Task

Summary

Pop Culture Happy Hour – “Task” (HBO Series Review)

Date: September 24, 2025
Host: Glenn Weldon
Guests: Waylon Wong (co-host, NPR’s The Indicator), Roxana Haddadi (Vulture TV Critic)

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into HBO’s new crime drama series Task, created by Brad Ingelsby (of Mare of Easttown fame). The panel analyzes its blend of crime thriller intrigue, heavy family drama, and unique Philadelphia setting. Hosts Glenn Weldon, Waylon Wong, and Roxana Haddadi offer contrasting takes on the show’s bleakness, emotional depth, performances, and regional authenticity, sparking a rich conversation about masculinity, grief, and what sets Task apart—or doesn’t—from its prestige-TV peers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Premise & Philly Setting

• Glenn Weldon [00:51]: Sets the table, describing Task as “a grim but, if you stick with it, a stealthily hopeful drama” set in the Philly suburbs, centering on world-weary FBI agent Tom (Mark Ruffalo) investigating criminal activity linked to rival gangs and family tragedies.
• Philly Bona Fides [08:04]: The show quickly establishes its Philadelphia roots, with rapid-fire local references (“KYW News Radio,” “Blue Route,” “Acme,” “water ice”) winning Weldon’s “Philly bingo” early in the pilot.

“Would I be as invested as I am in the show if it was set in, like, the Pittsburgh suburbs or, you know, Lancaster freaking County? That’s an open question. But my way in is so specific.” – Glenn Weldon [09:20]

2. Structure & Storytelling Styles

• Waylon Wong’s View [04:33]: Praises the structure as a “three way cat and mouse, with a bit of 'who’s the mole' thrown in.” She enjoys the pacing, layered performances, and the show’s willingness to flesh out even minor characters.

  • Criticism: Finds Ruffalo’s Tom saddled with too much “heavy, heavy baggage”—suggests the emotional weight could’ve been eased.

    “We could’ve done a Coco Chanel thing and taken off one sad thing before he left the house.” – Waylon Wong [05:18]

• Roxana Haddadi’s Take [06:25]: She cares little for the crime mechanics (“Sons of Anarchy light”), but the father-daughter dynamics and domestic malaise grab her. Her interest centers on “male loneliness” and its ripple effects on those around them.

  “If you, as a man, feel lost or aimless, how does that sort of permeate the people around you?... I’m like a real sucker for, like, what’s wrong with men these days?” – Roxana Haddadi [07:25]

3. Character Development, Performance, and Representation

• Accent Work [08:04]: The panel notes the commitment (and restraint) with the Philly accent, especially with Ruffalo’s Tom, who “worked very hard to get rid of it.”

• Male Protagonists [13:42]: Mark Ruffalo’s exhausted, heavyhearted Tom, and Tom Pelphrey's deep, nuanced Robbie, get special praise.

  “He’s so tired in this, and I think that really works.” – Roxana Haddadi on Ruffalo [13:44]

• Supporting Cast:

  • Martha Plimpton as Tom's boss stands out for injecting rare humor and life (“always eating, doing the Brad Pitt in Ocean’s movies” [11:43]).
  • Amelia Jones as Maeve is hailed as the most well-rounded female character, enduring hardship but delivering the show’s emotional thesis (see Quotes below).
  • Fabian Frankel subverts his “predictable, hotshot young cop” persona for more depth as the series progresses [13:47].
  • Children’s Performances [15:21]: Noted as “so good,” especially in scenes expressing generational impact of trauma.

• Critique of Female Characters [12:28]:

  “The men, for the most part, are better written than the women. With the exception of Maeve, who I think is pretty well rounded in her frustration with being stuck in this town.” – Roxana Haddadi [12:28]

4. The Show’s Central Themes: Loneliness, Grief, and Masculinity

• Glenn Weldon [15:54]: Explores the show’s fixation on “men talking about their feelings, but specifically grief,” and how both Tom and Robbie have mismanaged mourning, impacting themselves and others.

