musings on yasmin & harper.

[gentlewolves]

 With season 4 of HBO's Industry around the corner, I've been thinking about why I adore the series as I do. At first, you may look at the series that I enjoy most (The Bear, The Pitt, Luther, Person of Interest) and settle on the common thread that it must be high stake workplace dramas, to which, I would not say you are wrong. Somewhat misguided, perhaps.

The aspect I find most compelling about any show is the interpersonal relationships and dramas that are tightly woven into the story. That are the driving force, really. But specifically, female interpersonal relationships fascinate me most, whether between colleague, friend, or family member.

And now, back to Industry. On their own, Harper and Yasmin are stand out characters for me. The dynamics between them however, is what really take the cake. The jealousy and love and hatred and understanding so deeply engrained in their relationship continues to pull me in, just as it does them.

Harper, unrepentantly self-centered and ambitious, has never had a second thought for betraying and stepping on anyone who gets in her way. Yasmin, however, while she's been given everything, is trying to become someone independent of her father. Her relationship with her father has made her very male centered, in that she wants to be desired by them, and use that desire to humiliate and dominate them. With women, however, it is different. Yasmin has a trust and desire to be recognized by women that drives her relationships,  and where she is shrewd with men, she never seems to be as much with women.
She left Rob because she could not give up her life for him, though he loved her.

And though Harper hurt her endlessly, Yasmin cannot stay away. Yes and Harper are codependent in a way that very much reminds me of Lila and Lenú from Elena Ferrante's "My Brilliant Friend". Their jealousy of one another pushes them, and yet no one else understands the other like that do.

One could say that Eric understands Harper, but Eric looks at Harper and sees himself, something he loves. And in his tendency towards narcissism he cannot see Harper's weaknesses when they are his own. He is perfect and blindsided. Yasmin is not. She knows who Harper is, has seen her true face with all those teeth, and has still defended her, bared her neck.

And I think that in some way, Yasmin wants to become Harper. To weild the same strength and self-assurance Harper does. But that has not come without cost for Harper. Yasmin is weak because she cannot make a life for herself outside the rules of society she knows, the way money talks and people watch. She's used to always having something to lose that when she does it drives her insane and she cannot abide it. She cannot live without the creature comforts she's been raised on and most of all she wants power, significance. Something Harper gets, not by her association with the men in her life, as Yasmin does, but by her wit and teeth.

I don't know, I just find them neat, and cannot wait to have them back on my screen once more. Nikki Beach.