Brad Ingelsby (Mare of Easttown) created and wrote this crime drama focusing on Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo), a Philadelphia-based FBI agent and former Catholic priest put in charge of a task force investigating a series of robberies targeting motorcycle gang stash houses. (seven 60- to 68-min. episodes)
TASK
What’s it rated? TV-MA
What’s it worth, Anna? Full price
What’s it worth, Glen? Full price
Where’s it showing? HBO Max
Glen While focused on crime and criminals, this is really a series about family. Tom has two adopted kids, Emily (Silvia Dionicio) and her biological brother, Ethan (Andrew Russel), who’s in prison for a crime Tom can’t forgive him for. Tom also has a biological daughter, Sara (Phoebe Fox), Emily and Ethan’s stepsister. Tom’s trying to hold it together at home, but he’s clearly struggling and has a secret drinking problem. On the criminal side, there’s Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey), an unassuming family man whose life is spiraling downward ever since his wife left him with two young kids, Wyatt (Oliver Eisenson) and Harper (Kennedy Moyer), who are all living in Robbie’s dead brother’s house, owned by his put-upon niece, Maeve (Emilia Jones). He and his friend Cliff (Raúl Castillo) are garbage collectors who use their job to case the stash houses. Between the FBI and the Dark Hearts motorcycle gang headed by Perry Dorazo (Jamie McShane), the noose is tightening around Robbie and Cliff. It’s a gripping story filled with compelling characters.
Anna This is one where there doesn’t seem to be any winners. When we meet Tom, he’s still benched, handing out recruitment materials at job fairs, staying away from cases. I don’t recall that it’s ever exclusively said, but the implication is that Ethan’s crime led to the death of Tom’s wife, Susan, in one way or another, and it certainly has left Tom in shambles. His drinking doesn’t seem to be so secret, at least not from his daughter, Emily, who’s too young to leave the house but too old to be none the wiser about what’s going on. When we peek into the lives of Robbie and his family, we see more heartbreak. Every moment is a struggle for the ex-con, but he’s determined to provide for his kids. When one of the robberies goes wrong, suddenly Robbie’s got Tom and his team on the hunt. The task force itself is a collection of detectives and a local trooper from the area, and the group hosts a spectrum of problems—from inexperience to double-crossing. It’s a wildly engrossing show.
Glen Ruffalo is great as the disheveled FBI agent, but I was most impressed with Pelphrey’s Robbie. The character is a criminal, but he’s got a lot of soul. I was really rooting for him to find a way out. Martha Plimpton was also terrific as Tom’s superior officer, Kathleen McGinty. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but Ingelsby’s story makes it easy to navigate through the various worlds of the motorcycle gang, Robbie’s family, Tom’s family, and the task force itself. Jones is also great as Maeve, who didn’t ask for her messed up life. Her dead father, Robbie’s brother, was a member of the Dark Hearts, and there’s a lot of secrets and animosity driving Robbie’s robberies. This is another terrific miniseries from the writer behind Mare of Easttown.
Anna I’ll happily watch anything from this writer knowing how much I absolutely loved both Mare of Easttown and Task. I, like you, just wanted Robbie to find a way out and live his life with his kids. In the end, it seems like that’s what Tom wanted too. Without spoiling too much, Tom and Robbie get a chance to spend some time together, and I think they both know they’re more similar than different. Both are drowning and just drifting farther from the water’s surface. ∆
Arts Editor Glen Starkey and freelancer Anna Starkey write Split Screen. Comment at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Pets 2025.