Brad Ingelsby Is Back to What He Does Best With ‘Task,’ Just Don’t Expect a Whodunit

It’s been more than four years since Brad Inglesby took audiences on a visit to Delaware County, Pennsylvania, with Mare of Easttown. But the screenwriter never left, having decamped from Hollywood for the native Philadelphia suburbs which have essentially become his muse. On Sunday night, he and HBO dropped the first of his seven-episode return in Task. And while it’s a wildly different story from its Emmy-winning predecessor, the shared DNA was paramount to him.

“It’s not cost effective to shoot here,” says Inglesby, Zooming from his home not far from both series’ sets. “It’s more expensive than going to upstate New York or Pittsburg — but we’ve always agreed that if we’re going to make a show about this place, we have to do it here.”

Trading a whodunit for a slow-motion train wreck about an endearing criminal whose very, very bad decisions inspire the ire of a vicious biker gang and the titular task force, Task stars Mark Ruffalo, Tom Pelphrey, Emilia Jones and Silvia Dionicio. Speaking earlier this summer, Ingelsby discussed what he most wanted to do after Mare became his big break, the endless conversation about possibility of another season of his Kate Winslet-starrer and the classic Hollywood pressure of a major follow-up: “I have to say, I’m exceptionally nervous to get this one out there.”

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Why the nerves?

When you see something so many times, all its charm is lost. I don’t laugh anymore. I’m not surprised at the reveal. I always get to a place where I’m like, “Oh God, I just hope people like it.”

There can be plenty of freedom when you’re following something successful, but it also comes with lot of pressure. How quickly did you figure out what was next when you signed your deal with HBO?

There have been times in my life where I’ve thought that I want to do something completely different. I wasn’t thinking that way for this show. There were still more stories to tell here in Delaware County. What resonated with people [with Mare] was the specificity and the sense of place. I didn’t want to do another whodunit. That was Mare. I never wanted the audience to feel like we were trying to do Mare again — even though it shares some sense of place.

So what was the starting point for you?

My uncle. He left the priesthood. We have an FBI advisor who I talk to occasionally, and we were talking about how priests are used by the FBI at mass casualty events. They bring in priests and rabbis. I’ve always been quite intrigued by my uncle’s journey, so I wanted to tell a story about a guy who’s lost his faith — in this case, through a tragic incident [to Tom, played by Ruffalo] that occurred within the family. There’s this idea that God called on him to adopt these children and then the thing that God’s called him to do has caused the worst event of his life. He doesn’t understand that. Just like Mare was the story of a woman who wasn’t able to confront the death of her son, this is a story of a guy who has to forgive his own son on some level. I just had to figure out what the hell to do with the block to get him there.

As much as you didn’t want to do another whodunit, I suspect there was some pressure or at least expectation that maybe that would come next.

It’s one of the things that we struggled with in the wake of Mare’s success. Like, what are the odds that this woman would come across another crime in this small town that would involve all the people that she cares about? You just run up against logic and believability. If we were to do Mare years later, then I think you get away with it a little bit more. But how do you replicate that? It’s a tricky one to crack. This one, it’s a collision course. The tension of the piece, I hope, is that you kind of like everybody, so you’re scared about what’s going to happen when they all collide.

How much have you thought about cracking another season of Mare? Do you think about that character a lot?

I always think about Mare [Winslet’s main character]. She’s one of the most appealing characters, in so many ways, because she’s funny. You’re able to have her do terrible, terrible things and people still love her because it’s out of a love of family. Every now and then we’ll talk about it, Kate and I. I don’t think the door’s closed. If there’s a great story that we’re both passionate about, and Kate has a window to do it, there’s still a possibility. But we haven’t pinned down one story. There are characters I’ve written that are over and finished. I’ve done everything I can do with them. Mare certainly isn’t that character. She’s one that has a lot of potential to grow and evolve.

Speaking of humor, Task gets incredibly dark. What was approach to tone knowing that going too far down that road could potentially alienate viewers?

If you took an aerial view of the show, it’s quite heavy just given what Robbie [Pelphrey] and Tom have gone through. But you always have to approach it with a certain amount of humor. You don’t want the show to feel like a death march. You want them to be able to laugh with the characters. It gives them a break and then allows themselves to regroup and get ready for the next reveal or the next action sequence. I would say the same about Mare. If I pitched you that story, you would say, “Jesus, I don’t want to watch that show.” (Laughs.)

What are the origins of your fascination with the working class? It’s a real throughline to your work.

It’s my upbringing. My parents were working class people. My grandfather on my mother’s side owned a bar in Philadelphia that catered to the people who were working on the buildings and bridges and shipyard. And it’s a work ethic that I’ve always had. My dad was a basketball player who was able to smartly and successfully use some of his name recognition to have a career in the insurance business. But even when we moved into a bigger house, we never ever felt like we had money. We never joined the country club or got on planes. Even to this day, my dad carries way too much cash in his pocket. Who uses cash anymore, dad? He’s like, “I just like how it feels.” I think that says a lot about who he is.

It’s also the working class in Pennsylvania, specifically.

Whenever I’m starting something new, I sit down and say I’m going to write about something different. I always end up just writing about working class people here in Delco. I was just reading an article about [Pulitzer-winning novelist] Anne Tyler and she said the same thing. Every time she starts a new book, she ends up writing about Baltimore again.

Task and Mare are both seven episodes. It’s an odd number, literally and figuratively. How do you keep landing there?

I’m always aware that the audience’s time is valuable, so I’m hesitant to make too many episodes. Once we got through the fourth episode, I sized it up and realized we could probably get it done in seven. I think Mare started at six and then became seven. That story got a little bit bigger. This one, I really want each episode to feel like it’s got enough juice, and its own setups and payoffs. It’s important to me as a writer to have each episode be a fully formed thing.

The last time we spoke, you were incredibly flattered by the Saturday Night Live parody of Mare — but it had to make you get into your head about leaning on that Delco accent again. How much discussion did you have about when to deploy that and to what degree on Task?

I was very nervous about it. One of the earliest conversations I had with Mark was about how I never saw his characters having the accent. Mare had a very specific backstory. She had grown up in this town and never left. I know people like that that have a Delco accent, whereas Mark’s character, like my own uncle, went off to college. He went to the seminary. He bounced around, so he has no accent at all. It’s always about being true to the character.

And the other characters?

That was much more about sitting down with the dialect coach Susanne Sulby, the same one we had on Mare, and asking, “Where’s the accent for each character?” We talked about their backstories for a long time before we ever got the actors in town and saying, “No, that’s too much or too little or too neutral.”

What are you working on next?

I’ve got to see how Task does, to see if there’s any potential to do another season. If there’s an appetite to do another more of that, I’m interested. And then there’s always the Mare conversation out there. But I still like writing movies. I have a couple I’m kicking the tires on. I can’t stay idle all that long.

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Task is now streaming its first episode on HBO Max, with new episodes releasing Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. Read THR’s review and interviews with the cast.