The screenwriter Brad Ingelsby grew up in Delaware County, Penn., and lives nearby, in Chester County. “If I threw a tennis ball across the street, it would land in Delco,” he said during a recent video call. He hasn’t entirely lost his accent: You can hear it in words like “daughter,” “water,” “hoagie.” And he has popularized its flat vowels in the two hyperlocal crime series he created: the 2021 drama “Mare of Easttown” and “Task,” which wrapped up on HBO on Sunday.
“Mare,” which starred Kate Winslet as Mare, a world-weary Delco cop investigating the murder of a young girl while mourning her son, was a finely textured whodunit. The perpetrators are known from the start in “Task,” a double act between Mark Ruffalo, who plays a grieving former priest turned F.B.I. agent, and Tom Pelphrey, whose petty thief steals more than he bargained for. Its mysteries are mostly philosophical: What is absolution? How do you move on from tragedy? What should justice look like?
That explains why “Task” has a seventh episode, even though — and spoilers start here for those still catching up — the fifth included the long awaited confrontation between Ruffalo’s Tom and Pelphrey’s Robbie, and the sixth left Robbie dead. Sure, there were a few loose ends that needed knotting, including the exposure of the mole within Tom’s task force, the apportioning of Robbie’s stash, the killing of most members of an outlaw biker gang and Tom’s forgiveness of one foster son and surrendering of the other. But the tension in the finale is largely moral. This story is really one about forgiveness, which can take time.
“It has to be earned,” Ingelsby said.
Speaking from his home, Ingelsby discussed family, forgiveness and whether anyone in the Delco region ever has a nice day. If his shows are often dour — as was his wardrobe of black and gray — he remained cheerful and thoughtful throughout. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
The crime plot in “Task” is resolved by the end of the sixth episode. Why keep the story going? What did you want this finale to achieve?
Certainly there are people who will say it should have ended with the sixth episode. That was the height of the action. There were plot threads that we had to tie up. But that, to me, wasn’t what the show was about. It’s about Tom having to forgive his son, and that journey takes more time to build out. We had to give that story time to breathe. Also, Tom can’t just get out of the action sequence and then go, I’m ready to forgive myself. He has to earn it. It required a bit more time and patience.
Is anyone in the Delco region ever happy?
They’re angling for some happiness. They’re stuck in some way, but it’s a noble fight to get to the light. People say to me, “Oh, it’s such a depressing story,” but I always found “Mare” to be an incredibly hopeful ending. With people in those situations, I don’t know what happiness means. There’s only so much happiness you can have if you’ve been through a tragedy such as Mare or Tom.
You don’t give these people many easy days.
I realize the stories are heavy. If you take an aerial view of “Mare” and “Task,” wow, that’s some heavy stuff. I try to combat it with humor. But yeah, it’s a tough run. I ask myself, why are we dropping into these people’s lives at this particular time? If everyone’s having a good time, there’s no conflict, no tension. The audience isn’t clicking into the next episode to see people have a good times. They want to see crisis. But I also think they want to see how human beings navigate crisis, how they emerge from difficult situations and who pulls them through.
After the success of “Mare,” how did you decide what to do next?
We talked about doing more “Mare,” but that was about a woman who had to investigate a murder that involved all these people she had grown up with. How many crimes can happen in this town that involve her friends? So we shelved that. But I like working in the crime genre because the stakes are very high. I knew I couldn’t do another whodunit, because that’s “Mare.” So I thought of a collision course in the vein of “Heat.” But it always starts with character. I’m not really that good at plot. I get interested in a character and I go, All right, I need to come up with a story to tell this person’s journey.
While “Task” is not “Mare,” it is set in the same region among the same types of people. Is this a kind of spiritual sequel?
I said to everybody on set, “Hey, we’re not running away from ‘Mare.’” We brought on the same production designer, the same costume designer. I said, “Listen, I want the audience to come into this show and feel like, Oh, I recognize this world, I understand these people.” I’m always trying to approach these characters with a level of honesty because I don’t think working-class stories get told that often. When they are told, they aren’t often given the complexity of other stories.
What do we lose when we lose the whodunit? What do we gain?
You lose the viewer’s desire to have to know the answer. What you gain, possibly, is an understanding of characters in perhaps a richer way. Being able to find a level of suspense outside of the whodunit — that, to me, was exciting. This show attempts to understand both sides of the law. I’ve never seen Robbie as a bad guy; I’ve never seen Tom as a good guy. I don’t even really see the bikers as bad guys.
Really?
Well, they have their own code. They’re upholding a system they believe in.
On the surface, Tom and Robbie seem very different. In which ways are they alike?
Tom, he’s a compassionate humanist and Robbie, in my mind, is the same. He can pistol whip somebody, but I think they both have a deep love of family. They’ve both lost their wives, and they’re struggling to do the best they can. “Mare” was a story of mothers. They kept the family going. It was a love letter to the women in my life. I never set out to do the father’s version of “Mare,” but this really is a father’s version.
What was the shoot like?
The shoot was kind of incredible. It was grueling. I would say some of the wood stuff was in the middle of July, so not ideal. But as a crew, we all got along so well. It’s funny, we had such a good time on set. Ruffalo’s a cutup, and yes we were laughing all the time. I know it seems heavy, but we were having a great time.
When did you know that “Dope Thief,” another Pennsylvania-set show about a small-time criminal who accidentally makes a big score, would also air?
We were shooting at the same time. I think we overlapped by maybe half the shoot. I had the scripts written. They had the scripts written. We can’t change midstream; I’m sure they felt the same way. We had to trust our story would exist on its own and the characters would stand out on their own, but we were doing a show that had a drug house rip-off in the first episode, too. There were times when we would talk to the local casting people and they would say, “Well, these actors are in ‘Dope Thief.’” I didn’t watch, just for my own sanity.
Would you return to Delco?
If viewers have an appetite for more “Task,” I would absolutely come back. I want to do it as a love letter to the area, not exploiting it in any way. Because I live here. I want to be able to walk around and not have people throw stuff at me or say, “You really did us dirty.”
Alexis Soloski has written for The Times since 2006. As a culture reporter, she covers television, theater, movies, podcasts and new media.
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