Weekly Rewind

This week two shows tackled genre-shifting approaches for pivotal episodes. While one found great success with a risk-taking bottle episode, the other took a leap of faith reaping questionable results. (Spoilers ahead)

Coming off a record-breaking episode, HBO’s corporate finance drama, Industry, scored another homerun with its single-character-focused entry. In the episode entitled “White Mischief,” cameras follow a chaotic day in the life of Pierpoint’s floor trader Rishi (Sagar Radia). Always seen in the background of whatever is happening to our main leads (Harper, Robert & Yasmin), Rishi takes center stage as viewers eat a hefty slice of his life. Fueled by Rishi’s various vices, the episode plays like a short within Adam Sandler’s Uncut Gems.

Central to Rishi’s issues (apart from his proximity to whiteness) is his gambling addiction. His glutton for risky business has him drowning in debt, cheating on his wife, and robbing Peter to pay Paul. Shit hits the fan when his vice permeates at work, balancing billions on a gut feeling.

Radia’s megawatt performance carries the episode, leaving viewers on the edge of their seats up to the final shot. With this season feeling like Industry’s coronation, expect Radia and “White Mischief” to be nominated plenty in 2025.

Industry airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO and Max.

On the other end of the spectrum was Peacock’s season three finale of Bel-Air. The imaginative reboot of the 90s sitcom reaped success with its unique formula of modernized nostalgia. However where the long-awaited season landed after 10 episodes feels like a dramatic push over the edge.

The season felt rushed with the characters’ conflicts solved by each episode’s end, almost like the original sitcom. By the time episode nine arrived, little drama remained, leaving the show juggling multiple cliffhangers from the expected to the unthinkable.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR BEL-AIR SEASON THREE FINALE

Everything with Geoffery worked for me. Even OG Geoffery’s cameo as a London crime lord settling a score was great. Jimmy Akingbola’s take as a man with a specific set of skills was always interesting and delivered one of my wishes for the show — the perfect pivot to him gaining a spinoff a la Gangs of London.

However, all hope for something like that died with the various other endings. I can’t even compose complete sentences, so I’ve gathered my thoughts in bullet points.

• Are we really doing the Baby Nicky storyline in 2024?

  • The only way I can see this working is by exploring the perils of Black maternal health. But I also don’t want to see Aunt Viv struggle through that.

• Stop playing with Cousin Ashley

  • She didn’t have an actual storyline until midway through the episode. And while we know she’s queer, she doesn’t queer it up enough.

• Did Will take part in the construction site vandalism?

  • I do not remember him being present, and then he was.

• Hillary losing LaMarcus should have been the last scene

  • We should have received an Ugly Betty-season-one-finale level scene from Coco

• Where have they taken Will?

  • Are we going to London in S4? Shit, is the show renewed?

All three seasons of Bel-Air are available on Peacock.

In other streams, Apple TV’s Slow Horses returned with a taut mystery as a car bomber sets off a chain of events directly impacting Slough House. And two separate trailers have me giddy for fall content. Peep them below.

Arcane ends on Netflix this November.

Nickel Boys arrives this fall.