  “Forgiveness, which the show is all about, is something that absolutely no one should give out because absolutely no one ever deserv[es it], which is a really poisonous view of the world, and it’s not sustainable.” – Glenn Weldon [16:56]

• Discussions address how trauma and pain are transmitted generationally, and the ways male suffering distorts family dynamics.

5. Pacing & Viewing Recommendations

• Binge vs. Weekly [19:15]: Roxana and Waylon both suggest binging the first episodes is more satisfying, likening the show’s “snowballing steam” to The Bear’s early dynamics.

  “Maybe don’t watch it week to week. Maybe binge it.” – Roxana Haddadi [19:15]

• Caveat [20:01]: Sometimes feels like “a chore” to get through, with narrative arcs occasionally undercooked or catharses unearned.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “[The show] rushes to establish its Philly bona fides in the first five minutes... we’ve already won Philly bingo, and we didn’t need the free space. It’s amazing.” – Glenn Weldon [08:04]
• “Cutting up fruit for someone else and sharing a piece of cut fruit with someone else is like the ultimate act of, like, familial love and care. To me, it just spoke volumes...” – Waylon Wong on a small gesture between male characters [10:40]
• “My partner has said this about my taste, which is that I love watching guys being dudes. And this show has a lot of guys being dudes, but in ways you wouldn’t expect.” – Roxana Haddadi [12:57]
• Maeve’s Thesis: “What have you done to us?” – Maeve (Amelia Jones), quoted by Waylon Wong as the key line of the series [14:53]
• “The plotting of this thing, I think, really takes its time, and I really think it tests you to stick with it.” – Roxana Haddadi [14:47]
• “Chronic depressives commiserating... It’s that commiseration that makes the show for me.” – Glenn Weldon [17:10]
• “I took a picture of my TV like a boomer. Like, sent it to a group chat, being like, look at Mark Ruffalo.” – Waylon Wong, on Ruffalo’s “hunky” appeal in this role [20:19]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Show Introduction/Description: [00:51]
• First Impressions, Structure, & World-building: [04:33]
• Family Drama vs. Crime Mechanics: [06:25]
• Philadelphia Authenticity/Accents: [08:04]
• Subtext—Masculinity & Grief: [15:54]
• Maeve’s Key Line (and Emotional Thesis): [14:53]
• Children/Generational Trauma Scenes: [15:21]
• Recommendation on Viewing Style (Binge vs. Weekly): [19:15]
• Panel’s Lighter Moments & Final Thoughts: [20:19–21:12]

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Conclusion

While Task courts the familiar tone and setting of Mare of Easttown, the panel agrees its most compelling feature is the tender, nuanced depiction of flawed men struggling with grief and connection against an authentically gritty Philadelphia backdrop. The show’s heavy-handed character baggage and leisurely pacing divide opinions, but its emotional richness, vivid performances, and lived-in sense of place make it well worth exploring—preferably in a binge. If you’re drawn to “guys being dudes,” intergenerational trauma, and Philly shibboleths, Task may just be your next obsession.

“Tell us what you think about Task. We’re on Facebook. We’re on Letterboxd. Or maybe, if you see us down ashore, maybe we can hop on our bikes and grab a hoagie and some water ice. Go Birds.” – Glenn Weldon [21:12]

Transcript

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[Glenn Weldon]

The HBO series Task is a grim but if you stick with it, A stealthily hopeful drama from the creator of Mayor of East Like Mayor, it's set in the Philly suburbs and features a great cast hurtling themselves against the Philly regional accent. But where Mayor was a murder mystery, Task is a cat and mouse crime thriller featuring Mark Ruffalo as a world weary FBI agent reluctantly dragged back into the field to investigate a series of crimes among rival gangs. There's drugs, stolen money, family drama, kidnapping, shootouts, grief, forgiveness, and of course, this is NPR's pop culture happy Hour. I'm Glenn Weldon and we're talking Task.

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[Glenn Weldon]

Joining me today is Waylon Wong. She's the co host of NPR's Daily Economics podcast, the Indicator from Planet Money. Hey, Waylon.

[Waylon Wong]

Hello from Lefty's Tap Room.

