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      Myha’la, Star of HBO’s ‘Industry,’ Arrives

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      The one-name star of the HBO show “Industry” is composed under pressure.On a humider-than-humid afternoon in July, Myha’la stepped into a teahouse in her Brooklyn neighborhood and joined the line leading to the front counter.She was wearing a khaki skirt and a matching cropped jacket that revealed the panther tattoos on either side of her abdomen. Her nails were red — she had politely rejected her stylist’s suggestion to paint them brown — and her pixie cut was slick with gel.The menu seemed endless, with lists of flavors and foams that slowed down several customers placing their orders. Myha’la, a star of HBO’s Gen Z financial drama “Industry,” knew exactly what she wanted: An oolong latte with almond milk, boba and grass jelly.The woman she plays on the show, Harper Stern, is similarly decisive. As her fellow bright, young overachievers crumble beneath the fluorescent lights of a British investment bank, Harper sees each wobble by a colleague as an opportunity to place an even riskier bet on herself.“She’s got the sort of killer, quiet confidence that’s actually very dangerous,” Myha’la, 28, said, having installed herself at a counter facing State Street.When she landed the role on “Industry,” which returns for its third season on Sunday, it was her biggest acting job since she graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 2018. She didn’t have to look too hard to find common ground with the character, an ambitious young Black woman in an elite, cutthroat environment.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Industry’ Is Back With Boats, Cocaine and Bigger Ambitions

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      In its new season, the HBO finance drama expands beyond the trading floor and moves into the network’s marquee Sunday-night slot.The creators of “Industry” pitched the Season 3 opener to HBO with three words: “Coke and boats.”“We were like, ‘Don’t kill us, but this is where we want to start Season 3,’” Mickey Down, one of the creators, said in a video call.The HBO executives did not want to kill them. They were thrilled that the show, which follows a chaotic group of young employees at an investment bank in London and often deals with the more specialized details of finance, was going in a broader direction.While illegal substances are nothing new for the show, most of the action had been centered on the trading floor. The new season, beginning on Aug. 11, opens with a hedonistic party on a luxury yacht, filmed in Majorca. It is a flashback with devastating implications for one of the principal characters, a rich woman named Yasmin, played by Marisa Abela.“Coke and boats” was just one of the ways in which Down and the other creator, Konrad Kay, sought to expand the show, in the new season, Down said.HBO hopes that the wider vision will draw a bigger audience. The series previously debuted new episodes on Mondays and now gets a marquee Sunday-night slot, taking the place of “House of the Dragon,” which just finished its second season.“We have high hopes for the show,” said Francesca Orsi, head of drama for HBO, adding that if “the world embraces Season 3 in the way that we have, both in its critical praise but also its viewership, there’s no question that we want to continue moving forward with it.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How ‘House of the Dragon’ Turns Fiery Fantasy Into TV Reality

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      For the “Game of Thrones” prequel series, the producers had to figure out how to make the title beasts believably bigger, badder and more prominent.At the risk of mixing medieval metaphors, dragons are a double-edged sword.For Ryan Condal, the co-creator and showrunner of HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” the creatures are key to the show’s magic, literally and figuratively.“They are the one fantasy element that we’ve allowed ourselves,” he said. “In our world, in this period, the magic is these dragons.”But they are also death incarnate. “It’s all metaphor, all allegory for nuclear conflict,” Condal said. “You take the city with an army if you want it to be standing afterward. You can’t do anything surgical with a dragon.”The ongoing second season of the “Game of Thrones” prequel has included more of these beautiful, terrible beasts than any other in the franchise, including spectacular air battles in the fourth episode, “The Red Dragon and the Gold.” Sunday’s installment, “The Red Sowing,” in which aspiring dragon riders claim new mounts — or die trying — was more grounded, but it presented the most complicated challenge yet.In interviews last week, Condal, the visual effects supervisor Dadi Einarsson and some of the actors charged with piloting the creatures onscreen explained how they brought it all to life.The test caseWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      HBO Falls to Third at the Emmys for the First Time Since 1996

