul on those stories about you. Like, I empower my editors to make their decisions. I just put the paper out. And, you know, he's obviously supposed to be running this Daily Mail-esque tabloid.

And for her, I think she's on the front lines of everything I do keeps spilling into everything else I do. So I love the way you can go back through these episodes and you just watch them for pure entertainment or the soap operatic elements of it. and how is Harper going to get back into this world and what's what's Rob going to do to fix this deep wound inside of himself and where's Yaz's going to find self-worth outside of her family's vastly instantly disappearing money and you can just feel the like web of decay that that kind of unites all these different elements of modern society

and that's why I kind of I kind of buy my own bullshit it from the beginning of the spot about like maybe this is the defining show because where in succession you were watching truly the princes and princesses of society and they could topple a government or they could swing an election or they could get a movie made or canceled with a sort of delete button. This is about like the worker bees working their way up to that. And not just working their way up to it. I think, and certainly in the case of Harper, looking at what is a available and making what she perceives to be the best possible choices for herself in a way that might seem mercenary, but I think especially for younger viewers of the show, they might see as

reasonable. Because I think one of the other great choices made by the show from the beginning was that it is centered in the world as it is, not in the world as it was or the world as it might be. And I think that so much of our drama, whether it's on TV or movies or books, or frankly, unlike stump speeches, still in this country, still believes this idea of like, well, work hard and you can buy a house. Work hard and there's a pathway to prosperity. And I think anybody, certainly anyone under the age of 35 is like, you're fucking kidding, right? Like that's actually not possible and hasn't been for a while. So making the decision of like, I will leverage whatever it is that I have in my soul for a chance to actually be able to afford a place

to sleep at night. Like, yeah, that kind of is reasonable. The entire dynamic of the show that puts people from one part of the social strata, socioeconomic strata like Yasmin, on the same killing floor as someone like Rob or someone like Harper. And they all are essentially dead-eyed and miserable for the same reasons because of the limitations placed upon their lives. Like, I think it would be easy to say that Mickey and Conrad stumbled upon a framework that might tell us that tells a story about how we live now. But that would be too glib because I think it was very, very well chosen from their own, obviously their own experiences, their own observation of that world. But it is a fascinating, not even a reflection, a window.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think also what I really like about it is that there are elements of broken people trying to put themselves back together in this show, for sure. Like, there are those sort of more traditional, especially contemporary television tropes of traumatized people trying to fill that void somehow. But the writing is so fucking good on this show that when Rob calls or goes into the office and tells Eric, you know, he's having a nervous breakdown and Eric is also having a nervous breakdown. And they're screaming each other about being men and being relentless. Did that remind you my bachelor party? Rob is like, I lost a client. What a great way of saying that. Waying saying that's someone that mattered to him died. Yes. But also true. Also true. But it's like they

have literally found the vocabulary in this world of financial investments and wealth management to substitute actual personal human communication with jargon at any given point. And it actually like takes the, if Rob was like, you know what, Eric, I did lose someone that in my own broken way I loved. Like, you wouldn't say that. You would say I lost a client. This is something that industry has in common with another one of the very best shows of this moment, which is the bear, in the sense that.

that both are set in worlds that are othered for many of us. We don't work in restaurant kitchens. We don't work on trading floors, but are so rich. We have opinions about both, though. We sure do. Some of us are more exposed in one than the other. What a time for Japanese restaurants. Let me tell you that.

I think that both also come with complete vocabularies and analogies that work on so many levels. Like, this was true when I was writing criticism or even when we podcast about the bear, It's just right there to talk about editing ingredients, you know, or putting yourself on the plate or overdoing something heavy-handed with the sauce. I mean, similarly in this, talk about being like overexposed or over-leveraged, you know, or trying to short something. I mean, losing a client, like both of those shows are very much in tune with something else that is very accurate in the 2020s, which is there is no division between who you are and what you do.

