Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio Market Calendars Everybody, Monday,
Speaker 1: August first, the second season of Industry making its way
Speaker 1: to HPO. It's setting a fictional investment bank in London,
Speaker 1: but it's branching out a little bit, and I gotta
Speaker 1: say the Bloomberg terminal featured in a big way. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty excited about it. I really enjoyed season one, looking
Speaker 1: forward to season two and excited to speak to Mickey
Speaker 1: Down and Conrad k There, the writer's co creators and
Speaker 1: executive producers of HBO's drama series Industry. They join us
Speaker 1: this evening on the phone from the UK. Guys, how
Speaker 1: are you were great? Thanks? Yeah, thanks well, thank you
Speaker 1: for having yeah, thanks so much for joining us. Hey, Conrad,
Speaker 1: I want to start with you and just give us
Speaker 1: an idea of where season two picks up here, because
Speaker 1: it's been quite a bit of time since the debut.
Speaker 1: Is I mean, we had a pretty we had a
Speaker 1: pretty natural Hiatis from a storytelling point of view, because
Speaker 1: obviously there's a two year gap between the end of
Speaker 1: the first season and when it's Aarry in season two
Speaker 1: and he actually, I mean it gave us quite a
Speaker 1: big creative decision because obviously the biggest thing that's ever
Speaker 1: happened to workplaces in the last hundreds of years happened
Speaker 1: and we had this what were this big issue thinking, God,
Speaker 1: does anybody who actually want to watch the TV show
Speaker 1: the features covid um but but so, But what we
Speaker 1: decided to do was sort of jump the characters forward,
Speaker 1: started them in a psychologically quite different place to where
Speaker 1: we saw them in the enter season one, and make
Speaker 1: sure that COVID was sort of textually in the story
Speaker 1: and quite kind of doing with a light touch, but
Speaker 1: also you know, make sure that they had a psychological
Speaker 1: impact of all the characters that make sure it didn't
Speaker 1: drive the plot too much, because we didn't think anybody
Speaker 1: wanted to be plunged back into that kind of you know,
Speaker 1: working from home world. Right. Well, what we love about
Speaker 1: this is you guys were British bankers. You understand this
Speaker 1: world and it's really fun to read kind of blogs
Speaker 1: on it because people who are in the industry are like, man,
Speaker 1: they get it right, Like you really do get kind
Speaker 1: of the field of the culture. If you will so
Speaker 1: make it come on in on this I feel like
Speaker 1: every day there's so much fardder for you guys to
Speaker 1: pull from reality when it comes to what's going on
Speaker 1: in the financial world. How do you think about the
Speaker 1: evolution of the series and the topics that you want
Speaker 1: to cover. It's really funny because we had some really
Speaker 1: good consultants in the first on the first season and
Speaker 1: obviously me and conrades that I can finance, so you know,
Speaker 1: we're ten years out of the game, so it was
Speaker 1: really helpful to have some people who were on the
Speaker 1: ground um. And in season two we had some really
Speaker 1: really good consultants. We had some I mean, we had
Speaker 1: a sort of secret consultant is a pretty high profile
Speaker 1: guy in the in the industry. It was not more
Speaker 1: with he was he was he was really really good
Speaker 1: at giving us some sort of air to the ground stuff.
Speaker 1: And it was really odd because all the things that
Speaker 1: we came up with this season it seems to have
Speaker 1: come true. I mean, there were loads of there was
Speaker 1: sort of these little thing I mean, there was obviously
Speaker 1: there were some very esoteric um things to be touched
Speaker 1: on this season, the idea of cr mess and you know,
Speaker 1: there's a, there's the idea of Telly health and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously response to the COVID pandemic and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. It feels like it was quite nice to
Speaker 1: be able to try and predict stuff and to what
Speaker 1: actually happened. And you know, obviously it's a pretty tumultuous
Speaker 1: time with financial markets at the moment, which is was
Speaker 1: great for good drama. Mickey, I'm I'm wondering how, from
Speaker 1: a writing perspective you bring people up to speed on
Speaker 1: what not that they missed in season one. But since
Speaker 1: so much time has passed between the two seasons, how
Speaker 1: you remind people of what actually happened. Are we going
Speaker 1: to see some sort of previously on or how do
Speaker 1: you handle that as as a writer. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: really good question, and especially since you know, because of
Speaker 1: the COVID pandemic, there's basically been two years in between
Speaker 1: the seasons. Um, I think we are we kind of
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's what the first episode the second
Speaker 1: season is a little bit of a balancing act because
Speaker 1: you want to you obviously want to throw people into
Speaker 1: the deepend and you know, not have too much throat
Speaker 1: clearing and too much reminders of what happened season one.
