Mark Ruffalo stars in “TASK.”
Photograph by Peter Kramer/HBO
“It’s a character drama. In terms of Robbie, it is a story of sacrifice. In terms of Tom, it’s a story for forgiveness and acceptance,” says Brad Ingelsby about his new series.
Task tells the story of Philadelphia-based FBI agent Tom, who’s put in charge of a task force to end a string of violent robberies undertaken by an unassuming family man, Robbie.
The cast includes Mark Ruffalo as Tom, and Tom Pelphry as Robbie, with Emilia Jones as Maeve, Robbie’s niece.
Ingelsby, who created Mare of Easttown, says that, “It’s also a drama about lives under pressure, people who are backed into a corner, who don’t have choices.”
In crafting the narrative, Ingelsby says he works to, “get to the heart of complex characters. Because I find in my life, people are really complex. And I feel like, you know, there’s a lot of layers there. And I think that idea of always being able to stress test characters allows you to go deeper and deeper and deeper. I think you feel it come through and that’s what we’re always after, something that’s emotionally honest.”
Pelphrey explained feeling a connection to his character, saying, “I felt instantly connected with Robbie having just became a father myself. I knew for sure something that I had only imagined before. Which is that I will do anything for my child. Anything. So then to get to play Robbie, where everything he’s doing is for the sake of his children, I don’t need to research that.”
In a similar vein, Jones revealed that, “I definitely related to Maeve in that I’m really close with my family and I also would do anything for my family. She has such a sense of family and love and I really related to her in that way.”
Balancing an intimate family drama with the suspense of the cat and mouse between Robbie and Tom was a big challenge for the creative team, says Ingelsby. “It’s a tonal thing that I feel like you’re walking a tightrope over an abyss.”
However, he says that doesn’t mean every moment of the series is overflowing with tension. “I think of a big part of that was leaning into the humor and the everyday humor that everyone sees in their life. We talked about it every day on set, I think we were always saying, ‘it can be funny.’ We gave the actors permission to make us laugh.”
Ingelsby also admits that he was inspired by a decades old film, explaining, “We’d always talked about Robbie having this special place, his idea of heaven, is the quarry. I’ve loved quarries since Breaking Away. It’s a movie that was really influential when I was a kid. I watched it over and over again. I’ve always wanted to have a quarry in a show or a movie.”
Pelphrey agrees that the quarry is a key location in the series. “There was real like magical feel to being there. And come on, what’s better than to spend one of your days, like, you get to just keep jumping into the, the water off the rocks. Like we’re getting paid to do this,” he questions with a laugh.
Overall, about Task, Ingelsby says, “What I hope separates the show is the level of care we give to all the characters, that you care about everybody in the show, not just the cops, but also the criminals and the bad guys. I hope that as an audience you don’t have to agree with all the decisions that are being made on screen, but you can understand why they’re being made.”
‘Task’ premieres Sunday, September 7th on HBO at 9e/p and will be available for streaming on the HBO app.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/anneeaston/2025/09/05/a-cat-and-mouse-tale-task-delivers-emotional-character-driven-drama/
