The following review contains spoiler after spoiler after spoiler for the HBO series, Task. If you haven’t finished the show (or started it…but why would you be here?) Don’t continue reading. Come back when you’re done.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last two months, you really couldn’t avoid the hullaballoo surrounding Task, HBO’s new (mostly excellent) miniseries from award winning showrunner Brad Inglseby. 

Task follows an FBI task force headed up by Mark Ruffalo’s Tom Brandis as he searches for mysterious culprits behind a series of bizarre home invasions that appear to be targeting members of a local biker gang / crime circuit. We’re introduced pretty early in the story to the robbers themselves; led by Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey). Stakes become massively increased at the tail end of the first episode when Robbie and his crew (somewhat mistakenly) kidnap Sam, a child of one of the would-be robbery victims, after they (also somewhat mistakenly) murder the child’s parents while in the commission of the crime. 

The mostly set-up heavy pilot (which was kind of a slog to get through) thrusts viewers into immediately caring about the craziness when Sam goes-a-missin’ and Tom and the FBI Task force have to find him. 

In its early episodes, while setting up the plot for the remainder of the series, Task clearly relies heavily upon development of its rich characters. You discover that Tom and his family (comprised of one biological daughter, two adopted siblings (a girl and a boy), and a deceased wife who was killed by Tom’s adopted son) are barely hanging on by a thread. Tom’s drinking is out of hand and his relationship with all his children range from manageable to non-existent. Tom’s son is currently awaiting sentencing for his responsibility in his mother’s death, and Tom’s family is still reeling from the shock, the grief and with what to do about speaking on behalf (or against) him at the Hearing. 

Very clearly Inglesby crafted every element of the tremendous characters with meticulosity. Character arc and development undoubtably delivers on every single level. 

Like Inglesby’s last series, Mare of Easttown, Task is set in rural Pennsylvania where the cigarette smoke is almost as thick as the characters’ “Fly Eagles Fly” accents. Beautiful cinematography accompanies marvelous direction and the later episodes have some of the best action sequences you’ll ever see. 

You’re not going to hear any arguments from me about the incredible performances; especially from Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey (who the world was introduced to in Ozark, but now will obviously be on the short list for leading man in literally every single project in Hollywood) but also the tremendous supporting cast. You’re not gonna hear me whine about that impeccable cinematography or the direction, or even the annoying-as-fuck accents. 

But, man…let’s talk about the story. Because, I got some issues.

It was around Episode 4 when I started to realize that all wasn’t right in the Task writers’ room. But to get there, you need to go back to Episode 3. In Episode 3 we meet Ray Lyman. Remember Ray Lyman? He was the guy Cliff (remember Cliff?) knew from prison. Robbie and Cliff (who we learn in the first episode work together for local sanitation driving a trash truck) go to Ray Lyman for help moving the drugs (because…y’know…jail…scumbag…move drugs….sure…whatever) and shockingly it doesn’t go so great for anyone (Robbie, Cliff, Ray Lyman, Ray Lyman’s wife who commits a home invasion with Ray Lyman but is allowed to just go home and not have to ever answer any questions ever again for that…but it’s fine because she later is able to move millions of dollars worth of drugs and then millions of dollars worth of dollars, both in a gym bag that every bad guy on planet earth is looking for, entirely undetected despite the fact that she was interviewed by the FBI about multiple homicides, burglaries and a kidnapping five minutes earlier).

So, yeah…Tom and his cop crew talk to Ray Lyman and long story short, they figure out that Cliff’s been doing the robberies .

Now iff’n you know anything about police work…and I mean ANY-THING. Like if you’ve watched a single police drama at any point in your life…fuck, if you’ve watched Paw Patrol,  you know the Five-0 is gonna turn over every single stone once they get a juicy lead. Wouldn’t it be prudent for Tom and the FBI (the Federal Bureau of Investigation, folks), to, uh, go to Cliff’s work and say, “Who’s ole Cliff on the trash truck with all day long?” “Oh. Shit, man. That’d be Robbie Prendergast. You know Robbie. His biker-gang brother died a couple of years ago, but you haven’t found his body yet.”