And so the shows reflect that in terms of telling the emotional inner lives of characters as just inextricably linked to how they spend their days and in the case of industry at their nights. I was thinking a lot about Nathan McKay's score and how much work it does for this show in terms of shading in emotional moments that maybe we don't understand because of the vocabulary. We have yet to fully appreciate because more scenes need to happen or whatever. And, you know, what this series does so well is it remixes characters or replaces them on the board. So, for instance, in this opening episode, Yasmin has basically assumed the Harper role with Eric. He has recognized something in her in a late-night cocaine binge and in her usefulness to him that is obviously positioning her to being more of like a central figure for him and his new protege. that rule that he had Harper in that he eventually terminated when he exposed her college, lying about her college degree. The idea of basically having like a superstructure for your storytelling, a world that everything is set in.

But we can, like we're sitting in front of a mixing board making a piece of music, this can go up and this can come down. Or we can put the drums over here. Or we can put the rhythm guitar down more. And it's like these guys are now, they're mixing it. You know, like, I am so happy to be with a TV show again where I don't have a question that needs to be answered by the series itself. Yes. I don't need to know who sits on the Iron Throne or who takes over way to Roryko or how Jimmy becomes Saul or whether or not Jesse will escape with his life or all of these questions that I'm like, this is really governing every single storytelling decision that I'm seeing. And I'm starting to get a little bit itchy because I want this satisfaction.

I hope this show runs for as long as they want to make it. And they can keep all of these people exactly where they are, or they can bring in like a new Seattle Grace doctor crew anytime they want. I trust them. And that's like a really, really satisfying way to watch television, which is just enjoying it as it unfolds in front of you. This is a crucial, crucial point. And you named shows just then that I love and consider to be among the best.

Of course, there's some of the best shows ever made. And some that I'm less strong about. But no matter what you're talking about, if there is a show that is essentially a premise show, no matter how devoted you are to the series and characters, no matter how brilliantly the creators explore the possibilities of every living, breathing moment, part of you is sitting, leaning back on your couch in your mind, being like, I wonder how they're going to get there. I wonder how this leads to the next thing. I wonder if they're going to stick the landing. When you build a show organically from the ground up, and it's just about itself and living presently within each moment of these characters, you're leaning forward. You're leaning forward and you're feeling it in the moment because there is no destination. There is just what's in front of you at any moment. And it is a completely different viewing experience because of it. We need more of this kind of show in TV, not that it's easy to do. Which might be as good of a way as any to segue into one other big picture thing about how the show has developed over three seasons. We want to talk about

Mickey and Conrad, whom we like as people and we like as creators. I also want to talk about how, I think you also have to talk about how this show found its lane. It's so hard to make anything. We say that almost every podcast. It's so hard to make anything on HBO, which has a legendarily bottleneck development process and only one night to program for, or at least during the era that industry was created.

And not only that, HBO does not have a very long track record of developing very young talent in the drama space and letting them figure it out until they've completely figured it out. industry is a unique case and that it was, in our opinion, great from the beginning, had a lot going for it, like with young stars who are ready to break out as many of these people already have and will continue to. But it also was cheap, you know, and I don't mean like you could see it on the screen,

but I mean in terms of if you're doing CGI dragons or you're filming a bunch of relative unknowns in Wales, the spend is quite different. And that allowed it to develop in relative, not obscurity, but in relative silence. That's then when you bring in the Mickey and Conrad piece of it, because I think that we said from the beginning of season one, we were like, if this show is just vibes, these are elite vibes, and we are here for it. And there were moments within that first season,

like when Rob's relationship with his mentor on the desk and what you find out about his background and just incredible lacerating moments that you would expect that you could find in any long-running or more mature drama series, there's no question that going into the second season, critics may have felt people more critical than us or Mickey and Conrad themselves that you cannot just make a show based on vibes.

And they've talked about it on the podcast with us, whether they took themselves to school or they considered things that they loved. But to feel in real time, not just fence posts going around, going down into the ground, solidly around the vibes, but the right fence posts,

borrowed from the right places so that when you watch season two, which we did in love, you could see them just do 101 shit, like we're going to hint this in the premiere and pay it off in the finale. We're going to put these people here so that they have room to run to get here.

You can see people figuring out the tools at their disposal in real time, which is thrilling. And that's, I think, how you end up with a season that already is so confident, like season three. And part of the confidence comes from not just a knowledge of how to move characters

where you want them to be, a feeling of being liberated and free and empowered to be like, no handholding. This is the third season. It's industry three. So we're starting again in a way. And now this person is here. Up is down.

