Task Miniseries Review
Task is an American crime drama television miniseries, created and written by Brad Ingelsby for HBO. The series, starring Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey, premiered on the 7th of September 2025.
The 7 episode series, follows a Taskforce headed by Mark Ruffalo’s Tom Brandis to stop a string of home invasions by masked men, done to drug houses before it escalates into a full-blown gang-on-gang violence.
The Good
The dynamic duo of Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey is the quiet force behind the miniseries with the two charcaters being mirror images on different sides of the law… Mark Ruffalo as Tom Brandis is a former priest turned FBI struggling with a complicated loss, trying to find solace in either the bottom of a bottle or a case file; while Tom Pelphrey’s character with a tattoo of communion hands, deals with his loss by picking up a gun and finding vengeance. Both characters are motivated by a (mis)guided sense of duty to their families which of times leads down ill-advised decisions…
Task isn’t just a two man show, the ensemble cast follow through, holding the miniseries together, from Martha Plimpton as Kathleen McGinty, a soon to be retired superior officer who is icily funny yet surprisingly warm, to the taskforce that is predictably made up of people who would not be missed too much from their old departments. One is extremely competent, while another isn’t and the other a little too over-confident, yet somehow, they make it work.
The miniseries also lets the child cast have their moments of spotlight, letting them carry the show, almost as importantly as the adult characters, from characters going through their adoption and teen angst to various kinds of trauma. Ben Doherty as Sam quietly steals the show during his screen time and is one character you will think about long after the last credits roll.
Taking a somewhat slowburn route, the show peaks around the fifth episode with the penultimate episode that could have been a finale. I was almost worried the actual finale would have nothing left, but it still managed to keep things tight and interesting, unexpected even.
Unlike your typical crime thriller, Task is thematically multifacted exploring grief, loss, guilt, consequences on the backdrop of fatherhood.
The Bad
Its yet another taskforce series, band together a ragtag bunch of agents with a token task that unravels a bigger story, similar to Dept Q and the recently cancelled Countdown… so it can feel somewhat predictable.
The pacing and feel is all over the place, it cant settle on being a procedural series, a drama and action thriller while it jarringly muddles through all that as a bleak dramedy without a lot of lighter moment humour.
The show underutilises the rest of its cast despite its strong ensemble. Thuso Mbedu is sidelined yet she is the most competent member of the taskforce, I wanted to see more of her and her motivations for pushing herself to be the best of the best.
The Ugly
Task doesn’t shy away from violence and there’s some brutally graphic scenes which can upset sensitive viewers even though its not gratuitously violent.
The series has a hard and unforgiving perspective where characters are punished harshly for their transgressions and redemption presented as an underscored footnote.
Final Thoughts
Task is a very strong and ambitious crime drama with character-driven storytelling that could win you over with its morally complex narratives, but might give you pause for its pacing and bleak outlook giving you a ride that’s as devastating as it is riveting.
Is this something you would watch or have watched?
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