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      The last time HBO ranked in third place among television outlets in total Emmy nominations, Bill Clinton and Bob Dole were gearing up for a presidential election and the “Macarena” was sweeping the nation.On Wednesday, HBO, as well as its accompanying streaming service Max, earned 91 Emmy nominations, down from its massive haul last year (127), and trailing both Netflix (107) and FX (93) this year.For the first time since 1996, before “The Sopranos” or “Sex and the City” even premiered, HBO finds itself neither in first nor second place.For the better part of the last year, the network has encountered an unusual fallow period.Ever since “Succession” wrapped up in May 2023, HBO released several series that failed to connect with critics or a broad audience. That includes the expensive music drama flop, “The Idol”; the Kate Winslet limited series, “The Regime”; and the now canceled “Winning Time.”For some time, HBO executives have been telegraphing that if the network had a down year at the Emmys, production delays caused by last year’s double strikes would be to blame. An Emmy voter favorite like “The White Lotus,” for instance, might have premiered already if not for last year’s walkouts. Still, every outlet was severely affected by the strikes, not just HBO.Emmy recognition has long been of outsize significance to HBO executives, providing key evidence that it remains the pre-eminent home for quality television. In 1997, HBO became the first cable network to lead all networks in nominations. And for the better part of the last two decades, HBO has been the heavyweight. It previously ranked first every year in total Emmy nominations since 2001, except in 2018 and 2020. (HBO finished in second place each of those two years, behind Netflix.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      In ‘House of the Dragon,’ Ewan Mitchell Leads With His Chin

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      As Aemond Targaryen, the young actor quickly became one of the “Game of Thrones” prequel’s most intriguing and fearsome characters.Like most people, Ewan Mitchell is accustomed to anonymity. So during a recent trip to Manhattan, he was surprised by what a hotel doorman asked when he arrived: “You haven’t packed your eye patch?”Mitchell does not normally wear an eye patch, but Aemond Targaryen, the one-eyed, dragon-riding warrior he plays in “House of the Dragon,” does. The actor is still getting used to strangers making the connection in public.“I wouldn’t think people would recognize me, but they do,” he said. “I think it’s because of my strong chin.”This was on an afternoon in May, and Mitchell, 27, was sipping a Coke at the hotel bar. He wore a black Alexander McQueen suit and was preparing to attend the premiere of the second season of “House of the Dragon,” HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel that follows two factions vying for the Iron Throne.When Mitchell made his debut in the latter half of Season 1, Aemond, the willful second son who grows to covet his brother’s throne, quickly became one of the show’s most intriguing and fearsome characters. Paired off with Vhagar, the realm’s largest, meanest dragon, and possessing the most chiseled chin in Westeros, Aemond radiated the quiet ferocity of a predator preparing to pounce.“When I’m dressed up as Aemond and catch myself in the mirror, he scares even me a little bit,” Mitchell said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How ‘The Boys’ Imagines Fascism Coming to America

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      “The Boys” and other TV series imagine fascism coming to America, whether wrapped in the flag or in a superhero’s tights.What would fascism look like in America? A quote long misattributed to Sinclair Lewis says that it would come “wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” The comedian George Carlin said that it would come not “with jackboots” but “Nike sneakers and smiley shirts.”“The Boys,” Amazon Prime Video’s blood-spattered, dystopian superhero satire, has another proposal: It would be handsome, jut-jawed and blond. It would wear a cape. And it would shoot lasers out of its eyes.Homelander (Antony Starr) is the star-spangled, nihilistic and enormously popular leader of the Seven, a for-profit league of superheroes produced through bioengineering and drug injections by Vought, a corporation founded by a Nazi scientist. To the public, he is the chiseled personification of national virtue. Behind the scenes, he is a bully, a murderer, a rapist — and, as of the new season, possibly America’s imminent overlord.In Season 4, Homelander goes on trial for murdering an anti-supe protester. He runs ads asking for help against “his toughest opponent yet: Our corrupt legal system.” Amazon StudiosIn the bizarro America of “The Boys,” “supes” are only incidentally crime fighters. They’re valuable corporate I.P., pitching products, starring in movies and reality shows and lending their images to puppet shows and holiday ice pageants. They’re the world’s biggest celebrities, towering on billboards and omnipresent on Vought’s media platforms, and this gives the Seven a power greater than any super-speed or heat vision.When the series begins, however, Homelander is limited, by politics — the government has resisted using supes in the military — and by his deep-seated need for love and approval. Power breeds suspicion (“The Boys” takes its title from an anti-supe vigilante group whose exploits it follows), and Vought is constantly monitoring the Seven’s approval ratings and guarding against backlash. Homelander may be invincible, but he still has to answer to corporate.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      HBO Could Use a Hit and ‘House of the Dragon’ Could be the Answer

