Task & Mare Of Easttown’s Crime Thriller Universe: Revolutionizing the Genre

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Following the success of Mare of Easttown, Brand Ingelsby returns with Task, a new HBO crime drama with an intriguing premise that could launch a whole series of shows. The series features a strong cast, including Mark Ruffalo, Tom Pelphrey, and Fabien Frankel, alongside Emilia Jones, Alison Oliver, Martha Plimpton, and Jamie McShane. While full of suspense and thrills, Task also surprisingly offers a lot of emotional depth.

Both Task and Mare of Easttown demonstrate the writer’s skill at creating characters deeply affected by loss and trauma. Throughout each series, we witness their pain, which ultimately gives way to a moving sense of liberation in the final episodes. It’s a truly beautiful way to tell a story.

As a big fan of both Task and Mare of Easttown, my only little gripe is that they were designed as one-season stories. They had a perfect beginning, middle, and end, and weren’t really meant to continue. But what Ingelsby did was pretty clever. Even though we likely won’t get sequels to either show, he’s built them into something bigger – a connected crime thriller universe, which is awesome. It means even though those stories are finished, the world they live in could keep expanding!

Brad Ingelsby’s Task & Mare Of Easttown Are Set Within The Same Universe

Even though Nic Pizzolatto (writing as Ingelsby) has created two successful crime series, he’s confirmed they share the same fictional world. Fans were excited about the possibility of Kate Winslet’s character from Mare of Easttown appearing in The Outsider, but so far, there haven’t been any connections between the characters. However, this approach – where each story is self-contained – offers some advantages for the franchise.

Despite having different plots, both Mare of Easttown and Task delve into similar emotional territory. Both shows examine themes of loss, forgiveness, and the complexities of family, while also looking at the mental and emotional sides of both committing crimes and working in law enforcement. Mare of Easttown initially sparked this exploration by focusing on the profound grief of losing a child, and Task built on that by portraying the experience of losing a spouse and parent.

Both Task and Mare of Easttown suggest the possibility of future series exploring the complex characters created by the show’s creators. While any continuation would likely be another crime thriller, it could offer fresh viewpoints on the strong themes already established. This kind of innovation is exactly what the crime drama genre needs right now.

A Crime Thriller Miniseries Franchise Can Avoid A Common Genre Pitfall

Crime thrillers usually focus on a central idea or theme that continues throughout the series. Often, these shows explore the difficult past of the main character, which adds to the dark and realistic feel. But once that character deals with their main struggle, the story can lose its momentum. On the other hand, if the show drags out that issue for too long, it can become boring.

Many TV shows have overcome this challenge. When a show has a compelling core element, like the family relationships in The Sopranos, it can stay popular for a long time. However, most shows in this style don’t succeed. Ingelsby’s approach offers a clever fix: each new series explores a different idea while still maintaining a common thread.

It would be great to see more TV writers follow the example set by shows like Ingelsby’s Task and Mare of Easttown. These shows treat each limited series like a movie within a larger universe—if one story doesn’t succeed, it doesn’t kill the potential for future stories in the same world. This approach has proven successful in Hollywood, and could really change the game for crime thrillers on television.

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2025-10-22 05:58