From the mind of creator Brad Ingelsby, the four-time Emmy-winning writer of Mare of Easttown, comes the new crime thriller, Task. Now streaming first on Showmax, the show has earned an impressive 89% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the Wall Street Journal calling it “perhaps the best crime thriller of the year.”
The series returns to the same working-class Philadelphia suburbs as its predecessor, a setting deeply personal to Ingelsby, who grew up there. “I like writing characters and stories set in this region,” he says. “It’s the blood in my veins.”
A Star-Studded Cast
Four-time Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo stars as Tom, a former priest turned FBI agent heading a task force to stop a string of violent robberies. Unlike a typical agent, Tom’s “superpower is his empathy,” Ingelsby explains. The casting of this complex role was a challenge, but Ingelsby says Ruffalo “delivers that in spades.”
Emmy nominee Tom Pelphrey (Ozark) co-stars as Robbie, a garbage collector who finds himself stealing drug money from a local motorcycle gang. Both men are decent people under pressure, and the series explores how they are forced to confront the struggles and tragedies of their lives.
The impressive ensemble also features:
South African star Thuso Mbedu
BAFTA nominee Emilia Jones (CODA)
Jamie McShane (Wednesday, 1923)
Alison Oliver (Saltburn)
Fabien Frankel (House of the Dragon)
A More Propulsive Action-Thriller
While Task shares its setting and DNA with Mare of Easttown, executive producer Mark Roybal notes that it’s a more propulsive action-thriller, with Ingelsby looking to Michael Mann’s Heat for inspiration.
This new energy is evident in the direction of two-time Emmy nominee Salli Richardson-Whitfield (The Gilded Age, Winning Time), who directed three episodes, including one with a gripping 17-minute chase sequence. “Brad is a master at telling real stories,” she says, “and Task brings humanity even to the people who are supposed to be criminals.”
New episodes of Task drop on Showmax every Monday, express from the US.