Published May 15th, 2025 4:02PM EDT
This fall, HBO is pulling us back into the gritty underbelly of Philadelphia, where the houses are cramped, the stakes are high, and no one is ever quite what they seem.
From Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby comes Task, a new seven-episode HBO Original crime drama debuting this September. It stars Mark Ruffalo as a weary yet dogged FBI agent leading a specialized task force investigating a string of violent home invasions shaking up the blue-collar suburbs of Philadelphia. The twist: These aren’t your typical hardened criminals. The robberies are orchestrated by a seemingly normal family man, played by Ozark’s Tom Pelphrey.
“I need you out in the field,” Martha Plimpton’s career FBI agent tells Ruffalo’s Tom, who she puts in charge of an FBI task force. “There’s been a spate of home invasions. At least nine houses have been hit.”
The ensemble in the series, I should add, is pretty stellar. Alongside Ruffalo, Pelphrey, and Plimpton, Task also stars Emilia Jones (CODA), Jamie McShane (Bloodline), Sam Keeley, Thuso Mbedu (The Underground Railroad), Fabien Frankel (House of the Dragon), Alison Oliver (Saltburn), Raúl Castillo, Silvia Dionicio, and Phoebe Fox.
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What’s more, the show is yet another tweet for crime fans from Netflix’s biggest rival.
Between Task and HBO shows like the just-released Duster — a 1970s-set action-crime series starring Lost’s Josh Holloway that debuted today to critical acclaim — HBO and Max are clearly in their “everything we touch turns to pulp-noir gold” era. Crime dramas are practically a house specialty over there at this point, and Task looks like it will slot in quite nicely alongside gems like True Detective, The Night Of, and Mare of Easttown as must-watch prestige television that knows how to grip your throat and break your heart.
