Task Episode 7 drop like two weekends ago but for me this was such a good series that I didnt want to pass on and the ending did cut a few corners but over all felt very good. The action was there, Grasso got his redemption shot with Jason, Maeve finally gets to leave with the kids and THE MONEY, Tom forgives Ethan but something about it all felt a bit off. Like the show started so damn strong with all these threads connecting between the characters and by the end it felt like we were watching two diferent shows that never realy came together the way they should have. The first half of this episode was packed with enough chaos, watching Perry try to work up the nerve to kill Jason with that fish gutting knife but couldnt do it because he loves him like a son, even tho Jason is the reason they are in this mess to begin with. Vince telling Perry to take care of Jason or else, Mike and Vince planning to frame Grasso as some unstable cop who lost his mind, Arin's body floating up with Perry's wallet chain still in her hand which was so stupid on his part like come on man you been doing this long enough to know better. The whole thing with Grasso visiting his sister and finding out he went dirty just to pay for their moms care and get his sister a safe house away from her ex, that gives you a different perspective of him because you realize this guy wasnt some evil bastard from the start, he was trying to take care of family and got in too deep, couldn't sleep, couldn't eat and all that shit eating him alive from the inside.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28013708/
- Platform: HBO MAX
Rottentomatoes Rating
Even though this is probably the second most intense episode I think there were certain moments that were handle a bit poorly. Aleah has been set up as this incredible shooter, they call her bullseye throughout the whole show, they even make a point of showing her shooting patch on her vest, and then when it comes time for that big heroic shot to take down Jason who was holding Maeve hostage, they give it to Grasso instead. I get it, Grasso needed his moment to come full circle after being dirty this whole time, but honestly how in hell after loosing that much blood and that white gasper looking he comes crawling his bleeding ass from his jeep all the way to the back seat of Jasons car just to pop him in the head and yeah that was badass and I did not see it coming at all, but its just too hard to believe. Aleah barely got anything meaningful by the end and that sucked because her character had so much potential, she even gets totally man handle by this Tattoed biker that was there just for shocking but did his job, I though she was done during that fight. The whole standoff scene was tense, Tom and Aleah rolling up to Maeves place, finding Grasso bleeding out in his car barely able to roll down the window to warn Maeve that everyone coming for her, Jason taking Maeve hostage after she dug up the money from the chicken feed, Harper being a kid who never stays in the damn car like she was told, all of it worked awesome but again Grasso was almost dead so I would have preferred Aleah be the one taking the shot.
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The Tom family stuff with Ethan and Emily also felt like it took over too much space in these last episode when honestly the most interesting parts of this show were always about Robbie, Perry, Jason and Maeve, this is the part that felt like to two different shows but I get they were trying to keep some mistery and surprise about Tom life choices like getting hammered almost every night. That was the heart of everything and we got pulled away from it to focus on Tom forgiving his son which yeah it was emotional and Mark Ruffalo absolutely killed it with that courtroom speech, talking about how Ethan was a sick child with voices in his head telling him to do things, how the medication helped for a while until the pandemic caused shortages and the voices came back angrier, how Ethan killed Toms wife Susan but there was also so much joy during the good times. Ruffalo delivered that monolog like it was actually happening, telling Ethan he forgives him, he loves him, when the day comes for him to be released Tom will be waiting to welcome him home, that such a great performance but still felt totally disconnected from the main action, but again I get it they wanted something emotional on the show and make Tom look like the hero he was for everyone.
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The way they wrapped up the dark hearts stuff also felt kinda rushed and convenient with Vince shooting Mike in the head instead of shooting Grasso first even tho Grasso had a gun in his hand and Mike didnt, like what kind of tactical decision is that when you are there to kill both of them anyway, it just seemed backwards to me and only happened because the plot needed Vince to die so Grasso could have his redemption. Jason stabbing Perry after finding out what he did to Arin, that whole scene by the river with Perry naked trying to wash himself and then getting gutted by the person he was trying to protect, it was tragic and well acted but we never got to hear Perry actually explain himself to Jason, we never got that conversation about why he did what he did or how he was protecting Jason from Vince this whole time, so it felt incomplete like we were missing a piece of the puzzle that would have made Perrys death more satisfying or at least more understandable from a character standpoint. Then Tom letting Maeve keep the money by zipping up that bag and walking away, telling Kath later that wisdom is knowing what to overlook, that was perfect because Maeve and those kids deserved a shot at a new life after everything they went thru, Robbie died trying to get them that money and Tom knew it would be wrong to take that away from them just to close a case that was already a mess. Seeing Maeve pack up the car with Harper and Wyatt, taking a picture of the house as a reminder of her dad and uncle before driving six hours away to start over somewhere new with a million dollars hidden in the trunk, that felt earned and hopeful in a show that spent most of its time being bleak and heavy.
Still a very very solid show overall, popularity over RTT jump drastically in the last episodes although those are just numbers, I just wish it kept that same energy from the beginning all the way through instead of getting a little draggy for a few episodes. The performances were incredible across the board, Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelfrey and Fabian Frankel as Grasso all brought some of the most solid performance single episode, the script was sharp and grounded in reality most of the time, the way it handled themes like guilt, forgiveness, family, the traps people get stuck in when they live in places with no opportunities, all of that landed really well and made you think about these characters as real people dealing with impossible choices. I would give it somewhere around an 8 out of 10 because when it was good it was really damn good, those first four episodes with Robbie and the task force investigating Billy's murder and the shootout in the woods, that was some good tv series I watched this year. If they do a season two with Tom and a new task force like they been talking about, I would definitely watch it because this show proved it knows how to build tension and create characters you actually care about, it just needs to stick the landing better next time and not lose sight of what made it special in the first place.
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