HBO on Sunday followed up its successful limited series Mare of Easttown with another crime drama set in a working class Philadelphia called Task. The series from Mare creator Brad Ingelsby stars Mark Ruffalo as the head of an FBI task force who’s called upon to investigate a string of violent robberies led by a family man named Robbie (A Man in Full‘s Tom Pelphrey).
Here, Ingelsby and Pelphrey, together with CODA‘s Emilia Jones (Robbie’s niece Maeve) address the first episode and what viewers can expect from the next six episodes.
DEADLINE Brad, I don’t know if anyone’s ever described a task force as sexy or particularly riveting, but you built a whole limited series around one. Why?
BRAD INGELSBY Well, I love the idea of a group of people who are really different and who come together to solve a crime. I felt like it was an interesting way into a crime series. It also allowed me to do what I like to do, which is explore characters. It allows you to have the stakes you want when it comes to a show like this. It checked a lot of boxes for me.
DEADLINE Given that you also created Mare of Easttown, it’s clear you like mining the working class world for stories.
INGELSBY They commit crimes! Also, it was how I was raised. They [the working class] are the people who raised me. It’s the lives that I experienced growing up. Even though my dad was an insurance salesman and had some success, the way I was raised felt to me like a working class environment. Even to this day, my father carries a thousand dollars of cash in his pocket. I say, ‘dad, everyone’s got debit cards.’ And he says, ‘I just like the feel of it in my pocket.’ He didn’t have any growing up, so he likes how it feels. Oftentimes as a writer, they say, write the people you know. It’s also a class of people who don’t get their day, that often aren’t explored. I feel there’s a lot of stories about rich people that get explored. I like to tell stories with as much care and consideration and compassion about working class people.
DEADLINE You gave Mark Ruffalo’s character so much baggage.
INGELSBY Everything he’s held as truth in his life is questioned and called into question. And that to me is something that I face every day. What do I believe about God? If there is a God and if he’s merciful, why do these awful things happen? It is baggage, but he’s on a journey, and I think it allows his character to be driving, always. There’s obviously the driving nature of the plot. He has to solve the case. He’s on a hunt, but he’s also on a quest for some sort of peace. He’s asking himself the big questions about life. The baggage is a connective piece. It’s a way for an audience to tap into his character. We all see some of ourselves in a guy who’s trying to make sense of suffering in the world.
DEADLINE Tom, does your character even think that he’s a criminal?
TOM PELPHREY No! What am I doing that’s so particularly bad? I’ve never understood this. Everyone asked me this. I’m like, what’s wrong with what Robbie’s doing? He’s doing what he needs to do, obviously, to take care of his family. And in the meantime, the people picking up the tab, none of us are shedding any tears over it. So considering the difficult situation that Robbie’s in and the circumstances, I have no problem with the way he is doing it.
DEADLINE Does he consider himself to be a good dad?
PELPHREY Oh boy. Does anybody? Gosh, I believe that he considers himself someone who will do whatever it takes to be a good dad. But I’m sure just like all of us, he wrestles with doubt. And yeah, those are the questions that shape a life. I don’t know if any of us could say with confidence we’re a good anything. I think Robbie’s got the humility to recognize that. But he’s always trying in a way that just I love. To me that’s so beautiful and unique and honest. I was very moved reading Robbie.
DEADLINE Emilia, is your character the adult in the room in this scenario?
EMILIA JONES Oh, yeah. It was really interesting to explore the role reversal. Maeve is basically the glue in the family. She’s holding the household together and she knows it. She wants to get the hell out of there, but she’s not going to because she knows the whole family will fall apart without her. It’s tough for someone of such a young age to really know how important they are to people and to be torn between what they want and what is right for others. She’s very selfless. A few people had asked me, because I played Ruby in CODA who also shouldered a lot of responsibility, if the roles are similar. I think they’re both young people struggling in life because of what they’re having to go through. Maeve is carrying the weight of loss, whereas Ruby was carrying the weight of love.
DEADLINE Where did you shoot this limited series?
INGELSBY All over Delaware County in Pennsylvania. We shot a little bit in the city in Philly, a little bit in Chester County … a lot of the same places we shot Mare of Easttown. We shot on the same streets as Mare, and our home base was in Aston Township, and Mare was in Aston. I’ve always felt strongly that if you’re going to tell a story about a certain place, it really helps to shoot there.
JONES Sure, especially when we’re all trying to do this complicated accent. It was really nice to just have the people around us that we could draw from, ask some questions and draw from their experience.
PELPHREY There’s also a sensibility. I understand it because I grew up with it, but I imagine for everybody else, especially some of the Brits [like Jones, who was born in London] who come over and realize part of how we’re going to bond and relate to one another is that I’m going to mercilessly mock you in an aggressive way. That’s part of how we’re going to share affection. So they have to understand that somehow, the sharing of love looks different than you might think. Also, that’s something you might read on the page and you go, ‘he’s saying what?’ The subtext is I love you. I think what’s great about filming in the area is the constant vibe. The vibe of the drivers. The vibe of the ladies doing our awesome crafty. That’s the vibe of the crew. That’s the energy we’re living in.
DEADLINE Brad, why did you make your task force so young? And why are they in such a rundown house?
INGELSBY I use a lot of advisors when I’m doing the police stuff, and one of the earlier conversations I had with our advisor, Dave, said oftentimes you don’t want a task force to work out of a police building because if you’re bringing in informants or if you’re having conversations with people, they could be seen walking into a police building and it could get in the way of the case. So what they often do is if they’ve confiscated a house, if there’s a drug house, they’ll have the headquarters of the task force in an actual house. That was a light bulb moment because I’ve never seen that in a show before. Also, I wanted the task force to become a family. There’s no better setting for a family than in a house. And so it was like, oh, great, we’re able to achieve these two things at once, do something unique that we haven’t seen, and also achieve a dynamic of family. As for why they are so young, Martha Plimpton says in the show, ‘it’s not always the tip of the spear.’ If you’re the chief of a division, you don’t want to give up your best officers and let them go in a task force. So normally what happens is, who are we willing to sacrifice? Who are we willing to give up to spend a couple of weeks away from us? Sometimes it’s a troubled officer. There are a lot of instances.
DEADLINE Given the stakes and who is involved, I’m already wondering if this will have a happy ending.
INGELSBY I think happiness is relative. I guess it depends on your definition of happiness. I think in terms of Mare of Easttown, I thought that had a tremendously hopeful ending. Here’s a woman who was able to arrive at the next level of healing. And that to me, with having a son who died by suicide, was a tremendously hopeful ending. I would say that our show arrives in a similarly hopeful place. Are they going to the carnival with their kids and celebrating? Maybe not. But I think in terms of where the characters start and where they end, I think it’s a very hopeful story. I want it to be a hopeful story. We certainly didn’t start this to make a depressing show. I want the audience to leave with a sense of hope that all the characters have achieved either healing or are going off on a journey that is going to be a hopeful one.
