HBO Crime Drama Task Raises Stakes with Character Deaths and FBI Mole Suspicion

Task is HBO’s new slow-burning, multi-layered crime drama from Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby, starring Mark Ruffalo, Tom Pelphrey and Emilia Jones and examining grief, faith and corruption in working-class Philadelphia. The series follows former priest–turned–FBI agent Tom Brandis and sanitation worker Robbie Prendergrast as their lives collide around a masked “Halloween Crew” of robbers and a task force hunting the Dark Hearts Motorcycle Club. Episode 4 ends on a chilling reveal: after Cliff is captured and killed, Perry matches the murder weapon to Robbie’s dead brother Billy and pivots his suspicion toward Billy’s daughter Maeve, sharply raising the stakes for Robbie, Eryn and others. Critics and reviewers praise Task’s ensemble performances and patient procedural that slowly exposes duplicity among detectives and criminals, positioning it as another likely HBO prestige success. Fans of dense, character-driven crime miniseries — from We Own This City and The Night Of to period mysteries like Lady in the Lake — are likely to find Task’s moral complexity and tense unraveling a natural fit. The show continues a tradition of long-form crime storytelling that rewards layered narratives and extended runtimes similar to celebrated crime epics and HBO’s best limited series.