Family comes in all sizes, shapes and forms, and HBO’s latest crime thriller Task explores the world of familial relationships — be it biological, chosen, fractured, or even criminal.
Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby has taken his talents back to the suburbs of Philadelphia, via Delaware County, for his latest series, Task; however, he said it wasn’t an easy decision to make.
“There was an initial hesitation to go back to Delco, but I also felt buoyed by the response we got on Mare. And I felt like people were interested in that community, a working-class community, and a working-class group of people. And so after a while, I sort of thought, maybe if we had a story to tell that involved this area again, it was a story worth telling. Why not go back there and embrace it?” Ingelsby told Blavity’s Shadow and Act in our recent interview with the cast and creatives.
What is ‘Task’ about?
According to the official Task logline, “Set in the working-class suburbs of Philadelphia, an FBI agent, Tom (Mark Ruffalo), heads a Task Force to put an end to a string of violent robberies led by an unsuspecting family man, Robbie (Tom Pelphrey).”
“What I’m trying to do is tell a story where not everything is so black and white. It’s very gray, and that, while we don’t agree with some of the things Robbie’s doing, we understand him. And I think it’s getting at the complexity of human beings,” Ingelsby explained.
“Robbie can be doing terrible things while also being a great father. Those two things can exist at the same time,” he continued. “Maeve can have a ton of resentment toward Robbie and also love him, and those two things can exist at the same time. I think what I’m interested in as a writer is approaching each character without judgment, getting to know the many parts of their life, and embracing them all. That has been my experience as a person: that people are very complicated, and they have many sides to them, and some of those sides we don’t admire, but it’s OK that these things exist in the same person. And as a writer, I want to embrace that idea. Robbie can be all these things at the same time and still [be] consistent. He can be robbing people, and he could be telling the stories at night to his kids and taking care of his family and being a good friend to Cliff and being a dreamer, and those things can exist at the same time. That, to me, is how I like to approach each character. They are very complicated and complex people, and not run away from that, and not try to chase away the inconsistencies, but to embrace them.”
As someone who has existed both in front of and behind the camera, Salli Richardson-Whitfield said that what drew her into Task was what was written on the page, and what was presented to her by HBO and Ingelsby.
“Then you have Mark Ruffalo as the lead, and Tom Pelphrey, who I actually absolutely adore, and then as we added one more piece after another to this case, and then, you know, it’s going to be premiere TV. Just kind of all those pieces coming together and that you’re going to be a part of something special,” she continued. Richardson-Whitfield directed one of the most ambitious sequences of the series: an extended chase through the Pennsylvania woods.
Not only does Richardson-Whitfield serve as a director on the series but also as an executive producer, showcasing her love for participating in large-scale projects and seeking characters who are both interesting and complicated.
“No one is just good, and no one is just bad,” she said. “Even people with the best intentions make wrong steps. They have shame in their life. They have damage. You see that on both ends with your good guys and your bad guys. And I love how Brad writes these characters of our so-called villains, because we understand that they love people too, and that they were once an innocent little boy. They grew up in this world, and maybe this isn’t necessarily the path they would have gone, but life has pushed them that way. That is what makes the show very compelling, is that we have really well-rounded people, and it explores really, you know, human nature.”
Director Jeremiah Zagar discusses his humanist approach to directing
“I grew up in South Philly, so it’s no different than Delaware County — but in Philadelphia, I think these are people that I know,” he said. “I grew up with them, and Brad has a deep love for these characters, and I saw that love, and it felt familiar to me. Working on a show where the characters feel so intimately connected with your own life is really just a joy.”
“I think I’m often described as a humanist director. I think we’re very similar,” he said of working alongside writer Brad Ingelsby. “We have very similar temperaments, and we’re very similar people in terms of the way we run a set and the way we like to tell stories. It was really just a match that was made in movie heaven. I feel really lucky to have gotten to work with him.”
When does ‘Task’ air?
Task, starring Ruffalo, Pelphrey, Emilia Jones, Jamie McShane, Sam Keeley, Thuso Mbedu, Fabien Frankel, Alison Oliver, Raúl Castillo, Silvia Dionicio, Phoebe Fox and Martha Plimpton, airs Sundays on HBO at 9 p.m.