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      The network has hit an unusually fallow period. Executives hope “House of the Dragon,” which returns Sunday, could be the start of a new winning streak.The dragons are back. And not a moment too soon.On Sunday, “House of the Dragon,” the “Game of Thrones” prequel series, will return to HBO for its second season. The show became a bona fide hit in its first season, in 2022, and helped kick off a torrid winning streak for the network that included the beloved sophomore season of “The White Lotus”; the premiere of a new hit, “The Last of Us”; and the decorated final season of “Succession.”But over the past year, HBO has encountered a fallow stretch — unusual for America’s pre-eminent premium television network.There have been disappointments (the music drama “The Idol” and the Kate Winslet-starring limited series “The Regime,” for instance), and delayed premieres because of the double Hollywood strikes last year. According to one widely used industry metric, Max, the 13-month-old streaming service that houses HBO’s shows, has plateaued during that time. One high-ranking executive at Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO’s parent company, chalked up Max’s slow start to “probably the lightest content slate we’ve ever had.”HBO’s one-year slowdown could be underscored when Emmy nominations arrive next month, usually a cause for celebration for the network. But in contrast to previous years, shows from HBO and Max will not be favorites in some of the major categories, including drama, a category that HBO dominated at the most recent Emmys.According to some award forecasters, HBO could finish third among networks in total nominations, which would be its lowest ranking since 1996. HBO executives acknowledged that they were anticipating reduced award recognition this year. But they said they were looking to the months ahead, starting with this weekend.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Julio Torres Is His Own Thing

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      In an interview, he discusses “Fantasmas,” his new HBO show combining a fanciful quest and wild comic detours with a critique of modern bureaucracy.Julio Torres has never had a credit card. He doesn’t even have a credit score, he said, and doesn’t want one, even though trying to rent an apartment is hellish without it.“I don’t want to do a symbolical gesture to bow down to the system so that I can have a home,” he said.Torres’s new HBO show, “Fantasmas,” reflects his contempt for the bureaucracy of modern life. It is ostensibly about his character Julio’s mission to find a lost golden oyster earring, but he is stymied every step of the way by technology, systems and corporations. A form of ID called “proof of existence” is required to do pretty much anything, but Julio is as defiant as the man who plays him. “I’m different,” he says in the show. “I’m my own thing. I’m the exception. So no, I don’t need proof of existence.”Torres, who also created, wrote and directed the series, described it as “free, roaming, surreal, but grounded in human emotion and very curious.” Julio’s quest frequently detours into absurd comedic vignettes featuring actors including Emma Stone, Steve Buscemi, Dylan O’Brien, Rosie Perez and Aidy Bryant.On the whole, however, the show is a shade darker than previous work like “Problemista,” Torres’s feature directorial debut, from earlier this year, about a toy designer from El Salvador racing to renew his work visa before it expires. A former writer for “Saturday Night Live,” Torres released an HBO comedy special, “My Favorite Shapes,” in 2019. The same year, he cocreated and starred in the Spanglish comedy series “Los Espookys,” also on HBO.In late May, Torres sat down in his office in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn to discuss turning the tangible into the abstract and why representation onscreen must come from an honest place. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More