‘Task’ Renewed for Second Season at HBO

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HBO is going back to Pennsylvania for a second season of Task.

The premium outlet has picked up the drama from Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby and starring Mark Ruffalo. HBO and HBO Max chairman and CEO Casey Bloys announced the renewal Thursday.

The renewal comes after Task became a word-of-mouth hit for HBO and grew steadily over the course of its first season. The Oct. 19 finale drew 4 million first-night viewers on HBO and HBO Max, and the show ranks as one of HBO’s fastest-growing debut seasons ever. As of the finale date, the series premiere had 11.2 million viewers.

“We knew well in advance of its launch that we had a powerful drama series on our hands, but it has been so rewarding to witness the audience’s fervor and embrace of this show as it grew week after week,” said Francesca Orsi, executive vp HBO Programming and head of HBO drama series and films. “Rarely does a writer balance humanistic storytelling with intricate, explosive plotting but Brad Ingelsby is one of our industry’s greats, and we have no doubt he will strike as profoundly and addictively once again in season two.” 

Said Ingelsby, “We’ve been incredibly fortunate to have HBO’s unwavering support of Task from the very first script onwards, throughout production, and during their extraordinary launch of our first season to audiences. They are an unmatched creative home. On behalf of the entire Task team, in front of and behind the camera, I am honored and excited to get back to work on a second season of our show.” 

Season one of Task followed Ruffalo’s FBI agent as he led a task force in in the working-class suburbs of Philadelphia to end a string of drug-house robberies led by a man (Tom Pelphrey) bent on revenge. The season one cast also featured Emilia Jones, Jamie McShane, Sam Keeley, Thuso Mbedu, Fabien Frankel, Alison Oliver, Raúl Castillo, Silvia Dionicio, Phoebe Fox and Martha Plimpton (those who watched the full season know not all of those actors will return).

Ingelsby served as showrunner and executive produced season one with directors Jeremiah Zagar and Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Paul Lee and Mark Roybal of Wiip, Ruffalo, David Crockett and Ron Schmidt. Nicole Jordan-Webber and Jeremy Yaches of Public Record were co-exec producers.