Mare of Easttown, which starred Kate Winslet as a small-town Pennsylvania police detective, was a terrific crime drama. As much a character study as a detective story, it made the most of both its characters and its locations.
Writer-creator Brad Ingelsby leaned into the miniseries, or limited series, format: Because this was a one-time story, even the most central characters might die at any point, upping the tension considerably. With its settings, its accents, and its deeply drawn, deeply flawed people, Mare of Easttown was a very memorable HBO drama — so memorable, it hardly seems possible that it's been four years since it was televised.
But now Ingelsby is back with Task, a new drama set in Pennsylvania. Once again, we get references to Wawa and Scrapple, visits to Rita's Water Ice, and lots of Delaware County — or "Delco" — back roads and thick accents. It's a seven-part drama starring Mark Ruffalo, which HBO will roll out weekly on Sundays.
On the big screen, in the Marvel Universe, Ruffalo plays Bruce Banner and the Hulk. But on TV, he's specialized in starring in miniseries that showcase him without any reliance on special effects. In Netflix's World War II drama All the Light We Cannot See, he played the father of a blind French girl. In HBO's I Know This Much Is True, he played twin brothers, one of whom had mental health issues. He was excellent in both dramas. Now, in Task, Ruffalo serves up his best small-screen role of all, as Tom Brandis, a former priest who's now an FBI agent.
When we meet Tom, he has a bit of a drinking problem, just as Winslet's character did in Mare of Easttown. And, like her, he has uneasy relationships with his friends and family. As the drama opens, Tom is summoned by his captain, played with her own brand of weariness and sarcasm by the wonderful Martha Plimpton. She has a job for him that involves investigating a spate of home invasions.
From that simple seed, everything in Task sprouts and spreads. Tom gets paired with the three young members of his new task force, each of them with their own quirks, personalities and past problems. As for the people they're hunting, all of them have well-delineated problems and personalities, too.
Tom Pelphrey, as the masked robber named Robbie, and Emilia Jones as his niece Maeve, are two of the many standout actors and characters in this strong, rich cast. Ingelsby delivers surprises and cliffhangers in every episode, but the most powerful elements, to me, are the many long, intimate conversations between the various characters — about faith and death, love and duty, and family and responsibility.
Ruffalo's FBI agent, it turns out, is a lot more complicated than he seems. You can say the same for Ruffalo's nuanced performance, and for all of this new HBO series. Task has a lot of tension, and action, and conflict ... but it also has a lot of heart, and emotion, and deeper meaning. I've seen the entire seven-part drama, and the ideas and the emotions in Task end up outweighing the mystery and the action, and they linger. I expect I'll be thinking about Task for quite a while.
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