‘Task’ Review: Bleak Yet Compellingly Human  

HBO has always been at the top of the pyramid when it comes to miniseries. They’ve delivered the highest quality with the miniseries format for over two decades, all the way from Band of Brothers, Angels of America, John Adams to Chernobyl, Sharp Objects, and Mare of Easttown. Almost every single year consistently, they’ve delivered at least one very good miniseries and Task continues that tradition for them.

Brad Ingelsby, who was behind Mare of Easttown, also made this show, so it makes sense they end up having a lot of similarities, including being set in the same county, dealing with similar themes, and following criminal investigations, but Task is a whole separate beast that deserves just as much praise.

Task follows both Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo), an FBI agent tasked with stopping a string of robberies against a motorcycle gang and Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey), the family man behind the robberies, as their lives intertwine after one of the robberies goes sideways.

Despite the crime thriller exterior, Task is a family drama through and through, perhaps even more so than Mare was. The show starts off paralleling the lives of Tom and Robbie, both of whom have had someone close to them murdered before the events of the show. The fallout is both their family lives and what they do for their family, which is a major theme throughout the show.

There are in essence, three major storylines (and some minor ones here and there)—Tom’s family life, Robby’s family life, and the task force assigned to stop Robbie. In the first few episodes, it’s clear the latter two were far more interesting than the former. Partly because Robbie’s entire storyline is incredibly compelling, and Tom’s just couldn’t live up to that. But in a twist of fate, Tom’s storyline as the show progresses perhaps ends up being the most interesting. To me, that’s the tell of a great show. 

A massive part of how compelling the show ends up is these incredibly rich performances that pour into creating great characters. This show desperately needs these characters to work or else it just doesn’t work. Luckily for the show, Tom Pelphrey and Mark Ruffalo come in clutch.

Pelphrey, in particular, gives what is one of the best performances on TV this year. He gives so much life to Robbie—every single range of emotion is present and nailed with more ease than squeezing a lemon. Pelphrey’s talent has always been a major part of everything he’s been. 

He was by far the best part of the mediocre Iron Fist show, he was absolutely fantastic playing Wendy’s (Laura Linney) bipolar brother in Ozark, and he stole every scene on HBO Max’s Love & Death, but this is perhaps the best work he’s been able to do.

A massive part of that is how much shine he gets in this—the other stuff he’s playing third or fourth fiddle but here for a good chunk, he’s the main attraction and he’s marvelous. If Task does nothing else, I hope it gives him more of a presence in film and TV to come. Mark Ruffalo, Fabien Frankel, and Emilia Jones also deliver stellar performances that add so much depth to the show. 

This show feels so very bleak at first glance. The tone in particular gives off that energy, sort of in the way Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners does. There isn’t much humor, it tackles a lot of serious topics, the way the show looks and feels but that bleakness feels so natural. What works so well about it is that it finds the humanity through the bleakness. That’s where the show is at its best.   

The final three episodes in particular (episodes 5 through 7) are fantastic. There’s a lot of setup that comes before, which is all worth it when it culminates within those later episodes. Episode 6 in particular is one of the best episodes of TV this year, and 5 and 7 aren’t too far behind.

What I love so much about this show is how much those little interactions and characterizations end up mattering by the end. There are certain moments where it feels like two characters talking is meant to just deep dive into one character, but later you find out that the conversation was just as much about the other character. 

The show isn’t quite perfect, partly because of some of the more minor storylines. The biker gang in particular, are a massive part of the show but they feel like nothing but a foil for the plot. They add nothing for intrigue or interest despite intertwining all the major storylines. In a show focused so deeply on rich characters, they stood out for the wrong reasons. They’re not awful, they’re just too typical for the story being told which makes some of the major plotlines more predictable. 

Brad Ingelsby has spoken about potentially making a Task season 2 or even connecting the show with Mare of Easttown down the road. If it happens, I’d love to see it, if not, I have no qualms as both tell a full story which is all I need a miniseries to do and in that pursuit Task is one of the best in recent years.

Task stars Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey, with Emilia Jones and Fabien Frankel playing key supporting roles. The series was produced by Brad Ingelsby for HBO and is now streaming in full on HBO Max. Watch it below:

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