When it comes to prestige drama, few networks have the legacy of HBO – particularly when it comes to the Sunday night lineup. The premium cable channel changed the game forever in the late 1990s, and while not every show launched has been a winner, the track record is very strong, and it now looks like we're about to see it further extended with Task, the new miniseries from Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby that has been earning rave reviews for star Mark Ruffalo.
The Poor Things actor stars in the seven-part show as Tom Brandis – an FBI agent operating in Philadelphia who is assigned to lead a task force that is hunting for the culprits behind a series of local violent robberies. Ruffalo has past HBO drama experience, having previously played dual lead roles in 2020's I Know This Much Is True, but he is getting some of the best notices of his career for his turn. In a piece for The Wrap, Zaki Hasan offers tremendous praise for his performance in Task, saying that he delivers some of his best small screen work to date:
Ruffalo, who excels at portraying men who wear their pain like armor, gives one of his richest TV performances. His Tom is empathetic, weary and sometimes maddeningly opaque, but always believable.
In a review that calls Task a "riveting cat-and-mouse chase" and offers a "Critic's Choice" label, Variety 'sAlison Herman admires the depth that Mark Ruffalo showcases in his turn as Tom Brandis, and notes that the actor brings the character's past into the character's present. The critic writes,
Ruffalo’s Tom was a priest before he took up his gun and badge and remains an avid bird-watcher after, implying a soulfulness that suits the tender-eyed actor.
Admiration for the many dimensions of the character that Mark Ruffalo brings out in his performance is also echoed in Brian Tallerico's three-out-of-four star review for RogerEbert.com. He appreciates the emotional weight that the Marvel star carries in the turn, noting
Tom is a rich, complex character, a former priest who has now been presented with an almost impossible test of forgiveness. Ruffalo plays his grief as a weight on his shoulders, one that only lifts when he’s either too drunk to walk upstairs or working a case. It’s his subtlest and best work in years.
In a write-up for The Hollywood Reporter, Angie Han has less positive thoughts about the show overall, the review's bottom line saying that it is "a bummer in more ways than one," but there is still praise offered, including an admiration of the way in which the energy of Mark Ruffalo's performance collides with what's delivered in Tom Pelphrey's antagonist turn:
Pelphrey’s high-strung energy and Ruffalo’s sad-sack vibe bounce interestingly off each other, and I found myself wishing the plot had afforded them more opportunities to play together.
Alan Sepinwall's piece for Rolling Stone offers perhaps the greatest praise of all for Mark Ruffalo – saying that actor is one of the best of his generation. However, the critic also feels that the bleakness of Brad Ingelsby's material makes for a complex mix with the star's talents:
[W]hile Ruffalo has solid comedy chops (demonstrated throughout much of his time playing Bruce Banner in the MCU), he has a weakness for bleak material, like his Emmy-winning turn in HBO’s 2020 slog of a miniseries I Know This Much Is True. Put those two together, and it’s a feedback loop of gloominess, that turns the process of watching early episodes feel like trying to walk up a muddy hill in the middle of a downpour.
It sounds like Task won't be the kind of show that viewers will be idly revisiting in the years ahead, as it's bleak, heavy and dramatic material, but it sounds as though Mark Ruffalo's performance alone is worth the tune-in.
Also starring Elilia Jones, Thuso Mbedu, Raúl Castillo, and Jamie McShane, Task will premiere on HBO on September 7, and it will simultaneously be made available for HBO Max subscribers.
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