We're not going to fully explain why Harper is where she is. She's just there now. Rishi matters now because of this. There's someone named Sweet Pee Go Lightly for God's sake, and we're just going to hit the ground running. That's the kind of confidence that you want in a drama series. You know, we don't want to spend an entire, episode of a relatively brief season clearing your throat, reminding you of anything.

Let's fucking go. Yeah, I also think that there's something to be said for this show feels tethered to the way time passes. So not only in its sensibilities, I think in this episode especially, it takes a very, I would say, measured or some would say cynical point of view on maybe some of the more like socially progressive ways of investing and the socially progressive ways of presenting yourself in a workplace.

And that obviously feels very contemporary compared to maybe what it would have felt like in 2022. You know what I mean? And then on that same token, by the same token, it's fucking awesome to see Yasmin come into an office, see Marissa Mabella come into an office. And they're not the young ones anymore.

They're like getting older and like she doesn't have like the Instagram follow. that Sweet Pei does and she doesn't have, you know, she is now like a third or whatever year associate

at that place working on the floor and she has now found herself under Kenny and then ultimately under Eric. I think that's awesome. I think to be able to like move people around

like you're talking about but also like allow these characters to naturally progress rather than artificially be like now they're over here. And this would be a huge challenge

for this show because they burn plot on this thing. And they're, they always talk about this. They're like, we do not save things for the finale that might make sense in episode two or three. I haven't watched ahead on this season. I want to go week to week with it. But I do think it's kind of awesome how, you know, they put themselves in a corner with, like,

how the fuck do you get Harper back in the story? This is right. And I think that we just did, you know, because we're recording this a little bit ahead of time, we just did a podcast about House the Dragon. finale, I'm not going to spoil anything that we said other than to say that part of the job of being a showrunner in this era is a different kind of management. It always involved management in the sense of like workplace management, but brand management, IP management, you know, fictional,

canonical history management. And you have to be very careful and do the best that you can within the, you know, the structures that were created for you either by an author or by a previous series or movie or whatever. I think that for all the things that industry does right, I would hold it up as an example of what showrunners should be studying and doing, especially in the drama space, but the bear is a comedy. So maybe just in the TV space going forward. Because I think that what Mickey and Conrad, not to gas them up too much, but what I think that they demonstrate that is so crucial and also so exhilarating in the work is that they are at once totally unsentimental. And that's very hard for any storyteller in any medium to be, because you love your babies, you love your darlings,

you love your characters. You've spent so much time doing the work with someone like Kenny, who is a tertiary character at best, but has had a remarkable arc over these seasons. And even within this episode, and then have him savagely cut at the end. It doesn't necessarily mean it's the last we'll see of him, but that is an unsentimental thing to do to a character

that we've gone on a journey with. They are relentlessly unsentimental, and they also are not scared of the big moment. they will like a truly like a Kyle Schwerber a reference that neither of them will get will just swing to hit a home run every time right and that's how you get scenes like what happens with Nicole that's how you get scenes like rob and Eric yelling at each other that's how you get scenes like the blackout at the end of the episode they're not scared and with all the financial things and creative things and all the challenges in the industry it is very very hard not to have the big chair and be overly sentimental or overly cautious and careful. I think they're doing a master class in being neither of those things. I agree with you.

I mean, we, not to go back to House of the Dragon, but one of the critiques we had of that show was that there was a particular pairing of characters that had the same conversation half a dozen times over the course of a season in the exact same location. That's not the fault of the show. Like, that's a choice that they made

for practical reasons and storytelling reasons. But I was struck by how now we are on I don't know, we've gotten close to 20 episodes or we'll eventually, you know, once this season's over, we'll be up around, you know, like 25 episodes of industry. And so much of it has taken place in this open floor plan, trading floor of fictional investment fund. And that's such an ingenious place to put drama

where people can't hide behind walls or if they do usually something bad is happening because they're talking in private, that getting that depth of field of like Eric's kids being there, the day of Loomy going public and him coming back from a Coke binge and Yaz is dealing with the fact that Kenny is now just walked out in tears blaming her for his exit. And all of this stuff is happening on screen in front of you.

