Four years after “Mare of Easttown” enthralled audiences and won a bevy of Emmy awards, creator Brad Ingelsby is back with “Task.”
It’s another Pennsylvania-set HBO drama, this time drawing inspiration from “Heat” to tell the tale of an FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) hunting down a criminal (Tom Pelphrey) with the same character-rich, morally complex and emotionally wrenching storytelling that made “Mare” such a hit.
If “Task” feels a little bit like “Mare of Easttown,” that’s on purpose. In fact, the show – which premieres Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max – came about only after Ingelsby and Kate Winslet tried to develop an idea for a “Mare of Easttown” Season 2.
“The hard thing that Kate [Winslet] and I talked about, and one of the things I really struggled with, was I felt like ‘Mare’ was such an emotional journey and every time I tried to think of what would happen next in Mare’s life, it was always less than that,” Ingelsby told TheWrap from his home in Pennsylvania. It was Winslet who ultimately said she wouldn’t come back for a second season if they didn’t feel confident it’d be as good as the first (although Ingelsby hasn’t closed the door entirely — more on that later), so with that the creator moved on to another idea he had: a team story.
“Task” is ultimately the tale of two men on opposite sides of the law. Ruffalo plays Tom, an FBI agent and former priest who’s been working the recruiting desk in the wake of his wife’s tragic death. His mild-mannered demeanor masks a deep pain that he tries to hide from his teen daughter. Tom Pelphrey, who broke out with a heartbreaking role in “Ozark” before landing turns in David Fincher’s “Mank” and the Josh Brolin Prime Video series “Outer Range,” plays emotional tough-guy father Robbie who is leading the crew behind a series of drug house robberies.
Ingelsby started by fleshing out the characters that inhabit the world of “Task,” which includes Tom’s task force team, Robbie’s family and friends and a dangerous motorcycle gang, and wanted to center the story on the empathy the audience could feel for both of these characters – just like in Michael Mann’s Robert De Niro/Al Pacino crime classic film “Heat.”
“What I admired about ‘Heat’ was it was so tense, and the tension in that movie came from the fact that you wanted Robert De Niro to get away and you wanted Al Pacino to find him, and knowing these things can’t coexist. So that collision course model was interesting to me.”
The show was shot in some of the very same neighborhoods and locations as “Mare of Easttown” and indeed Ingelsby instructed his team they didn’t need to try and make “Task” different – it all takes place in the same universe, he told TheWrap.
“I grew up here. I know these streets. I don’t want to run from that,” the creator remembered telling his team. “These are the people I know. These are the lives that I’m close to. So I don’t want to run from ‘Mare of Easttown.’ I don’t want to do the same thing as ‘Mare,’ but I’m OK with it looking like ‘Mare.’”
Check out our full conversation below.
Take me back to when “Mare of Easttown” ended. The show was a massive hit. I’m sure you had a ton of interest coming in. How did you decide what to do next, and when did “Task” materialize?
We kicked the tires on “Mare of Easttown” Season 2 a little bit, and the hard thing that Kate [Winslet] and I talked about, and one of the things I really struggled with, was I felt like “Mare” was such an emotional journey and every time I tried to think of what would happen next in Mare’s life, it was always less than that. How do you get over confronting the death of a son that you’ve been avoiding? I felt like we got that character to such a good place, and then it was like, is the second season going to be another murder in a small town? And what’s the new trauma that Mare has to deal with that is comparable to that? That was a tough thing. Kate, out of all of us, smartly was like, “If it’s not going to be as good, I don’t want to do it.” And I think it wouldn’t have been as good. We have talked about what would Mare look like six years later or something. That’s interesting to me, because you can have all this time to build up new things in her life.
So I had a couple ideas after “Mare,” and one of them was “Task” and that was the one I was most passionate about. I was really interested in Tom, a guy who’s a man of faith who’s lost his faith and is trying to find his way out of this abyss. And then Robbie, who’s on the complete other side of the spectrum, who doesn’t believe in God at all. His beliefs are more about what he can see and feel and touch and his kids and his brother and I just like the idea of these two worlds colliding. Obviously “Heat” has been a big influence on me. I watched that movie over and over again when I was a kid, and I didn’t want to do another whodunnit, because it felt like “Mare” was the whodunnit show. What I admired about “Heat” was it was so tense, and the tension in that movie came from the fact that you wanted Robert De Niro to get away and you wanted Al Pacino to find him, and knowing these things can’t coexist. So that collision course model was interesting to me.
I’m not that good with plots. I really just start with characters. I build out the characters and their worlds and their inner lives and and their families, and then after those lives come together, I start to go, “OK, what’s the plot around these two guys?” So I pitched HBO the characters, a very rough idea as to what the structure of the show would be, and they got onboard and they were passionate about it. So we kind of ran with it and started writing the episodes. They’ve been a great support system and have had a lot of belief in this from the jump.
