‘Task’ master Brad Ingelsby put Ruffalo’s redemption at center of HBO series from the start

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Task” has tense standoffs between not-too-different cops and criminals. It has gunfights in the woods and heists that turn into bloodbaths that turn into kidnappings. Yet the HBO show’s most dramatic and essential moment may be a guy reading from a piece of paper.

It helps that the guy doing the reading — a victim impact statement in court — is Mark Ruffalo, who is very likely to get an Emmy nomination next month for playing a former priest-turned-FBI agent seeking some kind of redemption for himself and his son who’s about to be sentenced for killing his mother, Ruffalo’s wife.

“I think that stuff was some of the earliest we wrote,” “Task” creator and showrunner Brad Ingelsby told The Associated Press in an interview. “It was like, ‘OK, now, so that’s the emotional journey of the show and then we’ve got to figure out what the plot is.’”

Ingelsby, who previously took Kate Winslet on a similar journey in similar Pennsylvania terrain in 2021’s “Mare of Easttown,” said the idea was “a man of faith and lost his faith in the face of this tragedy that sort of would have to have to find his way back to some belief.” The title “Task” refers both to the police team Ruffalo leads the religious responsibilities that linger in him.

For the court statement, Ingelsby read about experiences of real-life parents of children whose mental disabilities have brought domestic difficulties.

“I specifically remember reading a parent saying, ‘I hate Fridays. I hate going to school and seeing the parents pick up their kids because they’re going off to have a weekend. And for me, that’s the worst day because now I’m home with my child for two days on my own.’”

Ingelsby has been writing films for 15 years, but really hit his professional stride with “Mare of Easttown,” his first foray into television, which won Winslet and her “Delco” or Delaware County, Pennsylvania accent (think “water” as “wooder”) an acting Emmy.

The screenwriter was born and raised in the area outside Philadelphia where urban and rural intertwine both physically and culturally. He moved back around the time of “Mare,” set “Task” there and spoke to the AP from his production office there.

That means he’s been walking around in the place, and among the people, he’s writing about.

“I feel the burden of it when I’m writing things all the time. I feel like if anything, it makes me very vigilant about getting the details right,” he said. “There’s always somebody who says ‘they would never listen to that song or they would ever wear that T-shirt or they wouldn’t drink that beer.’”

He adds, “It’s important to me. I want to do right by them. Even if they don’t like the characters or the decisions of the characters, I want them to feel like we got the place right.”

“Task” was intended as a limited series like “Mare,” but in November HBO announced a second season.

That means that for the forthcoming Emmys, in a move made in recent years by “The White Lotus” and “Shogun,” it shifted from the limited categories to drama.

Along with Ruffalo, Tom Pelphrey, who played the lost-soul criminal at the center of the story, is likely to get a nomination, and “Task” could easily get a raft of others.

Ingelsby has never done a Season 2 of anything before.

“It’s still weird to me that we’re doing another season, because in my head, in many ways, the story had a clear end,” he said.

The idea came from HBO. Ingelsby entertained it simply because the collective cast and crew were such a good hang.

“It really started with just an openness to come back and just work on the show, and that really stemmed from, you know, really loving all of just the time we got to spend together,” he said.

The Season 2 cast includes two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali as a DEA agent. Martha Plimpton, who played against type but felt perfect as Ruffalo’s FBI supervisor, will be among the few returning.

“She was such a find because I just felt like we really need to have some humor in the show,” Ingelsby said, “and Martha’s able to find the humor always.”

___

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Ingelsby.