“It was in the ether of British politics, but when we started writing the script or shooting it it wasn’t front and centre, and then it actually came up as a front-page topic of BBC talk,” Kay says.
Season 4 of HBO’s sexy and hilarious financial drama continues, premiering Sunday IndustryExpanding beyond the cut-throat world of investment banking into technology, porn, age verification and politics. As the season begins, top executives at Tendar, a fintech company that recently went public, are in a battle over whether to continue processing payments for Siren, an adult platform similar to OnlyFans. While Siren and other gambling and porn companies make up a good portion of the tender’s revenue, some tender officials are scared off by threats of new age-verification laws and anti-porn rhetoric coming from the UK Labor Party and feel there is much to be gained from cleaning up their act.
In fact, the UK’s Online Safety Act, which requires people to verify their age before viewing porn and other restricted content, came into effect in July 2025, when K&Down pitched the story for it. IndustryMost recent season. Nevertheless, its effect was similar to that felt by sirens. Pornhub’s UK traffic has fallen by nearly 80 percent in light of the rules, and it faces similar challenges in the US, where half of the states have enacted age verification laws. In December, members of Congress considered 19 bills aimed at protecting children and teens online, though critics have said some of them are unconstitutional.
“It kind of shows how fragile free speech absolutism is,” says Down, describing “hugely varying” opinions on the issue, ranging from puritanism even within liberal enclaves to the censorious “stop everything” approach of conservatives.
Whereas Industry It has been somewhat of a sleeper hit for HBO, ultimately succeeding during Season 3, with its viewership for the premiere increasing by 60 percent compared to the Season 2 premiere. Season 4 builds on that momentum very effectively, and feels more prescient than ever.
“We’ve got the OnlyFans piece and then we’ve got the fintech piece, and then we’ve got the fraud piece,” Kay says. But then, “in the back half of the season, we got the major face of totalitarianism in the UK and US.”
The new season spends more time with junior banker and part-time OnlyFans model Sweetpea Golightly, who keeps her face away from his adult material, but still finds her identity exposed without her consent. It’s a more nuanced look at what happens to modern online sex workers, who are often portrayed in far more black and white terms on TV.
“She started off Season 3 like, I am a strong woman. I have this OnlyFans account. i never leave money on the tableIn Season 4, we’re seeing what it looks like when change begins,” says Down, “It can be empowering and exploitative,”
In fact, almost every character Industry Both empowering and exploitative depending on the circumstances. And while the latest season is particularly newsy, the most entertaining part of the show may be watching them peel back those complex, and often unpleasant layers.
Last season featured heiress Yasmin, played by Marisa Abella, as she dealt with the consequences of her Epstein-like father’s disappearance – for which she was arguably partially responsible – and grappled with the extent of his abuse. Despite being victimized by her violent nature since childhood, Yasmin also manipulates the other women around her, a pattern that continues in Season 4, as she navigates her new marriage with old-money aristocrat turned failed technocrat, Sir Henry Mak (Kit Harington).
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