Captains of Industry set sail

IT WAS PERHAPS INEVITABLE THAT THE CAST OF INDUSTRY would find themselves on a yacht.

- ELIANA DOCKTERMAN

The show, which follows a group of Gen Z bankers working in the City, London's Wall Street, focuses as much on its characters taking designer drugs in Berlin clubs or having sex in the office as it does on them making high-stakes trades. Which is to say they party hard-and, this season, they do it on a vessel off the coast of Mallorca. That this pivotal scene was actually shot in the Mediterranean and not some oversize bathtub on the show's usual soundstage in the damp and cloudy city of Cardiff, Wales, is one of many signs that Industry is getting a glow-up. "Mallorca was a nice change of scenery," jokes star Marisa Abela over a video call.

In the opening scene of the third season, which premieres on HBO on Aug. 11, Abela's character Yasmin leans over the railing of the Lady Yasmin, named after her by her publishing-magnate father. She takes drags of a cigarette between glugs of champagne. When she turns around, her face is streaked with tears. A gawker snaps a picture, which will wind up in the tabloids, reminiscent of paparazzi shots of Princess Diana or Amy Winehouse, the latter of whom Abela played in a biopic this year. One might be tempted to say, "Poor little rich girl," if we hadn't spent two seasons watching her relationship with her father deteriorate.

Yasmin's American friend Harper (Myha'la), adorned with tattoos and designer sunglasses, tells her curtly, but not without compassion, "You have to stop crying." It's a brief moment, but one the show will return to in repeated flashbacks. Because unlike past seasons, this one focuses on a mystery. Yasmin's father, who it turns out is a crook, has disappeared. His last known location: this yacht.