This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio Market Calendars Everybody, Monday, August first, the second season of Industry making its way to HPO. It's setting a fictional investment bank in London, but it's branching out a little bit, and I gotta say the Bloomberg terminal featured in a big way. I'm
pretty excited about it. I really enjoyed season one, looking forward to season two and excited to speak to Mickey Down and Conrad k There, the writer's co creators and executive producers of HBO's drama series Industry. They join us this evening on the phone from the UK. Guys, how are you were great? Thanks? Yeah, thanks well, thank you
for having yeah, thanks so much for joining us. Hey, Conrad, I want to start with you and just give us an idea of where season two picks up here, because it's been quite a bit of time since the debut.
Is I mean, we had a pretty we had a pretty natural Hiatis from a storytelling point of view, because obviously there's a two year gap between the end of the first season and when it's Aarry in season two and he actually, I mean it gave us quite a big creative decision because obviously the biggest thing that's ever happened to workplaces in the last hundreds of years happened and we had this what were this big issue thinking, God, does anybody who actually want to watch the TV show
the features covid um but but so, But what we decided to do was sort of jump the characters forward, started them in a psychologically quite different place to where we saw them in the enter season one, and make sure that COVID was sort of textually in the story and quite kind of doing with a light touch, but also you know, make sure that they had a psychological impact of all the characters that make sure it didn't drive the plot too much, because we didn't think anybody
wanted to be plunged back into that kind of you know, working from home world. Right. Well, what we love about this is you guys were British bankers. You understand this world and it's really fun to read kind of blogs on it because people who are in the industry are like, man, they get it right, Like you really do get kind
of the field of the culture. If you will so make it come on in on this I feel like every day there's so much fardder for you guys to pull from reality when it comes to what's going on in the financial world. How do you think about the evolution of the series and the topics that you want
to cover. It's really funny because we had some really good consultants in the first on the first season and obviously me and conrades that I can finance, so you know, we're ten years out of the game, so it was really helpful to have some people who were on the ground um. And in season two we had some really really good consultants. We had some I mean, we had a sort of secret consultant is a pretty high profile
guy in the in the industry. It was not more with he was he was he was really really good at giving us some sort of air to the ground stuff. And it was really odd because all the things that we came up with this season it seems to have
come true. I mean, there were loads of there was sort of these little thing I mean, there was obviously there were some very esoteric um things to be touched on this season, the idea of cr mess and you know, there's a, there's the idea of Telly health and uh, you know, obviously response to the COVID pandemic and all that stuff. It feels like it was quite nice to be able to try and predict stuff and to what
actually happened. And you know, obviously it's a pretty tumultuous time with financial markets at the moment, which is was great for good drama. Mickey, I'm I'm wondering how, from a writing perspective you bring people up to speed on what not that they missed in season one. But since so much time has passed between the two seasons, how you remind people of what actually happened. Are we going to see some sort of previously on or how do
you handle that as as a writer. Yeah, it's a really good question, and especially since you know, because of the COVID pandemic, there's basically been two years in between the seasons. Um, I think we are we kind of you know, it's it's what the first episode the second season is a little bit of a balancing act because you want to you obviously want to throw people into the deepend and you know, not have too much throat clearing and too much reminders of what happened season one.
But obviously, especially given the time gap between the two seasons, you don't want people to be lost either. I think there probably will be a sort of season recap, but there are a few little sort of nods the first
season and reminders. But I mean, yeah, I mean it's I think I think it's even if you haven't seen the first season, I think this is this season sort of stands up and you know, we throw the characters back in and and then you know, the inside the interest of Harper coming back into work after a year of isolation is a pretty relatable one, and I feel like that sort of yeah, all right, I gotta ask you. There's a lot of sex, drugs and rock and roll in the series, and Conrad, come on in, or let's
start with you, Conrad. I mean, keep it clean. It's a family audience. But I mean, is that the reality of what you guys saw when it came to the financial world? Um? Well, look, I mean the answer we always give that question is it's obviously slightly sensationalized. When people always say, oh, is this based on your sort of biography or your live reality of working in these spaces, we obviously I mean, you know, it's not a documentary of making a se the shows, so we obviously sensationalize
things and lean into certain things. And me and Mickey, because we were creative partnership, I think we're very we're kind of a bit braver in some of how bold we are because we wrote test stuff with each other. We try and push each other and we always for some reason, maybe it because we're demented, we're always learning quite perverse places. But I mean, I think I think
look that that we love. I mean, just to talk about the sex scenes, I mean, I know you have a family audience, but like we're very proud of people always like, oh it was in gratuousness, is it objectifying? And like we actually think in season two there's actually more sex, but weirdly it's more character based. We feel like we're telling more story. And it was a very it was the kind of the the dialogue we were
having between the actors, the intimacy coordinators, the producers. It was a very much a kind of concerted effort to make those things really feel like they were earning their place in the show. And the one thing I will say for the people put off by the sex and the drugs in the season one, and I obviously you
have a more financially skewed audience. Me and miss You're incredibly proud of the finance story that anchors season two in a way that in a way that we would I mean, in a way that we never really dug We never dug up into the real weeds of that starting season one, and we've been in season two. We've actually rendered it even more authentically. Well, Mickey, come on in and finish up with us if you could, because I do love that you guys get into hedge funds
and the private wealth management division. We talked about it here. I mean, people in our world are getting richer and richer, and they just need more and more advisors in private wealth divisions to manage it all. Mhmm yeah. I mean it's it's depicture of private wealth management is I'd say it's pretty sensationalized. I mean, I actually did an internship in private wealth management as my first ever job outside out of university, and this is us a little bit
of a piece of revenge against him. I think we're not giving me a job at the end of it. There are personal aspects that make their way into it. So guys, um, no banking after this, you're completely done with banking. Does it make you want to get back and do it? Give it another shot? Banking is done with us? I think I think banking med it's it's mind up when you know the con and they pushed me very very keenly towards the door. Well yeah, but you know it is. But it is funny actually writing
about it. And wouldn't me and Mickey have this awful term for it where we're not in finance anymore because we're writing about it, we're kind of finance Jason, And you do you realize how you realize just how many incredibly unique and strange and idiosyncratic characters are in that world? And it's I don't know. We have an incredible looking back right with ten years time, so we have incredible amount of actions for that world and all the people
who work in it. Well, looking forward to seeing these stories layout As we said August, first second season of Industry making its way to get to HBO, Mickey down Conrad k Rotors, co creators executive producers of Industry joining us on the phone from UK. I can't wait. I love the show,