Adhering to HBO tradition, the second-to-last episode of Task was the biggest one of the show yet. In episode 6, the Delco woods become a battleground between FBI agent Tom (Mark Ruffalo) and serial robber Robbie (Tom Pelphrey), with numerous casualties on all sides. But if you ask fans online, and specifically on Reddit, Task either blew away all expectations or fell flat on its face.
In short: Task has found a new division—and it’s not between cops and robbers, but between its own fans.
Warning: Minor spoilers for Task episode 6 ahead.
Task episode 6, “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a river.” opens with a tense Mexican standoff. Things only escalate from there. In the end, two beloved characters meet their demise, Tom and the task force are off the case, and the drugs everyone is fighting over are who-knows-where.
Normally, an episode with this much going on would be grounds for an early Emmys campaign. But while some fans of Task are totally feeling it, others aren’t sipping the water ice. On Reddit, both the r/television and r/TaskHBO subreddits include highly-populated threads discussing episode 6. Across the board, responses from fans are divided.
To be clear, there are still many fans who are high on the show. Across the subreddits, there are still words of high praise from fans: “Absolutely amazing,” “so emotional,” and “tense as hell and fucking heartbreaking.” “It’s quite literally the best limited TV drama series I’ve seen,” wrote u/NHarris22656 on r/TaskHBO.
Newton’s Third Law of Motion dictates that for every positive reaction, there is a negative tweet. (Or something. Sorry, I barely passed high school physics.) The naysayers include u/guykirk9, who said: “Feel like I’m watching a different show, whole episode was a giant eye roll. Shame because loved most of the season.” To which someone else responded, “Yeah I felt like the first 5 episodes were so good, and then this was a giant CF letdown.”
“Lots of inconsistencies and bizarre decision making in this episode,” said u/we_back_up.
“This episode felt like extremely lazy writing with A-team style gunfights,” said u/signalbound.
In a completely different thread in r/TaskHBO, titled “Task RULES!,” u/Hohnermode11 said, “You guys can’t be serious. Its terrible… I had such high expectations. This is riddled with plot holes, poor acting and horrendous story lines.”
Even in our own recap of episode 6 by Josh Rosenberg, there are folks in the comments section who aren’t thrilled with the latest episode. Wrote someone by the handle varndorch3414: “Task completely breaks down with this episode. There’s some terribly contrived and manipulative storytelling here… Very disappointing. Nothing that happens in the finale matters now. They’ve spoiled it.”
No television show is perfect and without flaws (except maybe Mad Men, and that’s debatable). But in this bizarre era of television when the miniseries format is now more or less the norm, quality shows are harder to come by than even just a few years ago. It’s good to see people get riled up over TV again; it means they care. The worst thing that happens with a show like Task is when no one cares.
Regardless, we stand by series creator Brad Ingelsby. The man is a genius.
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