49 Thoughts I Had While Watching the ‘Industry’ Season 4 Premiere

January 12, 2026 / Kevin harson /

Industrialists, we are so back. Everyone’s favorite blend of Succession, The Big Short, Veep, and some secret fourth thing I can’t quite put my finger on (maybe Euphoria?) is back for its fourth season, and I, for one, have gone way too long without seeing Myha’la on my TV screen every week.

Below, find quite literally every thought I had about Season 4, Episode 1 of the HBO series Industry—perfectly, if somewhat appallingly, titled “PayPal of Bukkake”:

The dog barking onscreen just riled up my actual, three-dimensional dog, but that’s not really relevant to the plot of this episode, so…onward.
KIERNAN SHIPKA, baby!
Sally Draper stans, we are up huge.
Seriously, those of us who paused our Mad Men rewatch to start this episode of Industry are being richly rewarded.
Are we okay with me referring to Kiernan’s character exclusively as Grown Sally Draper? Because I’m going to.
Grown Sally Draper, girl, don’t sleep with Jim.
God, clubs and the drugs you do therein are so fun.
…I’ve heard.
A little Beach House needle drop…we love to hear it.
Harper! In a slate-gray trench over a turtleneck! Impossibly fab.
The concept of this woman having seen all she has seen in the business world at the tender age of 30…
Sweetpea, ILY always and forever.
“Soft techno music playing” is really this whole show embodied in a closed caption, isn’t it?
I just put it together that Whitney is played by the actor who played Danny Castellano’s handsome gay brother on The Mindy Project.
…Also known as Max Minghella, to those of you who aren’t completely sitcom-pilled.
I yearn in an ancient and primordial way to put a drink on Rishi’s tab.
Actually, given that he just earnestly used the word “milkers,” I’m simply stealing his credit card and going on a Bond Street shopping spree.
Harper is making me feel like I could pull off a tiny little nose ring, which I just…couldn’t, let’s be real.
“Why should wealth management be only for the one percent?” Great question, Tender PSA.
“Sucking, fucking, rolling the dice!” Welcome back, Roman Roy.
Oop, shots indirectly fired at Graza.
I mean, not directly, but I know how to read some shady DTC-olive oil subtext.
I Want What They Have: Harper and her insouciantly chewed wad of gum.
“What is pornography, anyway? Do feet count?” LOL.
I mean, yeah, feet count, IMO. (No shade! Sell those feet pics, enterprising Industralists!)
I wish it were ever appropriate in my life to yell, “I’m the fucking CEO!”
Harper and Kwabena! Okay!
Harper is a better woman than me when it comes to being screamed at by beet-red white men.
I completely forgot about the concept of “peerage” and the fact that it still exists in the UK.
Honestly, I probably learned about it in the first place from The Crown.
BRB, googling the word “sesquipedalian.”
Likely word to pass out and crash through a glass coffee table while trying to use in conversation, TBH.
Oop, Ashford’s officially down.
Everybody stop screaming at Harper, for the love of God.
Or near Harper, for that matter.
“Wanking is utilitarian.” Tea, I fear.
I hope Otto dies ❤️.
Get him again, Harper!
Tao-ists, we’re up huge (in that he’s smoking a cigar on a golf course with some forgettable-looking old, rich white guys).
A little funemployment stubble looks good on Tao, I must say.
Can Harper coax him out of retirement for one last job, though?!?
I thought Tao derisively said “dating at 30 years old,” not “gating,” and at 32, I felt extremely attacked.
I do not adore hearing a woman referred to as a “pommel horse,” but that’s the joy of HBO’s Industry, I suppose.
Vogue mention! Everybody drink!
I mean, I’m watching this at noon PST on Monday with a coffee, but I’m drinking in spirit.
England should make me the new Minister for Industry. Just an idea.
Yasmin’s jacket is cunty.
Harper and Whitney, sitting in a tree! P-E-G-G-I-N-G!
Suck it, Otto, because Harper and Tao are once again in a boardroom together—just like in the opening scene of the pilot!—and (tentatively) Back in Business.