{"id":52338,"date":"2025-09-09T06:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T06:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/52338\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T06:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T06:28:09","slug":"mark-ruffalos-self-pitying-vodka-soaked-fbi-man-is-entirely-unlikeable-christopher-stevens-reviews-task","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/52338\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Ruffalo’s self-pitying, vodka-soaked FBI man is entirely unlikeable… CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Task"},"content":{"rendered":"

By CHRISTOPHER STEVENS, TV CRITIC<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 19:39 EDT, 8 September 2025 | Updated: 20:40 EDT, 8 September 2025 <\/p>\n

Rating:<\/p>\n

Chris Packham, if he ever gets fed up of bothering badgers on BBC2, has a future career as an FBI<\/a> agent.<\/p>\n

Every second U.S. detective on TV is now obsessed with birdwatching. Murder investigations in the States have become more Springwatch than Crimewatch.<\/p>\n

Supersleuth Cordelia Cupp, played by Uzo Aduba in this year\u2019s Netflix<\/a> hit The Residence, was such an avid twitcher that she went out with her notebook and binoculars even in the dead of night.<\/p>\n

Arriving at the White House<\/a> long after dark, she announced she\u2019d just seen a purple grackle. Grackles are not nocturnal. You won\u2019t catch Mr Packham making a batty mistake like that.<\/p>\n

Four-times Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo, as the ageing alcoholic federal crimebuster Tom in Task, is an equally eager birder. The only time we saw\u00a0him looking as though his life was worth living came when he spotted a summer tanager, a sort of bright-red sparrow, from the back porch of his home\u00a0in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The rest of the hour he spent plunging his head into a sinkful of ice-water to get rid of his hangovers, before glumly drinking himself into oblivion again.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more to Tom than ornithology and vodka. He\u2019s a former Catholic priest, who still kneels at his bedside every morning to say his prayers, no matter how hungover and glum he feels.<\/p>\n

His boss orders him to head up a task force of incompetent and neurotic young agents, on the trail of a notorious heist gang who specialise in robbing drug dealers. You might wonder why the FBI would care, but apparently it\u2019s important this gang is caught.<\/p>\n

\"Four-times <\/p>\n

Four-times Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo, as the ageing alcoholic federal crimebuster Tom in Task<\/p>\n

\"om <\/p>\n

om Pelphrey and Mark Ruffalo attend HBO’s “Task” New York premiere at Perelman Performing Arts Center on September 04, 2025 in New York City\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Pictured <\/p>\n

Pictured left to right: Tom Pelphrey and Martha Plimpton, Brad Ingelsby, Mark Ruffalo, Silvia Dionicio, Emilia Jones, Alison Oliver, Thuso Mbedu, Mark Roybal, Fabien Frankel and Margarita Levieva attend HBO’s ‘Task’ premiere<\/p>\n

The chief robber is called Robbie (I\u2019m not making this up) and he\u2019s also a hard-drinking miseryguts. He smokes a lot of dope, too, in between pistol-whipping junkies, but he\u2019s got a deeply spiritual side, man.<\/p>\n

The tagline for the show implies all the chaos in the universe is balanced out by law and order: \u2018Every force has its equal.\u2019 Tom and Robbie, push and pull, yin and yang … stuff and nonsense.<\/p>\n

Task\u2019s writer and creator, Brad Ingelsby, had a huge success four years ago with Mare Of Easttown, starring Kate Winslet as a detective with domestic woes. But Mark Ruffalo, best-known for playing the Hulk in Marvel movies, is no Kate Winslet. There\u2019s nothing likeable about his failed priest: Tom is self-pitying, bitter and arrogant.<\/p>\n

Robbie (Tom Pelphrey) is worse. Vicious and selfish, he lives in his niece\u2019s house and threatens her with eviction when she objects to him beating up her boyfriends.<\/p>\n

The tone of the first episode was all over the place, veering from comedy to bloody violence and arty passages without dialogue. Oh, and I needed subtitles for the mumbly slurring that Ruffalo and Pelphrey use as a substitute for acting.<\/p>\n

No doubt it will win hatfuls of awards.<\/p>\n

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