Task is the latest HBO show from Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby. Like Mare, Task takes place in a blue collar neighborhood near Philadelphia and tracks law enforcement officers while they work to solve crime. But unlike Mare, which was a single character-led murder mystery, Task has dual leads and we know who the criminals are from the beginning. Instead of spending the 7 episode miniseries trying to solve the crime, we set out on a collision course, waiting for our main characters, the cop and the criminal, to inevitably cross paths. Many compared it to Heat just based on premise but, after watching, it reminded me more of The Departed. If you enjoy either of those movies, I have a feeling you’ll like Task.

Our lead detective is Tom Brandis, a former priest-turned-FBI agent, played by Mark Ruffalo. Having recently gone through a family tragedy and still dealing with the after effects, Tom is struggling and drinking too much. He’s been working a table at the career fair but is forced back in the field when he’s assigned to run a task force to look into a string of robberies targeting the drug houses of a motorcycle gang called the Dark Hearts. The guy behind the robberies? Our other lead, Robbie Prendergast (Tom Pelphrey). During the day, Robbie’s a regular guy: garbageman, single dad, raising his kids with help from his niece, Maeve (Emilia Jones). But, by night, he and friend, Cliff (Raúl Castillo), commit robberies against the Dark Hearts for the money, but also personal vengeance. Tom and Robbie spend the series in a cat and mouse game. But really what Task wants to tell us is that we’re all more similar than we are different. And these two outright adversaries have more in common with each other than they do with anyone else on the show. Their stories are perpendicular, racing towards each other with every passing minute. But they’re also parallels. Both men are fathers, left to raise their children on their own, while dealing with significant, tragic loss.

The two major thematic pillars of the show are loss/grief and family. All of the characters, not just Tom and Robbie, are dealing with loss in some way. And their grief drives all aspects of the plot. Everyone is motivated by his or her heartbreak. And family is both lost and found. Tom and Robbie both live in households with modern families, made up of adopted children and nieces/co-parents. But Tom’s task force also functions as a make-shift family. The team includes endearingly frenetic state trooper Lizzie Stover (Alison Oliver), Delaware County detective Anthony “DJ Grassanova” Grasso (Fabien Frankel), and no-nonsense city cop Aleah Clinton (Thuso Mbedu). There might not be a lot of “love” between them but there are definitely familial dynamics. The motif of fathers and sons, in particular, runs through the show. Tom’s complicated relationship with his adopted son is an undercurrent of all of his behavior and interactions. But we also see this dynamic played out with Robbie and Sam, the young child he takes in after a robbery gone wrong; later Tom and Sam, after Tom takes the boy in; Tom and Grasso, who, being a Catholic himself, often looks to Tom for religious and moral direction; and Perry (Jamie McShane) and Jayson (Sam Keeley) of the Dark Hearts whose connection to each other often clouds their judgment and higher orders from their gang. Whereas Mare of Easttown focused on mothers, Task is an exploration of fathers, taking a look at fatherhood in its many shapes and shades. And recognizing how that kind of love can blind us. This is most exemplified in a conversation between Tom and his friend Daniel, who is still in the priesthood, about whether or not Tom should keep Sam or let another family adopt him. Tom says, “Here I was thinking I’d done a good thing,” to which Daniel replies, “You have done a good thing. But have you done that good thing for the boy or for yourself? […] I know what I’m asking is hard […] To be unselfish with your love, Tom. To recognize that what’s best for you may not be what’s best for the boy.” 

The story and themes of Task are intriguing, but it is really the performances that make the show. Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey are both so good as alternate world versions of the same man struggling with demons. Pelphrey especially gets to play with emotions all over the board and makes you really deeply feel for this guy who is objectively doing bad things. As for the rest of the cast… literally everyone else is not American? This has become a common prestige TV experience these days, having the WTF moment of realizing an actor has a different accent, but it felt especially skewed here. Alison Oliver (best known from Conversations With Friends and Saltburn) is Irish. Her performance is so great and entertaining. Fabien Frankel is English. I’m familiar with him from House of the Dragon which took me into the series with preconceived notions about his character. It was cool to see him play a different kind of role. Thuso Mbedu is South African. Sam Keeley is Irish. Phoebe Fox (who plays Sara, Tom’s biological daughter) is English. And my MVP of the show, Emilia Jones, is British. Emilia Jones absolutely blew me away as Maeve. Her character was so much more central to the story than I initially expected and she totally held the screen every time she was on it. The problem with a show like this, where there are so many amazing characters and performances, is that you know not all of them are making it out alive. Thus enters the creeping dread of waiting to see who the unlucky ones will be. 

Task is a crime show that isn’t really about the crime at all. It’s not a mystery, it’s not really a thriller. There are more intense moments, but they’re also tempered by the fact that no one, on either side, is particularly skilled at their job. But that’s kind of the point. Task is about the humans. And the confusing, hectic, sometimes incompetent actions and clashes make the show feel all the less glossy and all the more grounded. It upends expectations in more ways than one, challenging our idea of who “the bad guy” really is in all this mess. That becomes the real mystery. We know who’s committing the crime, so where will the show take us next? What does it really have to reveal? That’s anyone’s guess. And is, in some ways, more interesting than solving a crime. If you put Task up against Mare of Easttown, I’d choose Mare every time. I was deeply stunned by that show and still think about it four years later. But I did enjoy watching Task. I was captivated throughout and the ending broke my heart about 17 times over. I’d be happy to continue watching any more Delco area-set shows Brad Ingelsby wants to give us. He recently told Variety of writing about that region of Philly, “It’s just laziness. It’s the people I know. It’s the blood in my veins. If I can write stories about this area for the rest of my life, I’d be satisfied.” And I would be satisfied watching them.

2025 Count: 68 movies, 43 seasons of television, 4 specials