10 TV Shows Like Industry That You Should Watch in the Future.
At the beginning of the HBO series ” Industry,” recent graduates working at the prestigious investment bank Pierpoint & Co. are given a challenge: with so many of them and so few full-time positions available, they’ll have to prove their worth if they want to stay. They rise to the challenge by doing whatever it takes.
Renewed for a fifth and final season, Industry has become the most compelling look yet at the world of financial magnates (of either gender) and modern office workers, a more sophisticated Glengarry Glen Ross- style take on the streaming era. While you wait for this tale of disaster capitalism to return, check out these 10 other shows that make work seem even more stressful than it actually is.
Sweet Bittersweet (2018–2019)
Instead of the financial world, “Sweetbitter” takes us to restaurant culture, but the show doesn’t have the same tension, intensity, and competition—which is probably unsurprising if you’ve seen “The Bear.” The series is based on Stephanie Danler’s novel of the same name, based on her experiences as a waitress in New York City (she also created the series and wrote the pilot), so a certain level of verisimilitude can be assumed. Ella Purnell of “Yellowjackets ” plays Tess, a 21-year-old at the start of the series who arrives in the city with big dreams. She lands a job at an upscale restaurant where, as we (and she) quickly learn, there’s at least as much drama (including drugs, alcohol, and sex) going on in the service department as in the kitchen. Watch “Sweetbitter” on Prime Video .
Misaen: An Incomplete Life (2014)
This critically acclaimed series, which premiered on Netflix, delivers a powerful, tense, and universally realistic take on the world of office work in South Korea. Im Si-wan plays Jang Geu-rae, a young man who has always dreamed of becoming a professional baduk player (the game you know as Go). However, by his early twenties, it becomes clear that this isn’t destined to happen, and all he can do is take a temporary office job as a contractor at a shipping company. A complete outsider, he’s even less prepared than the other interns for a high-stress world where work-life balance is nearly impossible. The intensity of the series is reminiscent of Industry , but there’s hope in Geu-rae’s determination not to lose himself.Watch Misaeng: Incomplete Life on Netflix and Tubi .
Billions (2016–2023)
Less geared toward a younger British audience and more of a cat-and-mouse game, this series is a (darkly) satirical dive into the shady world of high finance. Paul Giamatti is relentless as US Attorney Chuck Rhodes (partially based on the real-life Preet Bharara), who tries to expose shady hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis). Styled like a darkly comic soap opera, the series has remained fresh over seven seasons thanks to the contrast between Axelrod’s willingness to use all the money and power at his disposal to stay on top and stay out of jail, and Rhodes’s willingness to resort to questionable, less-than-legal methods to land his big fish. Watch Billions on Paramount+ and Prime Video .
How to Succeed in America (2010–2011)
It’s perhaps a bit counter-programmatic in this tragicomedy about a pair of high-spirited New York outsiders who would never fit into the “Industry” crowd. And yet! There’s a sense that achieving success requires incredible entrepreneurship, and that the pursuit of great success conceals the potential for even greater failure. Bryan Greenberg plays Ben Epstein, a quiet guy with a lot of big ideas, and Victor Rasuk is the gregarious, often shameless Cam Calderon. Together, they run a clothing startup with neither money nor experience, and perhaps amicably navigate their way to success. It’s like “Industry,” if that show were about nicer, funnier guys who are at their best when they know how to get out of trouble. Watch “How to Make It in America” on HBO Max andNetflix .
Expelled (2022)
The story of Theranos founder and fraudster Elizabeth Holmes has become quite amusing over time, not least because some of her influential backers are now president of the United States. Amanda Seyfried plays the “entrepreneur,” whose rise and precipitous fall have already been the subject of several documentaries. It all begins at 18, when she dropped out of Stanford to create a startup based on a home blood-testing machine that completely failed. Years of charming prominent investors with big promises, coordinated lies, and skillfully falsified results lead to big money for Theranos and numerous misdiagnoses for patients. Watch “The Dropout” on Hulu .
WeCrashed (2022)
Another true story of big business and epic failure. It stars Jared Leto, Anne Hathaway, and Kyle Marvin as the co-founders of WeWork, the (eventually) billion-dollar coworking space rental company. At the center are Adam and Rebecca Neumann, played by Leto and Hathaway, portrayed as simultaneously deluded and calculating, acting like almost toxically kind cult leaders, firing people for getting in their faces at the wrong time. The company’s downfall comes when it files its now-infamous S-1 form to go public, confidently documenting massive losses, highly unstable financial arrangements, and the strange relationship between the Neumanns and the company as a whole. But don’t worry, this story has a happy ending: WeWork lost billions, but the Neumanns remain very, very rich. Watch WeCrashed on Apple TV.
“Mad Men” (2007–2015)
Mad Men is a deservedly acclaimed premium series, and in many ways a prototype for Industry ; both series feature characters with a depth worthy of a novel and operate in incredibly cynical and tense environments. The mid-century New York advertising agency setting contrasts with the modern London financial center, yet the tension and excess blend harmoniously. Watch Mad Men on HBO Max.
Boiling Point (2023)
Returning to the restaurant business, the BBC One series “Boiling Point” is a direct sequel to the 2021 film , though you don’t need to have seen the original to watch it—it follows the film’s protagonist, Andy Jones (Stephen Graham), as he recovers from a heart attack caused by stress and drug abuse, while the lead actress and Andy’s former sous-chef, Carly (Vinette Robinson), has lured away much of the old staff to open a new establishment called “Point North.” The series explores the tense atmosphere of a restaurant startup and the personal lives of its employees, and Andy’s fall from grace cleverly offers insight into the possible futures of the determined employees. Watch “Boiling Point” on Prime Video .
Skins (2007–2013)
I call this series a prequel to Industry (though it’s absolutely not), as it deals with similar themes in a (mostly) high school setting. Skins makes it clear that adolescence is a real cauldron of pressure, and it feels like any of these intense, competitive, and often party-loving characters could have ended up on Industry —and, in fact, in the final season of Skins , Effy Stonem, once played by Kaya Scodelario, takes a job in finance (and begins insider trading) in a storyline that feels very much like a mini -Industry . The popular and controversial British series launched the careers of actors like Nicholas Hoult, Daniel Kaluuya, and Dev Patel, while tackling sensitive issues like mental illness, drug abuse, and bullying. Check out Freya Mavor (Daria Greenock from “Industry “) in both series. Watch “Skins” on Hulu .
Halt and Catch Fire (2014–2017)
This series, which went largely unnoticed for four seasons, offers a (largely) fictionalized portrait of the rise of personal computers in the 1980s and the early days of the internet in the 1990s. Lee Pace plays Joe MacMillan, an antihero who leaves IBM in 1983 to join the fictional Cardiff Electric Company. He’s charismatic, manipulative, and not very tech-savvy, yet he dreams of creating the next big technological innovation—starting with reverse engineering the IBM PC. The series has appeared on numerous critics’ best-of lists and has a stunning opening sequence. And did I mention Lee Pace? Watch Halt and Catch Fire on Prime Video .