Story over at that point, dudes. I mean, the story doesn’t have to be over. But that’s a massive problem you have to address. You can’t just not do it and cross your fingers that viewers don’t notice.

That’s an inexcusable plot hole from an Emmy winning writer. And, quite honestly, it’s a plot hole that would probably be incredibly easy to fill. But Inglesby didn’t fill it. He just left it dangling out there to live in my brain. Episode after episode. Silly twist after silly twist, that tiny “why didn’t they do this?” turned into what ultimately became non-stop bewilderment about a plot that ended up becoming straight-up nonsense. 

Watching Inglesby play sabermetric baseball with his story when he had Ruffalo and Pelphrey performing as ’98 Sosa and Maguire knocking dingers into the parking lot scene after scene after scene slowly drove me insane. You gave them a script with incredible dialogue (see for example Episode 5 “Vagrants”, which might be one of the better episodes of television we’ll see all year), and stuck them with a giant turd of a plot.

My frustration’s breaking point came at the beginning of Episode 6 (“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and righdoing there is a river”). Undoubtably the scene was visually (and audibly) a highlight of the series. But it was also the point when the plot fully jumped the shark. 

We’re supposed to blindly believe that Perry and Jayson (the defacto “leaders” of the villainous biker gang The Dark Hearts who are less villains as they are bumbling Three Stooges buffoons) can just open fire at Robbie, Tom, and an entire army of federal agents, and have some kind of exit strategy in that situation? What’s the end game, here fellas? You’re gonna grab the bag full of Fentanyl, go back to your biker club and continue slamming Folgers and puffing Marlboros? In real life a gunfight like that would be the top story on national news for weeks.

But, whatever. Moving into the third act of the story we’re somehow forced to fully suspend disbelief into, basically, extra-terrestrial realms.

So, Tom ends up with Sam for a while. Which, sure, was endearing, but also that’s not how fostering children works. We get the full-circle resolution with the Brandis family grief (which, honestly was way less annoying than I was preparing myself for), and we get an absolutely bonkers-ridiculous end for Maeve (Robbie’s innocent niece, who along with Robbie’s kids represent collateral fallout from the chaotic selfish narcissism their dads and uncles lost themselves in) where the federal agents let her KEEP THE BAG OF DRUG MONEY so she can live some glorious life (presumably in Canada…which, yes, I’m kinda jealous, to be honest with you), away from the life that’s upended her family.

In getting Maeve to this utopian finish line we’re supposed to believe that Tom (a former clergyman and current FBI high-ranking official) and his boss Kathy are both cool with just looking the other way. And that’s because Tom believes everyone deserves comeuppance and Kathy’s retiring on Friday and she hath give-th her last shit-ith long ago.

Millions of dollars. Millions of them. In a bag. From a botched drug deal…with drug dealers, and Maeve can just keep it…like she won Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.

Yeah. Sure. Whatever, man. 

Look. I liked Task, a lot. There’s tons of great stuff there. But I just feel a bit cheated. Obviously expectations were going to be high (and probably unachievable) as Inglesby was coming off an absolute banger in Mare of Easttown which you could argue is the best miniseries of the last two decades.

The story should’ve been better than this. It’s a disaster that, for sure, deserves a bit of a pass given the tremendous other stuff contained in it, but not the pass everyone is seemingly giving it. That’s a BAD plot, kids.

The problem is that Task is either an intrinsic allegory for the crippling struggles of poverty, crime, faith and family in suburban America or it’s a popcorn chomping Hardy Boys mystery novel with a shitload of plot holes, an unrealistic a path to get to an unrealistic end with no actual regard for a shred of plausibility; let alone credibility. But it can’t be both….and why in the world does it want to be the latter?!

I wanted to love Task as much as a lot of people apparently did. But I guess you gotta try harder if you want me to love you.

Sorry (in my best awful Philly accent), Brad.