[Glenn Weldon]

Excellent. Also with us is Vulture TV critic Roxana Haddadi. Welcome back, Roxanna.

[Roxana Haddadi]

Thank you. Thank you so much.

[Glenn Weldon]

Of course. Let's get to it. In Task, Mark Ruffalo plays Tom, an FBI agent who's been assigned to a desk ever since his family was struck by a tragedy that's left him and his teenage daughter mired in grief. Tom Pelfrey plays Robbie, a sanitation worker who moonlights as a thief raiding drug houses for reasons of his own reasons tied up with his own grief over the death of his brother. He lives with his late brother's daughter Maeve, played by Amelia Jones, who's terrific. Robbie's wife has left him. Maeve is now very reluctantly taking care of his kids. Tom's boss, played by Martha Plimpton, yay. Puts him in charge of a task force to investigate Robbie's drug raids. Task was created by Brad Inglesby. It's airing on HBO and streaming on hbo. Max Waylon, did this hold any water for you?

[Waylon Wong]

Yeah, I really like this. I like the structure of it. You know, like you mentioned, it's a cat and mouse, not a whodunit. And in this case, it's like a three way cat and mouse with a bit of who's the Mole thrown in. So I really liked that. I liked the pacing and the kind of doling out of information that worked for me. Performances really, really worked for me. Pretty much everyone to me felt like a complete human being and the world felt really filled in. I loved the setting. I loved the kind of juxtaposition of like a very verdant Delaware county and quarries and woods with, you know, some grittier urban landscapes and kind of glum suburban strip mall settings. And I like that even small characters would get these moments that really made them feel like human beings that had a role to play in the story. The one thing I didn't quite like, and we can probably talk about this later, is I do feel like Mark Ruffalo's character's backstory is so sad in a way that I was like, oh, what? Like, we don't need this many sad things. We could have done a Coco Chanel thing and taken off one sad thing before he left the house. And the story, like, just, like the thriller element of it would have been perfectly nice and suspenseful and entertaining without, like, the absolute, incredibly heavy, heavy baggage that this character comes in with. Okay, that, to me, was like a demerit, but otherwise, I would recommend this show to my friends. I really liked it.

[Glenn Weldon]

Oh, that's a great take. Okay. Roxanna, listeners, should really read your excellent Vulture review because, A, it's beautifully written, as always, but B, it's also really well argued. It had me re evaluating my own reaction to the show and considering the show from different angles, which is. Let's remember, please, what great criticism does. It's what it's for. But hit me with it. What'd you think?

[Roxana Haddadi]

Thank you. Well, first. Thank you. I appreciate that. And then it's so interesting because I think my take is the exact opposite. Opposite in that the family drama stuff is why I cared about the show and why I cared about the performances and all of the drug dealing, Robbie being a robber. Did you get it? Like, that whole thing? I said this in my review, and I will say it again. It really was like, fx, early aughts, Sons of Anarchy light. None of that really felt believable to me. But the show is so intentional in its editing and in its framing and in its blocking to tell you how Tom and Robbie are two fathers of daughters and how their paths are sort of parallel. I really liked the domestic stuff and sort of the question of if you, as a man, feel lost or aimless, how does that sort of permeate the people around you? And how do you sort of. I don't want to say ruin their lives, because that's sort of dramatic, but the series almost suggests that, right, that, like, your male loneliness can end up trapping the people around you. And I was really fascinated by that. I'm, like, a real sucker for, like, what's wrong with men these days? So I really liked that. But, man, I am hearing people compare this with heat, and I. I really need people to calm down as a comparison. That is sort of killing me.

[Glenn Weldon]

All right, well, I kind of Agree and disagree with both of you for different reasons. So let's start off with the surface stuff first. My parents grew up in Delaware County. A lot of my aunts and uncles and cousins are still there. I think they would all give this the Delco seal of approval, because this thing rushes to establish its Philly bona fides in the first five minutes. I mean, Ruffalo's driving into work. We get KYW news radio traffic on the twos. Blue root. Tick, tick, tick. Next morning, he says, I made scrambled eggs and scrapple. I could stop by the Acme. Maybe I'll drop by for a. Wait for it.