And it's not hidden and it's not, it's not nothing about it feels stayed and static. It all feels like it's exploding in front of you. And to go back to that point also, about being not scared, to your point about how do you get Harper back, is you make tough decisions or hard decisions or bold decisions in storytelling because you can't wait to figure out what comes next next next. Not because it's going to be a problem you shunt to other creators or other writers or to the next season. It's an opportunity. Yeah. It's also ingenious. And Breaking Bad did that

very well. Not to mention Walter White again. But like when you have the provocation of Walter turns 50 and he has a beard and there's a machine gun in his trunk, they didn't know what it was going to be, but they were psyched as fuck to figure it out. Similarly, okay, so Harper's out of there. Well, who's there instead? And what does that open up room for? And one of the things that opens up room for is for Eric and Yasmin to have scenes together. I don't think they've exchanged two words in the previous two seasons.

And the scenes that we get with them together are extremely memorable and extremely important, both for the show and the audience as entertainment, but also for both of them in their journeys. It's also ingenious because if there's any character on the show who would take their excommunication from PurePoint and be like, you fucked up because this is all I have, it's Harper, who is going to go from essentially doing Anna's diary to, I'm sure, a much more important role

in the course of this season. Now, I ended the first season, first episode, and I'm like, I'm not really sure what this season's going to be about. Obviously, Loomy, the company that Kit Harrington's character, Henry Muck, great name, runs, is going to be, it's going to be the football, like, just like Jay Duplass's character in the second season. His fund and trying to get him to invest in certain things was like basically that was,

it wasn't a MacGuffin, it was basically the narrative engine of the show that season. How Harper, whether it's her and Sarah Goldberg's character, are the people who are shorting green energy against, you know, PurePoint's position, I don't know. But we can go through the episode and kind of talk it out. I think we should. All right. We open with like Asmin on a boat, a lot of below deck stuff that Kyle really appreciate is coming.

I just thought this was such a gutsy place to start the season. It's a brief framing device because we get six weeks later and everything that's important to happen, not only off-screen but not remarked upon. It's only explained over the course of an episode that her father has been embezzling money from their publishing empire and their conglomerate. an extreme amount of embezzlement, like, made off levels, so much so that Yasmin is legally and perhaps financially exposed to it. And he has disappeared. He is on the lamb. That said, we do quite a lot of him appears in this opening montage. Boy, I'm glad HBO still got that. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Every once in a while, you want to be rewarded for watching

every frame. What a gift. So basically, Yasmin's being hounded by a paparazzi, there had been a photograph of her taken by another yacht partier of her just like smoking and pondering the Mediterranean, but that photo has now been decontextualized or recontextualized to show Yasming partying while everybody else gets their money stolen by this guy, by her father. So she's in hell. They're living in a flat together, Rob, Harper, and Yaz. By the way, even that just suddenly... What did these guys start getting paid?

Well, Yaz had her place. She had her a nice place, right? Yeah. You think, no, they were always getting paid. They weren't interns. Yeah, but Rob's like, I guess he's like over leveraged in a mortgage here, right? Yes. Okay.

Because he's got a skip outside the paparazzi you're hiding in. Great scene of the paparazzi getting run over by a car. But getting up again. Yeah, well, you know. I also think it's worth just tracking. Again, it's kind of unremarked upon, but these three, the main characters of the show are in business with each other. Still, even though their professional lives have maybe have gone crossways.

And even though like the yet, Yasmin and Harper spent all of last season as enemies essentially, and Yasmin and Rob spent the whole first season as like perverse power dynamic, not actually fuck buddies. Yeah. The fact that they seem to be almost,

almost banal. Like, I'm going to open up this bottle of red, not me, got a big day tomorrow going up to bed, and that he's now seemingly, as we learn, he may still be sober. but there's a lot still a lot of pains still there, but that he is now... Don't know if he's doing all the work.

He seems to be in a relationship that would, again, be sort of not appropriate, but the right one from to be in with the younger associate whom he embarrassed at Oxford the previous year. Yes. Yeah. And so we meet a couple of new characters, secondary characters,

that I still are, one of the specialties of the show is we're going to give this person 12 seconds of screen time, and you will be talking about it with your friends for days. Not because they do something gratuitous, but you get, what's it where Sweet P. Go Lightly? And that's just a flex. Henry Muck is one thing, but Sweet P. go lightly.

