![\"Task\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TASK.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The show follows both FBI agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) and garbage collector Robbie (Tom Pelphrey), simultaneously tracking the minutes and days of both of their lives as Robbie\u2019s criminal exploits gradually draw them closer to colliding. These are two very different men \u2014 Tom is restrained, a man of faith, taken out of the field when we meet him and instead trying to recruit graduates to the Bureau. Robbie is livelier and more impulsive, making the most of the societal invisibility his job grants him to check out people\u2019s rubbish and lead a crew that hits gang houses at just the right moment to score some cash. But they have similarities, too. Both are dealing with overwhelming grief and tension within their families, and facing extreme challenges with fatherhood. The constant juxtaposition of their experiences, with the audience\u2019s perspective often quickly moving between the two, encourages empathy for both in equal measure.<\/p>\n
The show does take a while to get going, but Ingelsby\u2019s scripts uncover the traumas and motivations of the main players with care and deliberation…<\/p>\n
Interesting as both Tom and Robbie are, it\u2019s the people around them that make Task really sing. CODA<\/a>\u2019s Emilia Jones is mesmerising as Robbie\u2019s spiky, frustrated niece Maeve, and House Of The Dragon<\/a>\u2019s Fabien Frankel shines as charming agent Anthony Grasso. But it\u2019s Conversations With Friends<\/a>\u2019 Alison Oliver who stands out most as Lizzie Stover, who joins the task force in the midst of a divorce, and can be found yelling at her ex on the phone or singing along terribly to Gwen Stefani\u2019s \u2018Sweet Escape\u2019. She\u2019s a much-needed injection of humour in this otherwise quite dour show, sometimes feeling a bit out of place because of it, but convincing as the most chaotic member of the inexperienced task force Tom is forced to lead.<\/p>\n The show does take a while to get going, but Ingelsby\u2019s scripts uncover the traumas and motivations of the main players with care and deliberation, gradually but effectively pulling you in by laying bare the vulnerabilities of people who all seem lost in their own way. The first two episodes build to excellent endings \u2013 a raid gone wrong, an attempt to do good that doesn\u2019t work out \u2013 and overall, set up watching this series as one task you\u2019ll be happy adding to your to-do list.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve seen this kind of show before, probably many times \u2013 but Task\u2019s compelling characters, patient writing and undercurrent of emotion help it stand out from the crowd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Troubled father and FBI agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) is chosen to head up a task force investigating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-32459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}