The first two seasons of HBO’s banking drama “Industry” focused on Gen Zers overwhelmed by the brutality of high finance. The show’s third season focuses on the characters embracing their monstrosity head-on. Filled with breathtaking betrayals, horrific choices and new regrettable characters, Season 3 of “Industry” proves that its central characters are done with child’s play: They’ve sharpened their claws and are ready to commit the murder.

Created by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, Season 3 of "Industry" opens on the coast of Mallorca, Spain. A bikini-clad Yasmin (Marisa Abela) is seen partying on her father's yacht, a space in stark contrast to the claustrophobic couch floor of Pierpoint & Co.'s gloomy London offices. Yasmin, fed up with the sun, ventures into her cabin to find her father, Charles Hanani (Arthur Levy), sprawled across her bed, performing oral sex on a pregnant yacht worker. Just as quickly, the series jumps forward six weeks. Back on Pierpoint in the U.K., the publishing heiress is working at Harper's former desk (Myha'la) on Eric's (a terrific Ken Leung) sales team. Unfortunately, her naiveté and her father's recent disappearance after embezzling millions from his own company have made her both a target for the paparazzi and a liability to the bank.

Robert (Harry Lawtey) is the only character with a shred of humanity, having been promoted to associate level at Pierpoint. He’s been tasked with looking after the volatile Sir Henry Muck (an impeccably cast Kit Harington) after the disastrous flotation of his green energy tech company, Lumi. After being ousted from Pierpoint at the end of season 2, Harper (somehow even meaner) has found a role as an assistant at ethical hedge FutureDawn, run by Anna Gearing (Elena Saurel) and her scheming portfolio manager, Petra Koenig (Sarah Goldberg). But Harper is no office boy. Seeing a kindred spirit in Petra’s barely contained ambition and desperate to get back into trading, Harper forms an alliance with the stony blonde. It’s a partnership that could revitalize her career at the expense of her former employer and Yasmin, the only person she seems to have an emotional bond with.

That’s what makes “Industry” so special. Amid the often bewildering jargon of finance, Down and Kay’s series has never been more topical. It manages to put “woke investing” front and center via Lumi, while showing how absurd the idea of ethical investing really is. Over the course of eight episodes, viewers see on every street corner how perceived social responsibility cannot hide a rotten core.