Task - (HBO Max) 

By: Rachel Brodeur

HBO Max’s drama series Task brings a gritty realism back to the crime detective genre. Set in Pennsylvania, the series features dual protagonists. The first lead is veteran actor Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers) playing FBI agent Tom Brandis. The audience meets Brandis where he is working a desk recruitment job, seemingly several years out of the field. However, Brandis is called back to lead a team of young agents working out of a safe house in order to investigate a series of robberies of local drug dens. 

The second protagonist, Tom Pelphrey (Ozark, Banshee) plays Robbie Prendergrast, a member of the team responsible for robbing the drug houses. Prendergrast is a complicated antihero. He’s good-looking, cares for his family, carries himself with dignity, and while he’s a criminal, he’s only targeting other criminals. His targets flood the area with drugs and hurt the community, but ultimately Robbie is not really a true Robin Hood figure, because he’s not giving the money to the poor, unless his own pockets count. Unfortunately for Prendergrast, the easy money of a life of crime comes with complications, and when one of those complications is a child, the ramifications of his crimes and the urgency with which Brandis must conduct his investigation intensify to a point of inevitable convergence.

Show creator Brad Ingelsby (Mare of Easttown) creates a layered environment that allows for all characters to have depth and leverages distinct local knowledge of the area. Pennsylvania natives will recognize local references like Tom’s daughter working at Rita’s, a real fast food stand, and her serving water ice - a regional name for what Midwesterners usually call Italian ice. Careful attention was paid to making roads and distances make sense, and the setting felt representative of the real world, which makes the graphic events more startling and sometimes gruesome. 

For a series with a dual focus, the audience’s attention is never convoluted. Ingelsby’s strong suit is in creating dynamic characters. Backstories are revealed slowly and subtly, but even tertiary figures have depth without relying on familiar tropes. In a show with two such strong male leads, a standout performance is given by Emilia Jones (CODA, Brimstone). Jones plays Maeve, Robbie’s niece, a young woman who has seen her fair share of tough times, who becomes the emotional heart of the show, as perhaps the most relatable character in that she must deal with the consequences of her uncle’s decisions. 

Task is immersive to watch. The world and the people feel real, so the stakes feel real too. It’s frustrating to see characters make poor decisions; it’s challenging to see the wrong people face accountability. Yet through all the chaos and consequence, the show delivers the intensity and drama it promises.

Rachel’s Rating: 8.5/10  With its grounded tone and meticulous sense of place, HBO Max’s Task offers an intense crime drama that feels both intimate and expansive. Audiences will appreciate strong performances following the humanity behind the criminals and investigators involved in a series of drug robberies in Pennsylvania.