By Brad Ingelsby, the mind behind Mare of Easttown, is headed back to HBO with Task, a new limited series that casts Mark Ruffalo—better known to many as the Hulk—as a somber FBI supervisor tasked with bringing down the secretive head of a biker crew portrayed by Tom Pelphrey. Between narcotics-fuelled shootouts and enough firearms to stock a small militia, the debut teaser also drapes the action in layers of regret, grief and fractured family ties.
Here’s the promo, underscored by Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” locking the tone somewhere between lament and danger:
Task | Official Trailer | HBO Max – YouTube
Ingelsby’s last HBO effort followed Kate Winslet’s Mare Sheehan, a small-town detective teetering on professional collapse and emotional ruin as a local murder dredged up old wounds.
Task swaps the rural Pennsylvania murder-mystery for Philadelphia’s commuter-belt, where home-invasion crews have begun leaving bodies in their wake. Ruffalo’s reluctant federal agent agrees to head the strike team while still numbed by a private loss. The quarry is Pelphrey’s enigmatic outlaw—Sunday-school dad on the outside, vicious gang chieftain behind the leathers—setting up a high-stakes pursuit with unmistakable echoes of Heat.
The trailer hints the show will hinge on the prickly chemistry between hunter and hunted: two fathers drawn together by violence, separated only by their allegiance to badge or brotherhood.
Task will unfold across seven installments on HBO Max, kicking off 7 September. Kill time until then with our inventory of the 25 best shows currently streaming on HBO Max.