Cast: Mark Ruffalo, tom Pelfrey, Amelia Jones, Martha Plimpton
Length: 8 episodes
Release Year: 2025
Streamer: HBO MAX
Audio description Provided By: Point 360
Written by: James Mason
Narrated By:
what is It?: A drug deal goes horribly awry, and a federal task force is formed to figure out what happened, who is responsible, and what happened to a young boy that was in the house at the time and is now missing. Beneath the surface lies an underbelly, a dangerous drug dealing motorcycle cult and its deadly way of handling internal conflict.
What Works: Mare Of East Town was certainly a memorable series, and task is a very strong follow-up. Admittedly, I felt like I enjoyed each episode at a different level. A few could have trimmed maybe a few minutes and tightened up the pacing, but the plight of being a series airing on linear is still fitting into a time slot. So, I can’t begrudge them too much.
On the other side, there are explosive moments of action, where the pacing is incredible. one of the episodes at the end opens with this intense action and it doesn’t let up for twenty minutes. I actually had forgotten we never got the title card, and when we did, it just emphasized how what we just saw was so strong, so tight, that we white knuckled without even knowing it. there are so many fantastic moments, beats here and there, and truly tense interactions. the little big of lagging happens more toward the beginning of the season as we get to know the players.
Stating the obvious here, but Mark Ruffalo is terrific. he’s really settling into his age. He spent some years running around as an Avenger, but now he’s playing an aging, experienced, FBI agent with a complicated history of his own. In one moment, he needs to get somewhere specific, so he plays the old man card and talks about his small bladder. it works. He seems like he’s “too old for this shit”, as Danny glover would have said. He’s leading a task force, and he learns someone might be feeding the opposition intel. So, he has to play his cards close to his chest, yet his little crew are also the ones who are supposed to have his back. At home, he’s dealing with his wife, and adopted daughter, as he ruminates on whether or not his adopted son should return home from jail. Is he truly reformed?
Tom Pelfry, who made such a wonderful impact on me with his stint on Ozark, does another strong supporting turn as the mastermind behind the crime, but the one you end up rooting for. However, it is the introduction of his niece, played by Amelia Jones, which really takes over the show as Maeve. the best way to describe her is that all roads pass through Maeve. She isn’t the lead of the series, and none of the plots within the series are driven solely by her. She’s a fully reactional, victim of circumstance. And, she’s fantastic.
I loved her in Locke and key, and she blew me away in Coda. here, she’s so much more mature, with a very different vibe and presence. she has so any different interactions with her deeply complex character, whose father was a part of this gang in the film, but mysteriously vanished. She knows someone killed him, and she has a good idea of who did it, but she can’t avoid the power these drug runners have. She can’t escape it, and when her uncle pulls her in deeper, she suddenly becomes responsible for the well being of a young boy also a victim of circumstance.
Jones deserves an Emmy nomination. It should be in supporting, and she should easily get it.
task is a series that might have imperfections, but also has some moments among the best of the year. The cast is excellent across the board, with Amelia Jones and mark Ruffalo as the standouts, and it is a smart adult drama we just don’t see enough of anymore.
The Audio Description: Some truly terrific moments, excellent description in the action moments, and also in the quiet beats. A car ride with Pelfrey and Ruffalo takes up nearly an entire episode, and is really riveting stuff. It’s very well written, and narrated.
Why you Might Like it: If you like elevated crime dramas coming off of HBO, in the vein of Mare Of Eat town or even Ruffalo’s I Know This Much is True, you should like this.
Why You Might Not Like it: It’s a show that is a bit of a slow burn, in that the best moments, and the biggest scenes come as payoff to the earlier episodes. You have to believe the best is yet to come, because it is.
Final Thoughts: Emmy Worthy performances from Ruffalo and jones anchor the tight thrill ride of task, a show with enough surprises along the way to make the ride very much worth the viewing.
Fresh: Final Grade: 8.6/10