[Roxana Haddadi]

Maybe I'll drop by for a water ice.

[Glenn Weldon]

I mean, we are five minutes in, and we've already won Philly bingo. And we didn't need the free space. It's amazing. And I just want to shout out real quick Michael Tenenbau and the Philly voice who is recapping the show and cataloging every single regional reference. I love my people. Would I be as invested as I am in the show if it was set in, like, the Pittsburgh suburbs or, you know, Lancaster freaking County? That's an open question. But my way in is so specific. Cause something I noticed, if you remember how in Mare of Easttown, every actor threw themselves neck deep into the accent. Ruffalo isn't. Ruffalo is hitting it, but he's not Evan Peters ing it right. I'm reading him. It makes me think about this character. It makes me read him as a guy who grew up with that accent around that accent, but who worked very hard to get rid of it, which is a real thing that happens. Hi, my name's Glenn. Have you met me? So it only comes out when he's not thinking about it. So I felt like that worked for me. I ultimately found the show incredibly rewarding because I thought it was gonna be one thing. I thought it was gonna be the prestige police procedural it's being marketed as. But like Roxanna, what I found was something that was a lot shaggier and more rumpled and character study. Ish. But does that feeling of subverted expectations jibe with your experience, Waylon, or was the show kind of what you thought it was gonna be?

[Waylon Wong]

I think, honestly, the show was what I thought it was going to be, which was this kind of crime drama. But I did love all of the subtle character moments that established the ways in which these characters, as flawed as they are, are trying to care for the people around them. And so I think I was pleasantly surprised by the emotional depth that we got from the characters in a way that like, you don't necessarily need that. Right. But they really do make you sit with the emotional stuff too. These pretty heavy themes of like fatherhood and like the male loneliness epidemic. And I keep coming back to like, there's this moment in the pilot when Robbie is peeling an apple. He's sitting with his friend Cliff, who's robbing the drug houses with. And they're talking about their hopes and dreams. And Robbie is peeling this apple in this way that's like a cool guy thing to do on film where you're peeling with a pen knife and he's peeling it and he's cutting off pieces and he's sharing pieces of this apple with Cliff. And to me, as a Chinese person, cutting up fruit for someone else and sharing a piece of cut fruit with someone else is like the ultimate act of like familial love and care. To me, it just spoke volumes, you know, and it's like, again, the show didn't need to do that. You know, these actors are just like suffusing these small moments with. So that was like a great emotional kind of upside of watching this show.

[Glenn Weldon]

What little humor there is in this very dark show is in Martha Plimpton.

[Waylon Wong]

Oh, so funny.

[Glenn Weldon]

She is always eating. She's doing the Brad Pitt in the Oceans movies. I love me a mid career Plimpton.

[Martha Plimpton (Character)]

They want me to put together a task force. I know, I'm sorry. I assigned Maria Herrera to lead, but she got ordered to bed rest. What is it?

[Glenn Weldon]

I don't know.

[Martha Plimpton (Character)]

It's something about a leaky uterus.

[Glenn Weldon]

What's the job?

[Martha Plimpton (Character)]

Sorry.

[Waylon Wong]

She is playing a little bit of an archetype, you know, but you know, when it's done well, you're like, can.

[Glenn Weldon]

I tell you this is a bad idea? Yeah, she's doing that.

[Waylon Wong]

And then later on she does get to like run around and do kind of FBI gun waving stuff, which is also very exciting. You know, she's not just behind a desk being like, get your act together or whatever. Like these bosses say in these kinds.

[Glenn Weldon]

Of stories, I'm gonna take your badge, I'm gonna take your gun, get your act together. She's doing that. Not saying she's not doing that.

[Roxana Haddadi]

I. The men, for the most part, are better written than the women.

[Glenn Weldon]

Agreed.

[Roxana Haddadi]

With the exception of Maeve, who I think is pretty well rounded in her frustration with being stuck in this town.

[Martha Plimpton (Character)]

What is it that you're missing here?