And then Harper's boyfriend, who we first meet because she's texting him. About their movie subscription. About their movie subscription. And then when she comes home with him and Rob and Yaz are screaming at each other, Harper's boyfriend is like, it's Park Chan Wook time. Bring me some work. water.

Absolutely amazing. We get back out on the floor. My favorite Rishi of the episode is him being like, David Seaman, you look like the Thomas Edison of pedophilia. David Seaman, a famous English goalkeeper. Really great stuff. I really enjoyed everything about these opening scenes back at Pierpoint. First, Yasmin being like, I have accrued quite a. a passionate gay following.

And then this introduction of this guy, James Ashford, who I don't know if he'll recurred through the season, but the six minutes we spend with him is so fucking awesome where he's like, now I have to drive to a part of London

that I've worked very hard to get away from. It's to basically read Henry Muck the Riot Act about Lumi's financials. We meet him taking his phone call overdo return call from Yasmin. as he's responsibly collecting eggs from the hen house at his country estate?

Yeah. I mean, it's great detail. And what does he say about what, Mulquy's like, this guy's harder to find that a Nazi who's joined the priesthood in Argentina? In Argentina. It's good. Oh, man, maybe we want to watch Marathon, man.

We get introduced to Loomy. You just jump in whenever you want. I'm not like... I'm just enjoying it. I had such pleasure watching it. Now you're just giving it to me again. Any notes on Ashford? Great sweater.

Incredible sweater. Loved his dedication to Moleskin notebooks. Yeah. You know, and keeping it analog. But he's essentially pointing out that Loomie is cooking their books for this IPO. Yeah. Lumi is a renewable energy. Or potentially fudging it.

Yeah. It's about to go public. He has a big stake in it. I think that one of the things that is worth noting with this relatively minor character is the way that there are no minor characters. To your point, It didn't occur to me that we'll ever see this guy again. We might. You know, good performance, good actor, useful.

I mean, another good thing about industry and the way that it's built is that they are very, very mindful of utilities, which is, you know, no loomy in the sense that, like, if someone was useful that they've introduced, they will come back in a different way just because it serves the story. I can't remember the name of the Tottenham fan from earlier in the series that also loves drinking milk and seems to be – Ashford seems to be the new version of that guy. Yes. I would say that Ashford is also. a kind of recurring melody of the fact that no one is happy.

Yes. Just full stop. That the purpose of being in this world, I guess, is to continue drinking the action juice, to use a phrase that you would appreciate, until you what, die? Because as he says, I have achieved everything. I don't have to do this anymore. But, you know, I would rather, if he's being honest, which he is not, rather jump back into the gladatorial arena in the city,

then fill up another carton of eggs. Yes. We find out a little bit of loomy. Let's do the kit stuff now. Yeah. It was positively delightful to see him be... I hesitate to say this, but a real person. I don't mean to diminish any of his other performances.

And I obviously adore him as John Snow. But just seeing him be physical, move around, have temper tantrums, have low blood sugar. We don't know anything about this guy. Have a spark. It was so fucking cool. And we have seen this now multiple times of this show. Jay Duplas gets to do something he never gets to do.

Kit Harrington gets to do something he never gets to do. It's such a fun fucking role. I'm sure he must have loved doing this. I think that what you just said about being physical is really important. Because if I think about every role I've seen him in and he was fantastic as John Snow, But in addition to John Snow, I was thinking about he was in a great movie that we both loved Eternals.

And he was also in the, oh my God, what was it called? The Apple Environmental. Was he in the Eternals? Yeah, he's Black Knight. He's set up to be in a sequel. Oh, right. He's the boyfriend.

I thought it was just Rob was in the Eternals. I kind of wiped that one from the hard drive. Well, as we've noted, it's coming back in Brave New World, so get ready. But he was also in the extrapolations he was in that show as well. And in the subsequent Game of Thrones show, and this is the case with many people

who play a beloved action or genre character, the next role is kind of skitching on the hero vibes or the villain vibes depending on what you were cast as in the next thing. What was amazing about this, and I mean this very sincerely,

is that by putting him in all these scenes next to Rob, who is very tall, you see what Kid Harrington physically looks like in a room with other people, not lit or put on boxes or whatever to be the prince who is promised. He is a handsome, charismatic, physically strong guy who is shorter than some of the other people in the room. And that tells us something about a character.

