In HBO’s New Hit Crime Series, Mark Ruffalo Finally Gets Upstaged

Ever since his breakout performance in the tenderly touching 2000 sibling drama You Can Count on Me, Mark Ruffalo has rarely been upstaged. On the contrary, it’s Ruffalo who often hogs the limelight from other A-list actors, with his flashy Oscar-nominated performance opposite Emma Stone in Poor Things serving as a great example. However, Ruffalo has finally met his match in HBO‘s new hit crime series, Task.

Just as he gave in Seasons 3 and 4 of OzarkAmerican actor Tom Pelphrey‘s performance in Task is a scintillating sight to behold. Despite playing the so-called villain in the detective series, Pelphrey plays his part with such emotional empathy and physical command that he often steals Ruffalo’s thunder as the series protagonist. While both are tremendous, Pelphrey’s Task turn is likely to be rewarded over Ruffalo’s during awards season.

‘Task’ Pits Two Father Figures on Opposite Sides of the Law Against Each Other

Created by Brad Ingelsby (Mare of Easttown), Task is a dark and gritty American crime miniseries set in the Philadelphia suburbs. Mark Ruffalo stars as Tom Brandis, an FBI agent and former priest. Reeling over the criminal arrest of his son, Ethan, for a crime committed within the family, Tom has a severe crisis of faith. When Tom is assigned to lead a task force to investigate a bevy of drug robberies across Pennsylvania, he embarks on an inevitable collision course with Robbie Pendergast (Pelphrey).

Played with heartfelt pathos by Pelphrey in the highly acclaimed miniseries, Robbie Pendergast is a local trash collector who lives in the home of his deceased brother with his two children, Harper (Kennedy Moyer) and Wyatt (Oliver Eisenson), and his niece, Maeve (Emilia Jones). Unable to give his children what they need as a single father on a blue-collar salary, Robbie and his friend Cliff (Raul Castillo) begin robbing drug houses at night in Tom’s jurisdiction.

Despite conducting a string of robberies and getting into violent shootouts with gang members and drug runners, it’s impossible not to understand and empathize with Robbie’s behavior. It starts with the nuanced writing and the complexities of a flawed human character, but it’s elevated to soaring heights by Pelphrey’s deeply committed, showstopping performance.

Although only one episode has aired thus far, Pelphrey’s “for your consideration” moment occurs after Robbie, Cliff, and their pal Peaches (Owen Teague) return home following their first successful drug robbery. Maeve launches into a tirade about sacrificing her life to raise Robbie’s children, with Pelphrey portraying a seemingly good-hearted man whose arrested development prevents him from articulating his feelings on her level. It’s what Pelphrey does between the lines, without dialogue, that subtly shades his character with compassion and empathy.

Tom Pelphrey Builds on His ‘Ozark’ Performance

As Ozark fans know, it’s just another day at the office for Pelphrey. In Netflix’s stellar crime series, Pelphrey played Wendy Byrde’s (Laura Linney) lovable bipolar brother, Ben. The infectiously upbeat character became unwittingly involved in the Byrdes’ money-laundering scheme after arriving at their home unannounced. Not only did Pelphrey pilfer the spotlight from Linney, Jason Bateman, and every other screen partner, but he also gave the single most emotionally devastating performance in the series in Season 3, Episode 9, “Fire Pink.”

Due to one of Ben’s so-called manic outbursts at a fundraising gala, Wendy calculated that he needed to be eliminated to keep the Byrdes from going to jail. There’s an unforgettable scene in which Wendy takes Ben to a diner to say goodbye after ordering a hit on her own brother. The moment of realization that Ben has, knowing that Wendy has set him up to die for a psychological tic he has no control over, is among the saddest, most haunting, and profoundly heartbreaking performances on record.

Without a word of dialogue, the incredulous, childlike innocence beaming through Ben’s eyes in his final moments will pierce even the most calloused of cold-hearted cynics. Pelphrey not only stole that scene like the thief in the night that he plays in Taskbut he stole Ozark fans’ hearts forever in that one episode alone.

With six more episodes remaining in Taskit’ll be fascinating to see how Ruffalo ramps up his dour and dreary performance to match the contagious joviality of Pelphrey. What remains most fascinating about Task thus far is how it empathizes with its protagonists and antagonists equally, with Tom and Robbie doing their best as father figures grappling with grief and loss as they operate on opposite sides of the law. By design, it appears as though the two men will collide in a moral gray area as Tom finds enlightenment and Robbie becomes darker and more devious.