[Maeve (Character)]

I don't know what I'm missing. Cause I never had anything.

[Glenn Weldon]

We were in this together.

[Maeve (Character)]

First my dad dies, then Karen takes off and I'm here raising her kids. Your kids. I mean, what the do I know about raising kids?

[Roxana Haddadi]

My partner has said this about my taste, which is that I love watching guys being dudes. And this show has a lot of guys being dudes, but in ways you wouldn't expect. Exactly. Like was said with the cut fruit, there are these moments where these men swim in, like, a quarry together. There is a lot of really tender friendship stuff that I think is just really well articulated. And I think the performance performances elevate it even more. I do think Ruffalo is, like, really perfect in this. He has not worked for me lately when he's gone big. Like, I did not really care for him in Poor things or in Mickey 17, but I think he just. He's so tired in this, and I think that really works.

[Waylon Wong]

He's been through a lot.

[Roxana Haddadi]

He's been through a lot.

[Glenn Weldon]

He's been through a lot.

[Waylon Wong]

No one's been through more than this guy.

[Roxana Haddadi]

My man is exhausted. And I think that really helps. And I think Pelfrey is doing something also really interesting. I think most people will know him from Ozark, and I think this is really, like, a magnificent showcase for how deep he can go. And I also really. I really enjoy Fabian Frankel in this too, because he has sort of like a. You think at first, very predictable, hotshot, young cop personality, which I think takes on some additional texture. I don't know. Like, the plotting of this thing, I think really takes its time, and I really think it tests you to stick with it. There is something sort of inevitable that happens, I think, but I just think it takes a little bit too long to get there, man. I don't know. I just think it tested us.

[Glenn Weldon]

You already mentioned Amelia Jones as Maeve. That's a great performance. I think the writing is actually, as you mentioned, Roxanne. I think the writing is doing her a good service the way it doesn't do a lot of the other women in the show.

[Waylon Wong]

She gets the sum up line of the series. And it comes at the end of the second episode. She says to Robbie, what? What have you done to us?

[Maeve (Character)]

What have you done to us?

[Waylon Wong]

The question I pose to all destructive men everywhere. What have you done to us?

[Glenn Weldon]

Also, not for nothing, great accent. Just up to the line without going over. It's all in the vowels. You can hear it. It's there.

[Roxana Haddadi]

And we haven't talked about this character, this boy Sam, who Robbie essentially, I would say kidnaps.

[Glenn Weldon]

You should say it.

[Waylon Wong]

It's a friendly kidnapping.

[Roxana Haddadi]

Yeah. And then they're sort of grappling with Sam. That young actor is so compelling.

[Waylon Wong]

So good. All the kids in this are good.

[Roxana Haddadi]

Yeah, yeah. The scenes that he has with Maeve, I think, are really getting at the question of this show, which is, like, what do we transfer to the generations that come after us? Like, what sort of trauma and pain do they absorb by being in our presence? That all is so good. Again, it's like you sort of want to, like, rearrange the board of some of these pieces, because I think they really nailed the. The central concept. And then in building it out, we sort of see the growing pains of the show.

[Glenn Weldon]