That's part of it. When he gets angry, when he charms, when he sits on the windowsill to be at the same height level as Rob, that's telling us something about who he is and he feels very, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but through one episode, he feels very at ease in his body in this role, allowing him to be a full person. Yeah, I would imagine that a lot of the stuff he has done, even the credits that you've mentioned in last, is like, you have to stand right here and stand still because there's going to be a CGI dragon in front of you. Or because... Or you're talking about the technology that's going to cause the whales to talk back to us to save the planet.

I forgot about that part of extrapolations. But the... I like him, but I don't trust him. And I think that's going to be a major part of his character. And he communicates that effortlessly. I loved him jumping up, like, sitting on the wall and talking to Rob and being like, ever since I've met you, my luck has changed. You know, like, that's for the worst.

You know, it was very, very, very funny. I also think that you, you know, I was talking about how Kenny is an example of how smartly the show uses the pieces on its chessboard. Harry Laudy is in port, such a crucial part of the show. and the opportunities that he has season to season, again, we don't see any of the setup or exposition as to why he is embedded with Loomi. It just gives him a chance to be on the front of a story.

And also it's like part of me, like when I'm like, I don't really understand obviously a lot of the elements of like PurePoint and how it works, but Rob has established himself as, while also sometimes spectacularly failing, like in Oxford, he is good at hanging out with people

and making them feel good for a while. And that's a job. CR vibes. I think that's your title. I'm the ringer. I am a man and I am relentless. Eric makes partner, this is where the trading places joke comes in,

where they talk about how Randolph and Mortimer started peer point. I like the idea of Randolph and Mortimer Pierpoint. Do you think that was their last name? This starts to lampoon both diversity efforts and also green energy efforts. Obviously, like just painting. the characters talking about this stuff is deeply cynical

fucking black holes of emotion even when Eric it's kind of interesting how like in the moment Eric is sort of making fun of there being a woman on the board and then his boss is like you are in fact a diversity hire

just kidding actually go fire a bunch of people so just the idea of these sort of like roving chaotic wild layoffs that they feel like they constantly need to do makes the drama of this episode so much more heightened. Well, and it makes it the medieval genre show

that it also is where it's like go slay a dragon, like go get a scalp, go prove yourself in a fit of violence in front of other people to prove your worth. I mean, it is on that level. It is that base. This is also the time we get to talk about Ken Lung, who, again, like in the ways that I love the show,

it can be expressed through the fact that Ken Lung is a incredibly talented actor who has caught our eye we pay attention to whenever he's on the screen and things in the past. He's a crucial part of the show as the kind of like Darth Vader figure hovering over everything. But he is capable of

so much more than that. And again, we've never talked to him. We've never interviewed him. I don't know what he's like. I have to imagine that when he was told he gets to do all of these different things within the framework of the character he already created, he must have been thrilled because that's what actors want to do.

When he's first introduced in the show industry, you're like, this is cool. This is like Alec Baldwin and Glenn Gary. He's going to come in and he'll be this outside force that comes through and has the best written shit and just screams and then he's gone and then these people will scurry around and try and figure out ways to please him. The fact that he has been now fully integrated as a character, this is why TV can be good. The idea that they also sit around in the offseason, they're like, what if Eric got separated?

What if Eric is saying yes to everything? You know, like, this is exciting stuff for a character and an actor this good to be doing. So that scene was amazing. Everything about it, the night out scene, including Yaz's lawyer doing handstands in the background. While Marissa Abella wears a wig, a barrister's wig, and Eric and her have cocaine-fueled candor and vulnerability. So I want to say two things about this scene. One, you know, it is well documented by many people, probably me included on pods from years back. that one of the most fundamental shifts that you can have as a viewer, as a consumer of content,

happens when you do become a parent, and suddenly you are no longer physically able to watch scenes of children in peril. That is said so often that it's boring to say it again. But every parent, I know talks about that, that they used to be able to watch. Even scenes in ET become, like, very, very hard to watch because that you cannot help but project. A lesser reported shift in viewing, I think does happen when, and this is what happened to me watching this episode of industry, where I realized that I can, for example, watch the bear stress-free. Everyone's like, it's so stressful. I do not find the bear particularly stressful.

