Task - Season 1

Task is a crime drama where drama is spelled with capital letters. When the name Brad Ingelsby comes up, thoughts naturally drift to the excellent series Mare of Easttown. Task is also his creation, and it shows. It focuses on crime, but the story behind the crime and the people involved are much more central. This time, the question isn't who did it, because that's known from the start. The big question is why someone is capable of these acts. The reasons are not exactly black and white, as becomes clear during this first season.

Normal life shines through all the drama

In the suburbs of Philadelphia, Robbie Prendergast, excellently portrayed by Tom Pelphrey, works as a garbage man. Along with his colleague Cliff Broward (Raúl Castillo), he also robs drug houses in the area. It seems like a way to earn extra money, but as the series progresses, it becomes clear there's more to it. To carry out the heists, the duo relies on an unstable third person. It’s partly for this reason that a heist goes wrong. This eventually happens, and then things quickly spiral in the wrong direction.

FBI agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) is pulled from his recruitment task to solve the drug house robberies. His assembled team has little experience with solving such crimes. The group of four tries to make the best of it. The demons of each of them naturally come to the surface. For instance, Tom is revealed to be a troubled alcoholic. His home situation explains why. Despite that exceptional situation, Tom and his team do their utmost to solve the case.



Robbie appears to have a complicated home life. His two children are more raised by their cousin than by Robbie. His working hours and evening activities make it difficult to be a good father. However, when he is around, he does his utmost to raise the children as best as possible. In that sense, he has a good bond with his young children. His teenage niece is more distant and realizes sooner that something is amiss. Robbie is willing to do anything to give his children and niece what he never had. However, his impetuous nature sometimes gets him into trouble.

Task is less dramatic than it might sound. Normal life shines through all the drama. People are motivated to do what they do for different reasons. Every human life has deep valleys and high peaks. It’s about falling and getting back up. That feeling is also present in Task. No matter how deep the valley is, there is usually an outcome. Not always as initially planned, but that’s part of it.

Task is one of the better crime dramas.

What is beautiful about Task is that the perpetrator evokes sympathy. Robbie is a driven family man doing his best to survive. That he made a wrong choice is forgiven, especially since he always seems to make his choice in the interest of his family. However, his actions having the opposite effect seems more due to naivety. That is something different than not being smart enough, because he actually turns out to be quite intelligent. Until the end, he maintains some control over what happens. His biggest problem is rather his humanity, which means his plan doesn’t always go as expected.



The critical note about this season comes from the real reason behind the crimes of Robbie and his team. It would have been nice if Robbie gradually slipped into criminality because he couldn’t manage financially. However, there turns out to be another, more obvious reason needed to justify his actions. On one hand, it adds extra tension. Robbie is being sought not only by the FBI but also by criminals. The latter have fewer scruples in finding the truth. On the other hand, it also causes a bit too much distraction from the story of Robbie, Tom, and their loved ones. The criminals also get a lot of attention. That makes sense given the outcome of this first season, but for some reason, it feels like a bit too much of a good thing.

In short, Task is one of the better crime dramas. I enjoyed it from start to finish. Although I have criticism, I understand why this choice for the involvement of the criminals was made. It fits perfectly into the story and provides an emotional ending. That might not have been possible otherwise. My tip is especially; go watch this series and judge for yourself. It is absolutely worth it.