Task is outwardly unassuming and not particularly high concept, but writer/creator Brad Ingelsby — who created the superb Mare of Easttown — is the creative mind behind it, which was more than enough to draw my interest. Sure enough, he extends his track record for immersive, compelling crime stories with this new show.
A series of drug-house robberies is escalating criminal activity in rural Pennsylvania, leading the Federal Bureau of Investigation to drag agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) off the shelf. Brandis has been working job fairs in the wake of family problems, but his boss Kathleen McGinty (Martha Plimpton) forces him out of reluctant semi-retirement to investigate the crime spree. His task force includes capable county detective Anthony Grasso (Fabien Frankel), ex-military detective sergant Aleah Clinton (Thuso Mbedu), and state trooper Lizzie Stover (Alison Oliver). Brandis doesn’t particularly want the assignment; he has scads of personal baggage to cope with, plus he’s totally unfamiliar with the team that’s been picked for him. Nonetheless, he ges to work trying to track down the culprit: Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey), a garbage collector who has been using his collection routes to case the drug houses of a criminal biker gang. Robbie is a chronic ne’er-do-well with a hidden agenda, but his reckless actions soon escalate into violent conflict, murder, and the accidental kidnapping of a young boy. This last development raises the profile of the task force’s case, not to mention sucking in Robbie’s local friends and family, especially his barely twentysomething niece Maeve (Emilia Jones), who has been forced, too young, into picking up the pieces for her fucked-up family.
While Task tonally resembles other rural-set crime shows like Mare of Easttown and Ozark, the one it reminded me of most is an urban one: The Wire, which similarly interrogates the systems that drive the life choices of both the cops and the criminals. Unsurprisingly, it finds those systems — which include law enforcement, the foster system, the war on drugs, and capitalism itself — desperately wanting. Far from copaganda or black-and-white mystery-solving, Task uses its crime backdrop to show just how similar the “heroes” and “villains” are, often pitted against one another by circumstance and desperation. The show is a great vehicle for Ruffalo, who brings a Columbo-esque “smartest schlub in the room” vibe to his lead role, but Frankel, Jones, and Pelphrey are quite spectacular in key roles, and the rest of the cast — which also includes Raúl Castillo, Silvia Dionicio, Phoebe Fox, Sam Keeley, Margarita Levieva, and Jamie McShane — is rock solid up and down the lineup. It’s great stuff, and thankfully not a one-and-done; it has been renewed for a second season, and it will be exciting to see what kind of approach it takes to extend its world.
