This Sunday at 9pm, HBO goes back to the Delaware Valley in blue collar Pennsylvania.
This is where their enormous hit, “Mare of Easttown,” took place.
Now the same writer, Brad Ingelsby, returns with another seven part drama series that blew everyone away at last night’s premiere.
“Task” stars Mark Ruffalo, Tom Pelphrey (so great in “Ozark”), Emilia Jones from “CODA,” Martha Plimpton and a large cast of less well known but just as talented actors.
Ruffalo plays a semi-retired FBI agent tasked with finding Pelphrey, who’s leading a mini gang of violent robbers. It sounds simple but it’s not. The writing is on the same A level as “Mare of Easttown,” so is the directing. They’re working with a cast of actors who are sure to be in Best Ensemble races in every awards show.
HBO knows they have the hit of the fall. The premiere was held at the architecturally eccentric Perelman Culture Center on the World Trade Center campus. This is one weird building whose entrance is only up flights of steep stairs. The theater was designed as if someone saw Jazz at Lincoln Center and said, “How can we do this but make it really uncomfortable?”
In the end, none of this matter. Aside from the cast, we ran into Kyra Sedgwick, Josh O’Connor, Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup, Josh Hamilton, and Simon Jones from “The Gilded Age,” among others.
In future episodes we’re going to see Mickey Sumner and Raphael Sbarge, among others. But for right now, “Task” is the must see Sunday 9pm HBO show of the season. What a treat!
PS I did finally meet Ingelsby, whose “Mare of Easttown” I think remains one of the great short TV series. He’s mild mannered and pleasant, nothing like the gritty, often violent characters he cooks up. How does he do it, I asked? “I come from there,” he told me. He’s obviously a great observer.
Inglesby told me — EXCLUSIVE — that a “Mare” sequel is a real possibility! “Imagine what it would be like to see those people five years later.” Also, “Task” is looking at a season 2 at some point.
I’ve not looked ahead at the whole season, but I will after after Episode 1 airs this Sunday. I think we will all want to know what happens next.
More after the show airs Sunday night.
