‘Task’: Brad Ingelsby, Tom Pelphrey, Sylvia Dionicio, & Emilia Jones Discuss Their Gritty Crime Series, Potential ‘Mare of Eastown’ Crossovers, & Much More [Bingeworthy Podcast]

The hum in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, isn’t sirens so much as the grind of a garbage truck at dawn and the scrape of a window after dark. “Task” lives there, in a neighborhood that knows its people by what they throw away, where they go or don’t go to church, then shoves them onto a collision course. One side is a scuffed-up task force working out of a seized row house, and the other is a desperate crew that’s invisible until it isn’t. The engine isn’t a whodunit. It’s the slow, sick feeling of when. The series follows an FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) who heads a task force to put an end to a string of violent robberies led by an unsuspected family man (Tom Pelphrey).

Joining Bingeworthy are creator Brad Ingelsby (“Mare of Easttown”), and stars Emilia Jones (“Coda,” “Locke & Key”), Tom Pelphrey (“Ozark,” “Outer Range”), and Sylvia Dionicio (“FBI: Most Wanted”). During the interviews, Ingelsby smiles at the comparison some fans have been making from the start with Michael Mann’s heist epic, “Heat.” “That’s what we say. It’s like a blue-collar ‘Heat.’ This is very Delco, garbage collectors robbing kind of scuzzy houses, and Tom Brandis is not a very skilled investigator,” Ingelsby says. “The tension is, you want one to get away and you want the other to catch him. Those things can’t coexist. This is a collision-course show.”

READ MORE: ‘Task’ Review: Mark Ruffalo & Tom Pelphrey Shine In Brad Ingelsby’s Captivating Crime Drama About Losing Faith

Writing after the success of “Mare of Easttown,” Ingelsby admits he felt the weight. “People still come up to me and say how much they love ‘Mare’,” he says. “What ‘Mare’ taught me was that if you can be very specific about a certain place and group of people, it resonates. I know these people. This is where I was born, this is where I live, and that gives me the confidence to dive into their lives.” That specificity extends to the smallest detail. “When you do a task force, you don’t want informants seen by the police. If you’ve confiscated a house, you use that as headquarters. It creates a family environment.”

Faith threads the other half. “I grew up Catholic and I struggle with it every day,” Ingelsby says of Tom Brandes, Mark Ruffalo’s character in the series. “Here’s a guy whose pillars have crashed. Through the gauntlet of this case, he arrives at some belief. Not kneeling at the altar, just believing the kid’s going to be okay if I give him up.” On the other side of the story sits a different ache, one rooted in invisibility. “Mailmen and trash collectors are completely invisible to you,” he notes. “Robbie feels invisible and doesn’t want to be invisible anymore.”

Dionicio and Jones play young women, Maeve and Emily, forced to shoulder too much too soon without losing their age in the cracks. “I feel most at home in characters that feel real and raw and honest,” Dionicio says. “Even though she’s just a 17-year-old little cutie, she is going through a lot,” Jones adds that the writing protects their youth. “Brad did such a marvelous job sprinkling little moments of cheekiness and insecurity. Maeve wants to go on a date and make out, but her uncle says, “Nope.” I also really wanted to push myself. There’s a porch scene in episode one where I get to be really, really angry.” Off-screen, they became each other’s lifelines. “We were each other’s pals,” Jones laughs. Dionicio jokes about working opposite her on-screen dad. “In my phone, it says Mark hashtag daddy.”

Pelphrey’s Robbie is built on contradictions, physically imposing yet tender, reckless but loving. “My job is to be alive and truthful in the moment without judgment,” Pelphrey says. “Stop making us try to like you. Brad has taken care of it. I can be robbing this house 100 percent, and tomorrow I’ll be having dinner with my kids, and both things are entirely true without one apologizing for the other.” Then there’s the accent work, which was its own marathon. “It’s muscle memory in your mouth. I went down rabbit holes to hear real people, newscasts, but the last thing you want is for the accent to steer the ship.”

Pelphrey also spoke about how familiar the world of Delco felt to him. “When I read the first episode, there’s a scene of Robbie having lunch and busting his buddy’s chops about being on a dating site, and I thought, ‘Oh man, this guy gets it,’” he says. “That’s the kind of conversation I’ve had a million times. Growing up in Jersey, that rhythm, that language, it’s love disguised as ball-busting.” He laughs, adding, “Someone else might read that and think he’s being mean, but no, that’s how you know he cares.”

When asked about working opposite Mark Ruffalo, Pelphrey said there wasn’t much planning involved. “Zero conversation,” he says. “Rolling, here we go. That’s when we saw what we were going to do.”

Support independent movie journalism to keep it alive. Sign up for The Playlist Newsletter. All the content you want and, oh, right, it’s free.

When talk turns to possible crossovers with “Mare of Easttown” or a third Delco story, Ingelsby smiles. “I’ve never seriously considered a straight crossover, but in my mind they exist in the same world,” he says. “I could see Tom having dinner at a place where Mare is. I’d absolutely do another season of ‘Task,’ and I’d go back to ‘Mare’ if the timing was right. If it’s five years later, that’s interesting. What’s happened to Mare in five years? If I wrote stories about these people the rest of my life, I’d be content.”

“Task” is airing new episodes weekly on HBO & HBO Max. Listen to full conversations with Brad Ingelsby, Sylvia Dionicio & Emilia Jones, and Tom Pelphrey below:

Bingeworthy is part of The Playlist Podcast Network, which includes Deep Focus, The Discourse, and more. We can be heard on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Soundcloud, and most places where podcasts are found. You can stream the podcast via the embed within the article.. Be sure to subscribe and drop us a comment or a rating, as we greatly appreciate it. Thank you for listening.

The Playlist Presents: The “Task” Crew’s Film & TV Recommendation Playlist
• “Sirens” — Brad Ingelsby’s pick
• “His Three Daughters” — Brad Ingelsby’s pick
• “Billy Joel” docuseries — Brad Ingelsby’s pick
• “The Night Of” — Emilia Jones’s pick
• “Bad Sisters” — Emilia Jones’s pick
• “Overcompensating” — Sylvia Dionicio’s pick
• “The Handmaid’s Tale” — Sylvia Dionicio’s pick
• “Santosh” — Tom Pelphrey’s pick
• “Ugly Stepsister” — Tom Pelphrey’s pick