It's A Dirty Job But Someone's Gotta Do It:Industry S2

"If you stop producing, you're simply a cost" - Bill Adler 

Investment banking. It IS dirty job but, unlike in Faith No More's deathless We Care A Lot, nobody has to do it. Nobody in their right mind should want to do it either. Series two of Konrad Kay and Mickey Down's Industry (BBC1/iPlayer) could hardly have screened at a more apposite time. Following the disaster of Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget, or 'fiscal event' and in the dying days of the collapsing Liz Truss regime what could be better than a look into the world of rich, privileged bankers. At people who would sell their own grandmothers if they got a good enough price.

A world of cryptocurrencies, headset phones, drinks after work in Slug & Lettuce pubs, handjobs in the back of taxis, shooting weekends, Bloomberg, Tough Mudder, posh people making podcasts, profiteering off the pandemic, snorting coke, Brexit, a race to the bottom between London and New York to see which city can accrue the most wealth, and people in suits who endlessly blather on about "due diligence" and "granularity", and who, like Truss and Kwarteng, genuinely seem to believe in the discredited theory of "trickle down economics".

Whereas, in the first series, most of the key players were merely objectionable. The second season begins with each and every one of them acting like a complete and utter cunt. Industry series two seems to be a much harsher critique of both the lifestyle and those that live it. I felt nothing but contempt for every single, brilliantly portrayed, character and I wondered how that would sustain me though eight hour long episodes.

I had to believe that these ghastly caricatures would be fleshed out - and eventually they were. But it took some time. Yasmin (Marisa Abela) has become one of the bullies she once railed against it. She was the character I was most sympathetic too in the first series but seeing her now I wonder if that's just because she's very pretty. I was two years younger, and hornier, then so it's not impossible I gave her the benefit of the doubt.

This time round, she's dealing with some daddy issues and courting the business of Jesse 'Mr Covid' Bloom (Jay Duplass). Both Jesse Bloom and Yasmin's father, Charles (Adam Levy) are clearly pricks but they're different kinds of pricks. Charles seems to have slept with, or tried to have slept with, every woman he's ever met and is forever judgemental of every person he meets and every room he visits. Jesse Bloom first appears spouting that old "Hell is other people" cliche.

A quote from Jean-Paul Sartre's 1944 play No Exit and one that tends to be used by people who haven't considered the fact that to everyone else in the world they are "other people". Like a lot of wankers, Jesse Bloom is minted. Obnoxious though he is, Ken Leung's Eric is worse. As the staff at Pierpoint & Co return to the office after a spell working from home, Eric's not forgotten to bring his best friend with him. A baseball bat.

He's an unimaginably self-inflated bully but he's losing his touch at work to younger men like foul-mouthed, but at least funny Rishi (Sagar Radia), the squeaky clean American import Danny Van Deventer - or DVD (Alex Alomar Akpobome), and the supposedly reformed pint size pisspot of resentment and rage that calls itself Kenny (Conor MacNeill). Eric's desk is being moved closer to the door and he doesn't like that one little bit.

Like the second lockdown, everyone's being nastier to each other and, like our current government, nobody even pretends to care anymore. Eric wants Harper (Myha'la Herrold) to get help with her mental health. Harper doesn't think that's necessary. Harper regularly falls out with Rishi and her relationship with Yasmin is at an all time low.

Nobody seems to like anyone else. Everybody seems to hate each other as much as I found myself hating them. Robert (Harry Lawtey) is being upstaged by Venetia (Indy Lewis) who he's supposed to be mentoring while at the same time not having much luck on dating apps. Yasmin's screwing around but seems to have a special interest in Celeste (Katrine De Candole) who, of course, is a pretty vile, self-satisfied, individual.

As Yasmin says of her and her colleagues, "we're all cunts, aren't we? So let's just lean into it". Gus (David Jonsson) has moved away from Pierrepont and is tasked with tutoring Jesse's wayward son Leo (Leo Bloom, yes - they went there, is played by the excellently named Sonny Poon Tip) whom he only goes and starts sleeping with.

Gus is perhaps the most sympathetic character in the whole series. Which is not something I thought I'd ever say about somebody who goes to work for the Tory party. Specifically for the upwardly mobile MP Aurore Adekunle (Faith Alabi) who has a picture of herself with Boris Johnson up in her office. Marking her out, instantly, as yet another tosser.

Aurore is campaigning under the slogan of Britain Deserves Better which, after twelve years of Tory misrule, is a bit fucking rich. When Robert tries to win over the business of an older lady, Nicole (Sarah Parish), he embarks on a sexual relationship with her and when Felim (Andrew Buchan), Pierpoint's biggest client, joins a shooting trip he ends up being shot in the face by Jesse. Just for shits and giggles.

There are some really odd insults. "Fuck off you Canada goose nonce" was particularly bizarre although when someone is referred to as a "Maggie loving cunt" it makes more sense and could reasonably be applied to everyone in Industry. The entitlement is so stark that at one point Jesse Bloom remarks that, to him, "the concept of a buffet is absolutely abhorrent".

Even when the characters have sex, and they have it often, it's rarely tender or loving. It's always very athletic and it's usually quite rough. There's lots of grunts, sighs, and the sound of fleshy appendages banging away on other flesh. The music, a near constant in Industry, even stops completely so we can hear these sounds much clearer and so we can fully appreciate a shot of freshly jizzed on midriff.

At least the music is good. Quite an eclectic mix too. From Talking Heads, PiL, The Velvet Underground, and GZA to Christine & The Queens, Jamie XX, Kanye West's Sunday Service Choir, and 070 Shake. With a special shout out for both Inner City's Good Life and State Of Independence by Jon & Vangelis.

It almost seems to be too good for this lot who swan around their huge office drinking coffee, shouting at each other, making jokes about Gary Glitter and Raoul Moat, and, at one point, paying tribute to The Office with both a stapler ensconsed in jelly and a rendition of the infamous David Brent 'dance'.

Despite the general unpleasantness of all the characters, it remains watchable throughout. But it took some time, a good four or five episodes, before I began to care about the characters and it wasn't until the final couple of hours that I was properly gripped. When Yasmin finds out the truth about her dad, when Harper goes in search of a brother she's not seen for years, and when Harry visits his own dad in Oxford. We even get, briefly, a glimpse into Eric's home life.

Nothing about their backgrounds can excuse their characters but it does, perhaps, explain a little of why they've turned out this way and it does, definitely, lift a slightly disappointing second series to something closer to the majesty of the first. It seems unlike we're going to become more sympathetic to investment bankers any time soon under this government so if a third series does go ahead, and they wish to continue on this trajectory,. they'll probably need to turn one of them into Jeffrey Dahmer or something.