‘Task’ series review: Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey are outstanding in grim, gripping crime drama

Long-form television, like its journalistic sibling, allows for a deep dive into subject matter, and a mini-series offers enough time to tell a detailed story, while its boundaries ensure the narrative is not needlessly stretched. Like Mare of Easttown, Brad Ingelsby’s Taskis also set in Pennsylvania, in the working-class suburbs of Philadelphia. While the seven-part mini-series is ostensibly about the investigation into a series of robberies in drug houses, Task also delves into the lives and the conditions of the characters that set them on their chosen paths.

We first meet Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) as a campus recruiter for the FBI. Though he is taking time off after a tragedy, his boss Kathleen (Martha Plimpton) puts him in charge of a task force investigating a series of robberies at drug houses. The task force comprises Tom, Delaware County Detective Anthony Grasso (Fabien Frankel), Chester Detective Sergeant Aleah Clinton (Thuso Mbedu), and State Trooper Lizzie Stover (Alison Oliver).

Mark Ruffalo in a still from ‘Task’
| Photo Credit:
Warner Bros. Discovery

We see the robbers, Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey), Cliff Broward (Raúl Castillo), and Peaches (Owen Teague) planning their next job. Robbie and Cliff use their jobs as garbage collectors to scope out the lay of the land. We learn that Robbie’s brother, Billy (Jack Kesy), who was a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang called Dark Hearts, is dead.

After Robbie’s wife leaves him, he moves into Billy’s house with his children, Wyatt (Oliver Eisenson) and Harper (Kennedy Moyer). Billy’s 21-year-old daughter, Maeve (Emilia Jones), is wise beyond her years and cares for Robbie’s children.

Their next job goes terribly wrong, leaving Robbie and Cliff with bodies, a small boy called Sam (Ben Doherty) and a stash of drugs rather than money. The Delaware chapter of the Dark Hearts is in trouble, as it is their drug houses that are getting hit. The national leadership is unhappy with Jayson’s (Sam Keeley) leadership, though his mentor and champion, Per (Jamie McShane), another Dark Hearts boss, wishes to give Jayson another chance.

Task Season 1 (English)

Creator: Brad Ingelsby

Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Tom Pelphrey, Emilia Jones, Fabien Frankel, Thuso Mbedu, Raúl Castillo, Alison Oliver, Owen Teague, Silvia Dionicio, Martha Plimpton, Jamie McShane, Sam Keeley, Phoebe Fox

Runtime: 58 – 65 minutes

Episode: 7

Storyline: An FBI task force, headed by a former priest, investigates a series of robberies and uncovers more than it bargained for

There are no white knights or black knaves. Like life itself, everyone carries emotional baggage. Tom used to be a Roman Catholic priest who left the priesthood to join the FBI. His adopted son, Ethan (Andrew Russel), is in jail for killing Tom’s wife, Susan (Mireille Enos). Emily (Silvia Dionicio), Ethan’s sister and Tom’s adopted daughter, feels the weight of always having to be grateful.

Aleah left an abusive marriage and suffers from PTSD. Lizzie has left her husband, and on her first day at Task, Tom, Aleah, and Anthony overhear her yelling at her husband about who gets the couch. Anthony grew up Catholic and has a prickly relationship with his faith.

There are a lot of conversations around forgiveness, which is not surprising considering the robberies were to avenge a death. Can Maeve forgive Robbie for endangering his children? Can Tom find it in his heart to forgive Ethan? Will Tom and Susan’s biological daughter, Sara (Phoebe Fox), be willing to forgive Ethan? Being a former priest, Tom knows a thing or two about sin and redemption. “It is easy to talk about forgiveness when it’s not your loss,” he says.

Thuso Mbedu, Fabien Frankel, Alison Oliver, Mark Ruffalo in a still from ‘Task’
| Photo Credit:
Warner Bros. Discovery

When Anthony asks Tom about the sacrament of confession, he says, “Confession is for humans to help us deal with the shame. If you want to be forgiven, all you have to do is ask.” Robbie telling Tom, “I never once felt God in my life,” is an indictment of a God who has turned their face away from their people.

The acting from Ruffalo’s scruffy sadness and Pelphrey’s tragic vengeance to Jones’ brittle strength complements the stunning writing and has us invested in the characters. Exquisitely shot, capturing the implacable beauty of the countryside where creeks hide more than secrets, Task is a bleakly gripping study of crime and punishment, with the latter meted out mainly by the perpetrator rather than the law.

Task is currently streaming on Jio Hotstar