In “Task,” premiering Sunday on HBO, Brad Ingelsby, creator of the 2021 miniseries “Mare of Easttown,” which launched the broader world to Wawa and the Delco accent, returns with one other story of crime and household within the rural-suburban wilds west of Philadelphia. The place girls have been on the middle of “Mare,” males are the topic right here — a cop and a legal, symmetrically organized — messed-up middle-aged single fathers who care about their children.
Each have been loaded with tragedy. Robbie (Tom Pelphrey), whose spouse took off a yr earlier than, has a much-missed useless brother in whose home he’s residing together with his two children and younger grownup niece (Emilia Jones as Maeve, a secret hero); he’s a rubbish collector with a sideline in robbing drug homes, which he identifies via their trash. This routine has been profitable sufficient that he and his accomplice, fellow trashman Cliff (Raúl Castillo), have drawn the eye of the authorities.
FBI agent Tom (Mark Ruffalo) has a useless spouse (Mireille Enos, seen briefly in flashback), a son in jail he can’t deliver himself to go to and a semi-estranged grownup daughter (Phoebe Fox); on go away from area work, he’s been manning the company desk at job gala’s. That adjustments when his boss (Martha Plimpton), a lot to his displeasure, calls him again in its place to steer a activity drive into the drug home robberies, already assembled by his predecessor from different branches of regulation enforcement. There’s Lizzie (Alison Oliver), younger and distractable; Aleah (Thuso Mbedu), terse and targeted; and Anthony (Fabien Frankel), free and Italian.
It’s clear from the weapons that either side pack, and the truth that Robbie has been stealing from criminals — notably a drug-dealing bike gang, the Darkish Hearts, which has its personal explosive inside enterprise — that one thing goes to go fatally incorrect in the end. (If that’s a spoiler, you might be blessed with a particular model of naivete.) The bikers, who’re under no circumstances good, although painted with some recognizably human qualities — represented primarily by Jamie McShane as Perry and Sam Keeley as Jayson — are the standard display screen assortment of completely handsome women and men, although to be honest, that is true of Tom’s staff too — Tom maybe excepted. (Ruffalo placed on weight for the function, and needs you to note.)
In “Task,” Robbie (Tom Pelphrey) is a single father who steals from different criminals.
(Peter Kramer / HBO)
Certainly, the predominant expertise of watching “Task” is ready for the following horrible factor to occur, which can be referred to as suspense or dramatic rigidity, however within the occasion makes for an usually miserable watch, particularly because the security (bodily, psychological) of younger youngsters is concerned. (That may really feel somewhat low cost, dramaturgically, like endangering a kitten, however it works.) One is grateful for something comparatively atypical — Lizzie and Anthony dancing in a bar, Tom’s youthful daughter, Emily (Silvia Dionicio) connecting with a co-worker on the custard ice stand. (One other merchandise for the regional reference bucket.)
Within the compare-and-contrast construction of the sequence, we study that Robbie, although he’s a fount of dangerous choices, is the extra optimistic, proactive of the 2 characters — he has a dream, within the type of a brochure, concerning a Canadian island, the place he wish to spirit his household away. (He’s doing the crime to afford it.) He’s sufficient to find “a life companion” to open a relationship app. Tom, who had been a priest for eight years earlier than shedding the spirit and becoming a member of the FBI, nonetheless in mourning for his spouse, drinks an excessive amount of, is packing a paunch and may’t join with Emily, the one member of the family left in the home.
Each have connections to nature. Tom, who grows greens, is a birdwatcher; Robbie retains chickens. Each are basically tenderhearted, which is maybe not probably the most sensible high quality for his or her professions, however crucial for the story — we have to like them. They’re like one and a half sides of the identical coin.
In among the many legal antics and police work is lots of speak about life and demise and God, guilt and forgiveness. Ingelsby thinks large. The title to 1 episode, “Out Beyond Ideas of Wrongdoing and Rightdoing There Is a River,” paraphrases the thirteenth century Persian poet Rumi, and water is a motif — diving into it, swimming in it, hanging round by it. Birds, too, which present up in random pictures and, just like the lakes and rivers, operate as a form of psychic aid for the viewer and metaphors for the story. When Tom, chatting with Robbie, identifies a sure fowl as a “vagrant … a bird that strayed outside its normal range, strayed so far that it’s forgotten how to find its way home,” that’s not actually about birds. The writing could be a little on the nostril, however higher a violent story with concepts than one with none.
For all my reservations relating to this form of drama, it’s very nicely made and really nicely acted, and, the place many crime tales accept sensational nihilism, “Task” does need to go away you feeling … fairly good. Not horrible. Hopeful. I belief that hasn’t spoiled it for you.
