Well, Tell Me About Your Father Nation — we’ve reached the end of Task, which aired its finale Sunday night on HBO. Our jumbo recap episode is out now, covering the entire series and what it had to say about life’s three Fs: fathers, faith, and forgiveness. In creator Brad Ingelsby’s world, the fourth F is feathers, but we’ve managed to keep birds mostly out of this recap.
In an interview with the LA Times this week, Ingelsby said, “This [show] is all about the fathers and being left behind — seeing the damage they’ve done to their kids, how they’re going to fix that in their lives, or not be able to fix it. The guys who are actually doing the damage without knowing.”
If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the theme of every episode we’ve made over the past five years. Indeed, for much of Task, these Sad Men of DelCo have struggled to bridge the yawning expanse between their actions and the consequences, leaving the women and children in their lives to do it for them.
But Task is also about showing grace for others, even when you’re in pain, and even when they’re in pain. It’s the hardest thing in the world to do, and for that reason we only sometimes manage to talk about the freedom that comes from accepting what you can’t control on TMAYF. The finale’s title, “A Still, Small Voice,” captures this idea: it’s only when we stop thrashing that we can sometimes hear the divine within us. And it might be reading Rumi aloud with a Philly accent.
Elsewhere in the recap, we get into Mark Ruffalo’s Phillies cup redemption arc, wonder about the arboretum zoom-out final shot, and say goodbye to our girl Gertie. Everyone on this show deserves an Emmy, a Globe, and a SAG. We’ll miss recapping it for our fellow Task-heads.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a look at the year in Christian nationalism with a dad who knows a thing or two about faith - Christian Nightmares - a conversation about the Jeff Buckley documentary coming to HBO with Buckley biographer David Browne, and, of course, the 2025 Daddy Awards.
See you soon, and thanks for listening.
Elizabeth
