蜜芽传媒

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Ali Plumb and Hayley Campbell join Naga Munchetty to review Task.

Task is a crime drama miniseries, starring Mark Ruffalo as Tom Brandis, a former priest turned FBI agent leading a task force against violent drug-house robberies. Facing him is Tom Pelphrey’s Robbie Prendergrast, a desperate family man behind the crimes, setting up a tense clash of law, grief and survival.

What do the Must Watch reviewers make of it all?

Naga: “Ali, is it a must watch?”

Ali: “I’m going to say, from what I've seen so far, it just might be.”

Naga: “How much have you seen?”

Ali: “Two episodes.”

Hayley: “How did you see two? There was only one.”

Ali: “Don’t tell anybody, I know people…

“So, Task is one of those shows where immediately you can tell it’s very well put together, it has that touch of class, it has that polish, it just has that look where everything has been thought through and that idea for me is really important.

“We have such little time in our lives … but when you can see that there are great performances from the off, I love Mark Ruffalo, I just have a bond with him.

“I just find his presence so, partly comforting, partly just flat out enjoyable.

"I like seeing him as this washed up FBI guy who is handing out leaflets saying, ‘hey do you want to join the FBI?’

Ali: “He’s far better than that, but he’s been through the ringer and he is struggling to come to terms with how his career has developed, how his life has gone.

“He is in trouble, but he is forced back into the field by this unfortunate gig where he has to be the leader of this task force.

“I really liked him in it and I think I always will, I will put my hands up, I have a soft spot for him full stop.

“The robbers who are going from drug den to drug den, trying to hold him up for money, yes I know what I’m saying to you isn’t that exciting as a concept, it’s not that, ‘oh wow, hang on’ and then what happens, they hold up the drug den, ‘ok, I’ve never seen that before.’

"It just has this polish and I enjoyed that feeling, like I had with Mare of Easttown, where everything is under control, they can take time in scenes for actors to actually act.

"It has that HBO vibe and I just enjoy it.

“Maybe I’ve been watching too much shlock, maybe it’s the Stranded on Honeymoon Island after-effect, I don’t know, but I really enjoy a show like this and I have high hopes for it from what I’ve seen so far.

“I’d also like to shout out Emilia Jones, who you might remember from being in CODA, that best picture winner from a few years ago.

“She is from these fair isles and has the most amazing American accent, you would never ever know that she was anywhere but from America, she is incredible.

“So, I’d say cautiously Task is good so far, but Hayley maybe you didn’t like it as much as I did?”

Hayley: “No, I did, but I only got to watch one episode.

“I really like watching Mark Ruffalo as a sad birdwatcher with his binoculars and the garden.”

Ali: “Shout out to the guy that, obviously, had to put a pillow under a shirt everyday, because there is some special effects work in the paunch department that needs to be shouted out.”

Hayley: "Absolutely!”

Ali: “Great work, great work.”

Hayley: “I think what Brad Ingelsby is trying to do with this one, is it a bit like what Michael Mann was doing in Heat, because he is showing us the parallels between the cops and the robbers and how everyone is having a bad time.

“The show is constantly flipping between them.

"They’re both these guardians to young women, one’s a dad, one’s an uncle, and they’re both having a hard time with that and they’re both dealing with grief, because this is a HBO crime show and you can’t have those without someone dealing with grief.

“Even though I like Mark Ruffalo, one thing I would say is that Michael Keaton was originally cast in Ruffalo’s role, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.

“I am a little bit sad that that version doesn’t exist, because while Ruffalo is great, I think Keaton would have brought something else to it.

"He was so good in Dopesick; he brought such torment to it.

“I would’ve loved to have seen him in this, even though, as Ali pointed out earlier, he has played that role before.”

Ali: “In Jackie Brown and Out of Sight, he can do man with FBI vest, he can do it.

“Would’ve been great!"

Hayley: “I know!”

Ali: “I like seeing the Gruffalo on our small screen.”

Hayley: “He’s great!”

Naga: “So it’s a must watch from both of you?”

Ali: “So far, but I love a drip-feed, grown up, well put together chunky drama like this.”

Hayley: “And it’s also got that grey HBO filter that Mare of Easttown had on it, where everything is miserable looking, it’s miserable!”

Naga: “Mare of Easttown was amazing and it was miserable, but it also had elements of wit in it, which I loved and Kate Winslet, how can you not love, right?”

Hayley: “And Jean Smart.”

Naga: “ I’m bored of seeing miserable people, I’m bored!”

Ali: “I feel personally attacked!”

The first season of the HBO series "Task" features seven episodes released weekly on Sundays on HBO and HBO Max in the US, and on Mondays in the UK on Sky and Now TV.

This week, the team reviewed Coldwater and The Girlfriend.

But before all that, why not contact the must watch reviewers with the shows you’ve been loving, loathing or both on mustwatch@bbc.co.uk.