I will say that now. What I do find almost unimaginably stressful is the sight of an adult person who has something to do in the morning going to a second location. I almost had a panic attack when he was just like, yeah, let's go somewhere else after the bar. I'm not even talking about his behavior at the after party. I was like, sir, your alarm is set. Yeah, I know. I slipped out in my skin in a degree that I never would have before. I loved it.

Yes. But they both, well, okay, he obviously was like leaking ink out of his eyes or whatever. Yasmin being like, I am fresh as the morning do as I walk around a sun-dappled London dawn. Oh, time for a cortado before popping into the office. Now, dog, what does that IV bag look like? A couple things. Yasmin, as she says, is very good at this. Yes.

This is not her first snowstorm rodeo. But two. I feel like she may have like been coming off of Tommy John surgery and needed to like maybe have a few long tosses before she got back into. I would also say she sniffs and runs. She is removed from the circumstance. at an hour that I think she could, you know, she goes home and she makes a, I was just rewatching the Parks and Rec where some sleepy time tea, Ron Swanson says after a night of drinking, he cooks himself a large flank steak in a pan of salted butter, puts on a pair of wet socks, and wakes up fine

every morning. So I assume that that's what Yasmin did. I think that Eric's night continued and continued well into the morning. So I think that that's plausible. That said, I did take issue with a 54-year-old man being upright at all, let alone at work and firing people. I also spare a brief thought for that barrister's client the next day. Let's hope it wasn't like rusty savage. So I did do a co-bender last night, but maybe they'll give me some clarity about the British legal system. In this office. I feel like her next day was the real-life version of Ray Horgan's dream where his head exploded.

Seriously, what happens when her personal assistant shows up the next day? It's rough. The kids then being dropped off for their father in that condition and then saying, what's this with the small bindle in his suit jacket? He hasn't done blue since 9-11. I mean, of all the things that ended that day, irony was one. And I guess Eric Tau's raging coke addiction. I actually would really like to know whether it was in response to 9-11.

Oh, I see. Or was a night that went into 9-11 the next morning and then was like, I really got to clean my shit up. There are many, many ways to have experienced 9-11 as a New Yorker. We both had our own versions of it. I would think walking out, blinking being like, I may be a bacon, egg, and cheese before my 10 a.m. meeting. And then seeing that, that would definitely... In my case, I bought Jay-Z's The Blueprint. but in Eric's case, perhaps something a little bit more aggressive.

The Eric and Yasmin scene of her wide-eyed, like communicating the electricity that I think is in the room there, it's so great because it's not sentimental. It's like it's character, it's using cocaine actually as like an incredible character thing rather than people snap their heads back and listen to the damn. all night.

Like vinyl. Bobby Cannavali. It's like, oh, now all of a sudden, the inhibitions and the rules that these two people usually have to adhere to of him being her boss, her needing his approval to continue her employment, etc. have like fallen by the wayside. And even though there's a world in which he could just be like, that was last night and you're still on the chopping block, I don't think it's because he's been caught in an

incriminating position by her that he keeps her on. I think it's because Kenny represents a kind of dull, safe, no ability. Well, and piety, too. And an assumption. And she's dangerous and she's also clay. And he can mold her into what he wants, which is what he wanted to do with Harper. Yeah. And Kenny sees him or sees through him or presumes to see through.

