It’s the most wonderful time of the year as HBO has put out a new crime drama series that is promising to be gripping, mysteriously engaging and emotionally devastating. From the creator of Mare of Easttown, Brad Ingelsby, he takes you back to suburban Pennsylvania with his latest series Task. But instead of another small-town whodunit, Ingelsby trades mystery for momentum, crafting an urgent, pulse-pounding race against time that plunges headfirst into the darkest corners of human nature.
Philadelphia-based FBI agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) is put in charge of a task force investigating a string of robberies against stash houses run by the outlaw motorcycle gangs. After one of these robberies goes wrong where multiple people are left dead, a child is missing, and several million dollars of Fentanyl stolen, the FBI, the robbers, and the biker gang known as the Dark Hearts, are in a race against time before more lives are lost.
From the opening moments, Task has all of the quintessential characteristics of an HBO crime drama. You have the moral grayness where there is a constant battle between the righteous, the corrupt, and those just trying to get back. Check. A gritty, yet grounded atmosphere steeped in shadow and tension. Check. A slow-burn narrative that tightens with each episode until it finally explodes. Check. A criminal case that is as procedural as it is personal. Check. Explosive shootouts that leave you gripping your chairs. Check. On paper, Task delivers everything you expect from this genre. But what draws you back episode to episode are its characters.
As expected from an HBO drama, the characters are meticulously drawn, rooted in moral ambiguity and raw humanity. But this series pushes things even further with its two central characters whose paths are slowly and inevitably, beginning to collide. One is Tom Brandis, played by the brilliant Mark Ruffalo. He is an FBI agent and a former Catholic priest, not the kind of resume you see every day. Beneath his professionalism, he is spiraling into depression and is struggling with his faith after his adopted son, Ethan (Jack Kesy) murdered Tom’s wife the previous year. Ruffalo delivers a magnetic performance as he captures this man’s pain and persistence. Despite his addiction to alcohol, Tom clings to compassion as he believes in people and offers wisdom whenever he can, even as his own world begins to fall apart.
The other side of the narrative is Robbie Pendergrast, played by Tom Pelphrey who delivers the standout performance of the series. Robbie is the embodiment of moral ambiguity. A man who slips into the world of crime, not out of greed, but out of desperation to give his family more than mere survival. Sure he can easily put food on the table, but his sanitation job doesn’t provide much else outside of a distant dream. Robbie is buried in shame because of his work and aches for a better life, especially for his niece Maeve (Emilia Jones), who’s been forced into a parental role for his kids. He is not a violence man, nor is he looking to be one, but when the world keeps pushing him down, he decides to push back by robbing trap houses. Soon he realizes that he is in way over his head after a job goes wrong, where Robbie finds himself to be trapped between conscience and necessity. Which is what makes him one of the most morally ambiguous and painfully human characters in recent television memory.
While the series overstays its welcome by about an episode, it is hard not to be captivated by this series. The righteous, the sinners, and the ones just trying to survive are all circling each other in a tense, beautifully woven game of cat and mouse. And by the tie the dust settles, what stays with you isn’t the violence or narrative twist, but the haunting portrait of humanity of everyone caught in between.
My Rating: A-
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