Week-to-Week: A Tsk Tsk, did Task hit?

As HBO shifts its focus to franchise fare in the Warner Bros. Discovery era, the cultural footprint of its drama output has become a higher variable. For dramas that lack a built-in fanbase, it's been a while since HBO has had an outright hit. Limited series like The Regime and The Sympathizer struck out with both viewers and award voters, and honestly scared me off of investing in Task here at Episodic Medium.

You could argue that this was a mistake, given the pedigree of Brad Ingelsby and the success of Mare of Easttown back in 2021, and that would be fair. This is in many ways a spiritual sequel to that limited series, with Mark Ruffalo providing the necessary star power, and I have no doubt that fans of that show are driving interest in this one. But after sampling the premiere ahead of its debut, I didn't consider Task a significant evolution of that formula, notable mostly for its addition of the criminal's perspective to counterbalance the alcoholic law enforcement point-of-view.

I caught up on the show ahead of tonight's finale, though, which was something of an anti-climax by design. The penultimate episode had resolved the story of Tom Pelphrey's Robbie Pendergrast, a casualty of the shootout he helped orchestrate in order to protect his niece and his children. The Robbie side of Task was the show's glimpse into the culture and community of Delco, and it played out with a high body count and a healthy dose of pathos. Given that this wasn't structured like a mystery as Mare was, it relied on our investment in Robbie's quest for revenge on the Dark Hearts for his brother's death and their subsequent efforts to reclaim their drugs and take him off the board.

Perhaps my biggest issue with the show was how its two sides were in balance. The penultimate episode pairs Robbie's death with the death of task force member Lizzie, but the impact of the latter was comparatively muted, as there was minimal time to establish those dynamics. Lizzie and the rest of the team were archetypes in search of a purpose, and while the exposition gave us enough story to hang a hat on—Aleah's marksmanship, for instance—it didn't create a strong investment. Grasso is an exception given his role as the Dark Hearts' informant, but that mostly works because it ties him to the other story, underlining the relative lack of development with the task force itself.

"A Still Small Voice" treats Grasso and Maeve's fates as the denouement from Robbie's death, as both feel the world closing in on them in the aftermath of the penultimate episode. It isn't the same kind of action we saw in the woods, but it has its own share of tension, and creating a pathway to Grasso gaining his redemption alongside Maeve getting her happy ending works well. Intertextual challenges with his odious House of the Dragon character aside, Fabian Frankel captured a man in over his head, with enough regret over his actions for this moment to feel earned. Even if Robbie's death was the climax, this did feel like an ending of both the task force and Delco stories.

Except that it isn't the end of the former story. Last week, HBO officially submitted Task to the January award shows—Golden Globes, SAG Awards, WGA/PGA/DGA—as a Drama Series, leaving the door open for the show to continue. Presumably this would be with Ruffalo, whose Tom Brandis represents the third pillar of the show's storytelling. A lot of time in this final episode was dedicated to his family struggles following his wife's death at the hands of his son, with his statement to the court the clearest accounting we've had of the challenges Ethan faced and his wife's role in facing them head-on. As with Mare, tragedy is a driver of this narrative, but by episode's end Tom is settled into a better place: he's given Sam a loving foster home, and even though he's scared to let him go, he understands that Ethan will eventually be home, and he'll have more work to do.

Is this enough work for the show to continue? That was driving my experience of this finale, and my answer is "maybe." I certainly enjoyed seeing Martha Plimpton take a more active role later in the show's run, and would be happy to see her dynamic with Ruffalo serve as the foundation for the show's future. The nature of task force work means that the rest of the cast could turn over, but Aleah did end up being the team member with the most to do, and the idea of her remaining a part of any future plans would track. If you develop an entirely new "case-of-the-season," there's enough structure here to effectively recur.

At the same time, though, the balance would need to be adjusted. While Ethan's return to Tom's home would provide some additional family drama, it wouldn't be the same kind of all-encompassing tragedy that the show used to trouble Tom's work in this instance. Obviously alcoholism doesn't just go away, but it would seem repetitive if he was relapsing, and there's also a risk of his story seeming too minimal as compared to the other angles. I don't know that Ingelsby necessarily wants to make a more generic law enforcement drama, but serialization would require a new plot, and there is a degree of resolution to Tom's story that would make restarting it a different task (pun intended).

Task represents a morally compelling narrative, but it's unclear how many of those stories would be able to continue, and I'll be curious to see how HBO's decision making plays out in this case. Whether Ruffalo and Pelphrey can sneak into those calendar year awards—where every Emmy-nominated Drama series is eligible—might be a part of their calculus, but either way it's going to be a bellwether for whether HBO wants to be making drama series that aren't tied to I.P. Task has strong connections to the channel's past, but whether it has a place in a future where every show is based on WBD's big franchises (Game of Thrones, It, DC Comics, Harry Potter) is an open question.

Episodic Observations

• While Ruffalo's a tremendous actor, I do think that compared to Winslet in Mare of Easttown this is a more tangential performance. His scenes with Pelphrey are great, but they're sparse, and it creates some distance between him and the core story. This really did end up feeling more like Pelphrey's story, emotionally, and that contributed to the denouement of it all.
• My viewing time has otherwise been spent on some upcoming shows (including the next franchise HBO drama) and my third season of Australian Survivor, Titans vs. Rebels. 24-episode seasons are both a blessing and a curse, but it's been a nice background viewing experience as the fall continues, and continues to reinforce some of the struggles facing the U.S. version (especially this season, which as a reminder Ben is covering here at Episodic Medium).
• We're now committed to 3/4 of Fox's weekly game shows—we're skipping Celebrity Weakest Link, but we added 99 to Beat which is basically Squid Game: The Challenge without the hypocritical licensing. The Floor's new "Battle of the States" framing is pretty silly, but where else can you see someone whose trivia category is "Telling Time" not be able to tell time? And while the Celebrity Name That Tune segments remain a wild card, I appreciate the balance of one celebrity and one normie game per episode.
• As we get closer to November, we'll have some updates on our schedule for the rest of the winter, as we've made a few additions. Stay tuned for more.