I mean, he fires him because Kenny is like, we should go to a meeting. Yeah. He's like, you're in a dark place. Yeah. And he does not want to be seen or known, certainly by his subordinates. the other thing about that scene that's that's important to note is that Mickey and Conrad, like any show said in this world, you would think that the people involved in writing it would understand money or finance, but would they understand effortlessly as wealth? And the Yasmin

character being complicated, being empathetic, being at times heroic or at least the heroic in the, we're paying attention to the show for this person's sense. When she's like, I'm actually very good at this and that she is not put off by the, the intimacy with the boss, the power dynamics are manageable, her own behavior is, you know, she understands how to navigate it, she knows what to say, how to say it, when to leave. You know, she's, but that she is, there is a quiet assumption of it. And that's, that's been a constant throughout, you know, but there's nothing to expose there. There's nothing, there's not like a moral rot at the heart of her that might come out of a more

judgmental show that has written bottom up. Yeah. You know, she is very, very good at some things. And that can be an asset. Yeah. And maybe that's what this episode did is put people in the positions where they're very, very good. Because Rob ultimately goes through something incredibly traumatic. He's kind of lost at sea, and he goes to the old reliable hookup with Nicole, which is also deeply psychologically damaging. As she spells out for him. Yeah, because she treats him the way he sees himself, which is like as unworthy, but while

also taking sexual favors from him. And I obviously, you know. And telling him he's good. And telling him is good. But she dies. Now, I don't totally understand whether she has a stroke. We got live confirmation. The one benefit of us doing this podcast is that when we started, I texted them.

And Conrad confirms that in their understanding of the scene, she has cardiac arrest. She dies of a sudden... She has a nosebleed, so that's why we were wondering whether or not. And also everybody else on the show is doing drugs. Totally. So that may be confusing, especially because Rob was often the snowman. Yeah. But he is functionally sober, I believe.

still, there are no drugs in that scene and their intent was not for it to be suggested. Yes, I mean, it was interesting because Yaz is like maybe you should stop drinking for a while, but I don't know if Rob is back or what. Really sad, and that leads to Rob going into the office. The Loomi IPO is about to go public, but at Harper's firm, they have now wizened up the fact that James Ashford has sold his position back to Loomie. And Yasmin kind of tips this with her call that Harper tries to warn her off. And then Harper, who is working for Anna, but also has an interest in working for Sarah Goldberg's character, who's this woman named Petra, who is working at Future Dawn, which is this, I think, supposed to be this green progressive investment fund.

But they are still talking about whether or not green energy is a moneymaker or is it a palliative for a terrible industry. she is talking to Petra about like, hey, maybe we, yeah, I agree with you that this is all bullshit. And maybe there's something to be done about that. So Loomi is about to go public. There's chaos on the floor. Eric's kids are discovering cocaine in his pocket. Eric cuts Kenny. He initially is going to fire Rob.

Right. And then he does not. And then we get to this sort of climactic moment where Rob is now summoned the energy to go back to work after having Nicole's body taken away by the authorities, he goes into PurePoint as having this nervous breakdown on the floor. Eric sends him back out into the battlefront, and he goes to meet with Henry as they are about to turn the IPO public at the stock exchange. The power for the stock exchange is supplied by Loomi,

and as he hits the button, the power goes out seemingly across London. Yeah, which is, again, a very, very big swing for a show that has kept things very tightly focused. Obviously, there's a ripple effect, but from the moves that Jay Duplas's character made last year, he's on television, you know, they are connected to the larger world. But this is the first time that they've done a, you know, a, I won't say global level, but a citywide event. Now, I don't think that means it's going to be escaped from London next episode. Yeah, episode two could be like, I think the lights go back on or whatever. But it does suggest their growing comfort playing with bigger and bigger.

stakes and bigger and bigger tools in the toolbox, which is very exciting. There's just a confidence. It was there. It's just grown season to season to season. And I think whatever bumps exist in this episode are gone, well, first of all, Eric takes care of them.

Secondly, there's just the briefest of like, wait, who's here, why now? And they're explaining it to me. And then after six minutes, we're just off to the races. Yeah. Yeah. We are off to the races. Another season industry. So if you're listening to this on Monday, Andy and I will be back on Thursday, and we'll be chatting about television. What are we talking about? Maybe. Bad Monkey, probably.

Okay. Or why GenVee is the definitive show. I liked my take. I don't know if it has enough of an audience here. This is the show? Yeah. Chris, this is why you're the best of what you do. You just laid down your marker. Yeah. You know, and you make, you move the industry. You move markets. I move the industry to industry. Everybody's going to respond to you now, which is how it should be. Awesome show. I'm so excited. It's back.

It feels like we've been replenished. We'll be back on Thursday. Everybody, have a great week.