Well, here's where I agree and disagree with you both. I mean, like, I think the motorcycle gang stuff wasn't where my heart was. I like the cat and mouse crime thriller stuff, fine. But I was intrigued by kind of what you both have talked about, which this show's obsession with men talking about their feelings, but specifically grief, how grief works. How grief is a thing that happens in. In the wake of a death, that it's like this physical process that your body puts you through. It has a beginning, middle, and an end. Although, you know, sometimes the end gets kind of feathery and lingering. And what ties these two men together? And this is like the show does, all these kind of facile parallels between them. What really ties them is that they both screwed up the grief process in different ways. Tom has reasons that he couldn't fully engage with that process because we learned in the pilot that the loss of his wife is the result of a crime that happened within the family unit. So his grief is, of necessity, not clean, not pure. It's complicated, it's mediated, it's tangled. And Robbie is different. Robbie has gone through the grief process, but he is still in it. He didn't let it end. He's holding onto it. And in both those cases, it's going to twist you up in a very specific way. It's going to convince you, as both of these men are convinced at the start of the story, that forgiveness, which the show is all about, forgiveness, is something that absolutely no one should give out because absolutely no one ever deserv, which is a really poisonous view of the world, and it's not sustainable. But that's where both of these characters are. That's the thing that these two characters share. We know that these two characters are gonna come together in some way that's not a spoiler. So we won't say how or why, but these two actors do end up sharing the screen at some point. And that, to me, is the make or break part of this show. So, look, it was hilarious. Roxanne, I know that you pointed out people were comparing this to Heat because this was never gonna be De Niro and Pacino. Cause these are not two characters who are crackling with Elect. Going to be a volatile chemistry because these are two chronic depressives commiserating. Right? But it's that commiseration that makes the show for me. Because what's happening in those brief scenes is that both of these very broken men are smart enough to realize that they're headed toward disaster, each of them struggling to prevent it, both for themselves and for each other. And it's the for each other thing, which I find kind of, you know, heartening. I mean, the most interesting thing about the show, of course, is that even though they're enemies in the eyes of the law, their real issues aren't with each other. They're with other people in their lives. There is something hopeful in those scenes.

[Roxana Haddadi]

I guess my frustration is, I think that the end, I will say that a certain arc, to me, did not feel entirely earned. And so I think there is just a little bit of a finger press of you should feel that this is hopeful and that we achieved catharsis and that we have reached a point now where certain characters have dealt with their issues. I think there could have been another episode of perhaps more distinct grappling with all of that guilt and grief that we have talked about. But what I will say is. Yeah, that meeting and what you are getting out of it, Glenn, I do think that that is, like, valuable and worth watching the show for. I would just say maybe don't watch it week to week. Maybe binge it.

[Glenn Weldon]

Oh, that's a good point.

[Waylon Wong]

Like, you think it'll be really unsatisfying tuning in week to week.

[Glenn Weldon]

Interesting.

[Roxana Haddadi]

Yeah. And that's so atypical for me to say because I love a weekly watch, but I really think that this gathers steam in a certain way when you are sort of like binging those first five episodes together. And what I will say is like, in some ways, and this is maybe like a galaxy brained comparison, but in some ways it reminded me of like season one of the Bear and like the Carmi Richie dynamic. And I think that sort of like men trying to figure out who they are to each other. If that is your bag, I think that you should Binge the first five and then go from there with the rest of the show.

[Glenn Weldon]

In your review, your excellent review, you used a C word, which is chore. You described this as a chore, Roxanna.

[Roxana Haddadi]

I said it sometimes feels a bit like a chore.

[Waylon Wong]

I have one very shallow thing to say, which is that Mark Ruffalo with his little beer belly running around with his FBI vest on and the gun and the flashlight and stuff. I'm sorry, he's not looked this hunky to me since 13 going on 30. I took a picture of my TV like a boomer. Like, sent it to a group chat, being like, look at Mark Ruffalo.

[Roxana Haddadi]

So funny.

[Glenn Weldon]

That is funny. There's a pot for every lid.

[Roxana Haddadi]

He is very paunch forward in this. There's like, an exceptional edit where the biker gang is sort of dismissing his involvement and we cut directly to him eating a sub in, like, a really.

[Waylon Wong]

Messy way, the way I eat a sub, which is, like, stuff falling out everywhere.

[Glenn Weldon]

Okay, people, Heogi, please.

[Roxana Haddadi]

Oh, excuse me. I'm so sorry. But, yeah, those details, that's the cold cut meat of the show.

[Glenn Weldon]

There you go. Okay, well, tell us what you think about Dask. We're on Facebook. We're on letterboxd. Or maybe if you see us down ashore, maybe we can hop on our bikes and grab a higgy and some water ice. Go Birds. And that brings us to the end of our show. Waylon Wong, Rexana Haddadi. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks.

[Roxana Haddadi]

Thank you.

[Glenn Weldon]

This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Carly Rubin, and Mike Katsif and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. And hello. Common provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy hour from npr. I'm Glenn Wilden, and we'll see you all next time.

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