How is Task different from Mare of Easttown? Details explored 

With the release of Task, HBO has built a strong reputation for crime dramas, and Brad Ingelsby has been at the center of that success.

In 2021, he gave audiences Mare of Easttown, a small-town murder mystery led by Kate Winslet that quickly became one of HBO’s most talked-about shows.

The series worked as a classic whodunit, pulling viewers into a story where every character looked suspicious and every clue pushed the tension higher until the killer was revealed. Four years later, Ingelsby has returned with Task, and while it also features a troubled investigator at its core, the new series changes the format

Having premiered on September 7, 2025, Task stars Mark Ruffalo as FBI agent Tom Brandis and Tom Pelphrey as Robbie Prendergast, a garbage collector by day and a skilled robber by night. Instead of asking the audience to guess the culprit, the show makes it clear from the beginning that Robbie is behind the crimes.

This shift moves Task away from the whodunit structure and into a cat-and-mouse chase between lawman and criminal. With Ruffalo, Pelphrey, and a supporting cast that includes Emilia Jones, Thuso Mbedu, and Martha Plimpton, Task sets out to redefine Ingelsby’s approach to crime storytelling.

How Task reinvents Brad Ingelsby’s crime drama formula

The biggest difference between Task and Mare of Easttown comes down to how the stories generate suspense. In Mare of Easttown, the entire season was built around a murder investigation where Kate Winslet’s character had to sift through lies, secrets, and misdirection to find out who killed a teenage girl.

Every twist pushed the audience toward the same question: which suspect was guilty? By contrast, Task throws that question out from the very start. Tom Pelphrey’s Robbie Prendergast is revealed as the man behind a string of violent robberies in Philadelphia before the first episode even ends. The tension isn’t about uncovering his identity, but about how long he can outrun the law and how close FBI agent Tom Brandis can get to catching him.

This structural change alters how viewers experience the show week to week. In Mare of Easttown, each episode focused on narrowing down suspects. In the new show, the episodes are more about strategy and pursuit. Brandis forms a task force that includes Emilia Jones’s Maeve and Thuso Mbedu’s Aleah, with each officer taking on specific leads, while Robbie juggles his role as a devoted father with his increasingly dangerous robberies alongside his friend Cliff, played by Raúl Castillo.

That contrast between his family life and his criminal life is what makes the chase more complicated than a standard cops-and-robbers drama.

Another key difference is tone. Mare of Easttown leaned heavily on its Pennsylvania setting, using small-town gossip and broken family dynamics to keep the story grounded. The new show, while also set around Philadelphia, feels bigger in scope.

The robberies are more violent, the presence of biker gangs like the Dark Hearts adds another layer of threat, and the FBI’s involvement means that the stakes are national rather than local. Ruffalo’s character even carries the added weight of being a former priest, which influences how he sees justice and forgiveness, giving the manhunt a moral undertone.

Instead of delivering one major reveal like Mare of Easttown did, the new show is designed to test loyalties, push characters into corners, and keep the audience conflicted. Viewers know Robbie is guilty, but his bond with his son and niece makes him sympathetic. That dual pull is what keeps the suspense alive, proving Ingelsby wasn’t interested in repeating himself but in reworking the crime drama formula entirely.

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