Speaker 1: But obviously, especially given the time gap between the two seasons,
Speaker 1: you don't want people to be lost either. I think
Speaker 1: there probably will be a sort of season recap, but
Speaker 1: there are a few little sort of nods the first
Speaker 1: season and reminders. But I mean, yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: I think I think it's even if you haven't seen
Speaker 1: the first season, I think this is this season sort
Speaker 1: of stands up and you know, we throw the characters
Speaker 1: back in and and then you know, the inside the
Speaker 1: interest of Harper coming back into work after a year
Speaker 1: of isolation is a pretty relatable one, and I feel
Speaker 1: like that sort of yeah, all right, I gotta ask you.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of sex, drugs and rock and roll
Speaker 1: in the series, and Conrad, come on in, or let's
Speaker 1: start with you, Conrad. I mean, keep it clean. It's
Speaker 1: a family audience. But I mean, is that the reality
Speaker 1: of what you guys saw when it came to the
Speaker 1: financial world? Um? Well, look, I mean the answer we
Speaker 1: always give that question is it's obviously slightly sensationalized. When
Speaker 1: people always say, oh, is this based on your sort
Speaker 1: of biography or your live reality of working in these spaces,
Speaker 1: we obviously I mean, you know, it's not a documentary
Speaker 1: of making a se the shows, so we obviously sensationalize
Speaker 1: things and lean into certain things. And me and Mickey,
Speaker 1: because we were creative partnership, I think we're very we're
Speaker 1: kind of a bit braver in some of how bold
Speaker 1: we are because we wrote test stuff with each other.
Speaker 1: We try and push each other and we always for
Speaker 1: some reason, maybe it because we're demented, we're always learning
Speaker 1: quite perverse places. But I mean, I think I think
Speaker 1: look that that we love. I mean, just to talk
Speaker 1: about the sex scenes, I mean, I know you have
Speaker 1: a family audience, but like we're very proud of people
Speaker 1: always like, oh it was in gratuousness, is it objectifying?
Speaker 1: And like we actually think in season two there's actually
Speaker 1: more sex, but weirdly it's more character based. We feel
Speaker 1: like we're telling more story. And it was a very
Speaker 1: it was the kind of the the dialogue we were
Speaker 1: having between the actors, the intimacy coordinators, the producers. It
Speaker 1: was a very much a kind of concerted effort to
Speaker 1: make those things really feel like they were earning their
Speaker 1: place in the show. And the one thing I will
Speaker 1: say for the people put off by the sex and
Speaker 1: the drugs in the season one, and I obviously you
Speaker 1: have a more financially skewed audience. Me and miss You're
Speaker 1: incredibly proud of the finance story that anchors season two
Speaker 1: in a way that in a way that we would
Speaker 1: I mean, in a way that we never really dug
Speaker 1: We never dug up into the real weeds of that
Speaker 1: starting season one, and we've been in season two. We've
Speaker 1: actually rendered it even more authentically. Well, Mickey, come on
Speaker 1: in and finish up with us if you could, because
Speaker 1: I do love that you guys get into hedge funds
Speaker 1: and the private wealth management division. We talked about it here.
Speaker 1: I mean, people in our world are getting richer and richer,
Speaker 1: and they just need more and more advisors in private
Speaker 1: wealth divisions to manage it all. Mhmm yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: it's it's depicture of private wealth management is I'd say
Speaker 1: it's pretty sensationalized. I mean, I actually did an internship
Speaker 1: in private wealth management as my first ever job outside
Speaker 1: out of university, and this is us a little bit
Speaker 1: of a piece of revenge against him. I think we're
Speaker 1: not giving me a job at the end of it.
Speaker 1: There are personal aspects that make their way into it.
Speaker 1: So guys, um, no banking after this, you're completely done
Speaker 1: with banking. Does it make you want to get back
Speaker 1: and do it? Give it another shot? Banking is done
Speaker 1: with us? I think I think banking med it's it's
Speaker 1: mind up when you know the con and they pushed
Speaker 1: me very very keenly towards the door. Well yeah, but
Speaker 1: you know it is. But it is funny actually writing
Speaker 1: about it. And wouldn't me and Mickey have this awful
Speaker 1: term for it where we're not in finance anymore because
Speaker 1: we're writing about it, we're kind of finance Jason, And
Speaker 1: you do you realize how you realize just how many
Speaker 1: incredibly unique and strange and idiosyncratic characters are in that world?
Speaker 1: And it's I don't know. We have an incredible looking
Speaker 1: back right with ten years time, so we have incredible
Speaker 1: amount of actions for that world and all the people
Speaker 1: who work in it. Well, looking forward to seeing these
Speaker 1: stories layout As we said August, first second season of
Speaker 1: Industry making its way to get to HBO, Mickey down
Speaker 1: Conrad k Rotors, co creators executive producers of Industry joining
Speaker 1: us on the phone from UK. I can't wait. I
Speaker 1: love the show,