It feels like “Task” could take place in the same world as “Mare of Easttown.”
It does! We actually shot in the same places, in the same cities, the same towns, a lot of the same streets at them.
So you’re building an HBO “Mare of Easttown” cinematic universe, is what you’re saying?
[Laughs] No, it’s funny — when we started “Task” we had this moment where we said, “Are we trying to distance ourselves from ‘Mare?’” And I said, “Guys, I grew up here. I know these streets. I don’t want to run from that. These are the people I know. These are the lives that I’m close to. So I don’t want to run from ‘Mare of Easttown.’ I don’t want to do the same thing as ‘Mare,’ but I’m OK with it looking like ‘Mare.’” And in fact, I said to our production designer and costume designer who also worked on “Mare” that this is the same world as “Mare.” Don’t try to make it seem different.
This show is so incredibly morally complex. You understand every single character’s point of view, and feel empathy for most of them. How do you activate that?
A lot of that I have to give credit to Tom [Pelphrey], who’s just such a wonderful actor and person, and him and Mark together is just the all-time best. But I try to really come into each character with an open mind and no judgment, and I tried to with every character in the show. Not that I have to agree with every decision they’re making, but it is important to me that the character understands why they’re making these decisions. I always say everyone earns a seat at the table. They’re not just there to move the ball down the field in terms of plot, they’re there for a reason, and they’re there to to have their own arc within the show, but also contribute to the themes of the show in their own way. I think that means that every one of the characters has to have layers, and they have to surprise you in ways and yet those surprises have to feel incredibly believable. We have to earn the audience’s emotion. We have to earn the twist. It can’t just be a twist just to have a twist, or it can’t be a cry just to have a cry.
What I love so much about Robbie is he makes so many stupid decisions, but he’s a loyal friend, and he’s a great father, and he’s kind, and he’s erratic and violent. And I love the idea that all those things exist within one person. That, to me, is a great joy of writing characters is scratching at the surface and going deeper and deeper and trying to do that with all the characters, which I think often gets me in trouble because if it was up to me, this would be a show that goes 18 episodes.
Tell me about casting Mark and Tom and what they brought to these roles, because the performances are incredible.
With Mark’s role, it was a really tough one to cast. He was modeled a little bit after my uncle, who was an Augustinian priest who left the priesthood after about 30 years. I’m really close with my uncle. We get together all the time, but I’m always asking him questions about his faith and why he left the church because I grew up Catholic, and I have my own issues and hang ups with the faith, and I’m always trying to figure out what I believe. So I had to find an actor that I was able to believe was a philosopher, a thinker, a guy that I believe lives in the Northeast, and so when you start scribbling down all the qualities you want associated with Tom, it very quickly narrowed and Mark Ruffalo immediately was at the top of the list.
I’m not just saying this because he’s in my show, he is just a wonderful person. Mark is the kindest, sweetest, most hilarious guy you ever want to meet. He’s just a gem. What I like about Tom Brandis, and what we always talked about, was there’s nothing special about Tom. He’s not an amazing shot. He’s not Sherlock, he’s not going to see the clues other people can’t see. I wasn’t interested in writing that. What I found interesting about Tom Brandis is here’s a guy that’s approaching this line of work with the point of view nobody else has, a guy that was a priest. He’s a deeply compassionate guy, but he’s also at a crossroads with his faith. A lot of the great qualities I see in Tom as a character, Mark has as a person.
And for Pelphrey, he read for us and his audition was amazing, and he was so charming and fun. He’s got an amazing laugh. One of the things about him is he has the physicality that I think the character needs. He is a kind dad and a loving parent, but he can also pistol whip somebody and tackle somebody and punch somebody. We needed someone that had a wide range, and Tom just blew us away in his audition. Then we met with him, and again, just the kindest guy, too. I think we just got incredibly lucky.
What conversations did you have with your director Jeremiah Zagar who sets the visual tone for the series in the first episodes? What made him the right person to bring this to life?
With Jeremiah, I had seen his work on “Hustle and I’d seen “We the Animals,” which is just an incredible movie. I really love them both, but “We the Animals” I had seen a while ago, and what I loved about Jeremiah was he’s a humanist and he’s great with kids. As soon as I spoke to Jeremiah about the things he liked in the script, it was abundantly clear to me that he wanted this to be a human show, that it did have a pulse, it did have an engine to it, but the things that interested him were the human moments. I felt really safe in his hands.
Unlike “Mare,” “Task” is billed as a drama series not a limited series. Is the intention to keep going with some of the same cast? Or is it more of an anthology like “True Detective?”
I’d love to come back and do it with some of the same cast. I just love the idea of getting a group of people together each season. It excites me as a character writer more than anything to be like, “Who’s the group of people we get together and have to solve a case or go after a group of guys?” It would depend on what an audience thinks, but I had such a good time on this one. I’d love another run if we can get one.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
