If You Miss True Detective, HBO Max's Task Might Just Keep You Going

HBO has a new Sunday-night crime fix, and it is not shy about its ambitions. 'Task' lands September 7, 2025 on HBO and Max, and it is very much aimed at the True Detective crowd who are counting the days until Nicolas Cage turns up in Season 5. The pilot tees up a tense, grounded chase between two men who would probably hate how much they have in common.

So what is 'Task'?

Created and written by 'Mare of Easttown' mastermind Brad Ingelsby, with the premiere directed by Jeremiah Zagar, 'Task' is a bleak, gritty, and weirdly absorbing crime miniseries set in the Philadelphia suburbs. Mark Ruffalo plays Tom Brandis, a former priest whose faith caves in after his son, Ethan, is arrested for a family-related crime. Tom goes back to his day job as a federal agent and gets saddled with a string of violent robberies targeting trap houses across multiple Pennsylvania counties.

On the other side is Robbie Pendergast (Tom Pelphrey), a seemingly good-hearted trash collector who is orchestrating the heists. He is raising his two kids, Harper and Wyatt, plus his niece, Maeve, in his late brother's house. The premiere does a clean job of sketching the world, setting real stakes, and laying the track for the collision you know is coming.

• Creator/showrunner: Brad Ingelsby ('Mare of Easttown'); premiere directed by Jeremiah Zagar
• Leads: Mark Ruffalo as Tom Brandis (ex-priest, now FBI field agent); Tom Pelphrey as Robbie Pendergast (blue-collar dad pulling robberies)
• Robbie's family: Emilia Jones as Maeve; Kennedy Moyer as Harper; Oliver Eisenson as Wyatt
• The task force: Alison Oliver as State Trooper Lizzie Stover; Thuso Mbedu as Sergeant Detective Aleah Clinton; Fabien Frankel as County Detective Anthony Grasso
• Also in the mix: Jamie McShane as Perry

Two men, one inevitable crash

Tom is the classic Ingelsby lead: a good man who cannot quite outrun his own grief. Robbie, meanwhile, is the kind of criminal TV does not always allow: a dad who is breaking the law with the sincere (if misguided) intent to give his family a better life. That push-pull is the show's engine. If the logline you read somewhere said Tom is a cop, the episode itself frames him as FBI, which makes sense of the multi-county task force he leads.

How it stacks up to 'True Detective'

'Task' does not copy True Detective's dual-interview structure, but it is chasing the same flavor: investigators with heavy baggage, a suffocating sense of place, and the feeling that belief (in God, humanity, or yourself) is always one bad day from collapsing. If Rust Cohle's loss made him a fatalist, Tom's loss pries open a crisis of faith.

There is also a clear difference: 'Task' spends real time humanizing its central criminal. Robbie is not a one-note boogeyman; he is a broke dad doing mental gymnastics to justify ripping off drug dealers. That moral murk is where the show lives.

And yes, about the action: the premiere closes with a visceral, gun-blazing showdown that will give some viewers flashbacks to True Detective Season 1's 'Who Goes There' barnburner (the famed single-take shootout). Different staging, same pulse spike.

If Season 4 of True Detective did not click for you after Nic Pizzolatto handed the reins to Issa Lopez, consider this your palate cleanser while you wait for Nic Cage in Season 5.

The 'Mare of Easttown' connection

'Task' exists in the same narrative universe as 'Mare of Easttown' and unfolds in nearby Pennsylvania counties. It is a spiritual cousin rather than a retread. 'Mare' centered motherhood, memory, and personal vindication; 'Task' flips the lens to fatherhood, religion, grief, and the cost of love. Both shows also complicate who we root for by giving their criminals edges of empathy that you do not see in the more monstrous figures from True Detective's first season.

Early read, reception, and where to watch

Only one episode has aired so far, but the performances are the headline. Ruffalo and Pelphrey are operating at the top of their game, and that alone puts 'Task' in the conversation with the genre's best. Critics are into it: 'Task' sits at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to True Detective Season 1's 92%.

'Task' premieres Sunday, September 7, 2025 on HBO and streams on Max. On first impression, HBO might have its next great crime miniseries. At the very least, it will keep your Sunday night warm until Cage shows up with a badge.