It should come as no surprise that "Mare of Easttown" creator Brad Ingelsby, whose new HBO crime drama "Task" premieres Sunday night, is a local news junkie.

Two summers ago, when convicted murderer Danilo Cavalcante brazenly escaped the Chester County Prison and led authorities on a two-week manhunt, Ingelsby was gripped by the suspense in the Delaware Valley. 

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"He was running down my aunt's street," said Ingelsby, who grew up in Berwyn and still lives there. "My aunt lived in West Chester and she said the cops were parked on her property. I was all over that case every day and asking my friends for inside info."

Ingelsby, 45, struck gold with "Mare of Easttown" in 2021 by fusing all of the elements of a classic small-town murder mystery with a searing portrayal of how domestic strife shapes communities. Kate Winslet speaking Delco-ese and taking her gravitas to Wawa cast the Philly region in a new light for TV audiences, inspiring a "Saturday Night Live" skit on the way to the limited series winning four Emmys.

"Task," which stars Mark Ruffalo as a former priest-turned-FBI agent, brought Ingelsby a new canvas to portray the darkest streaks and dysfunctional beauty of his stomping grounds. The seven-episode series, directed by Philly native Jeremiah Zagar, centers on Ruffalo's Tom Brandis leading a task force that's investigating a pattern of drug house robberies. The masked men behind them are unsuspecting trash collectors just one mistake away from igniting a full-blown turf war with a ruthless motorcycle gang.

Ingelsby didn't base the story on any particular case. A friend of his in law enforcement – the chief of police in real-life Easttown – off-handedly mentioned that mail carriers and garbagemen can easily access revealing information to facilitate crimes. And Ingelsby's Uncle Ed, a former priest who left the church after 30 years, regaled him with stories about people enduring tests of faith.

"I don't have a very specific writing process," Ingelsby said. "It's just taking little pieces of information that I like and putting them in there. I think the job of a writer is to be able to place yourself in something without having experienced it."

Every character has a 'why' 

As gritty as Ingelsby's subject matter tends to be, the standout feature of his work is often the depth of his characters and the empathy they evoke. His Apple TV thriller "Echo Valley" shows the shocking lengths of love in the face of addiction and how impossible it can be to separate terrible choices from the humanity of people slipping away from themselves.

"He treats all of his characters with dignity and respect," said Tom Pelphrey, whose Robbie Prendergrast is part-villain, part-Delco everyman in "Task." "Every single character has a reason 'why' – regardless of what they're doing. He doesn't shy away from showing you the truth and he doesn't apologize for them, but he also doesn't try to make you like them. He's not cheap."

Peter Kramer/HBO

Actor Tom Pelphrey ('Ozark,' 'Banshee') plays reckless Robbie Prendergast in Brad Ingelsby's 'Task.' Pelphrey, who grew up in North Jersey, said perfecting the Delco accent for the series took some practice, but the world of the series felt like second nature to him.

Ingelsby said he's dealt with his share of tragedy in his life, but he mostly feels blessed to have grown up with loving parents and siblings who set good examples for him. His awakening to empathy happened as a little boy — ironically — because of his struggle to find his literal voice. 

"A very formative part of my life was having a terrible stutter as a kid. I really couldn't talk," Ingelsby said. "There's a sense of embarrassment, and I think when you have that, it taught me empathy at a very early age. I had been through it. I was embarrassed and shy and kind of not wanting other people to feel that."

During the making of "Task," Ruffalo confided in Ingelsby that he had a similar experience of humiliation living with cystic acne growing up. By bonding with his cast and crew on a personal level, Pelphrey said Ingelsby inspires confidence in their work and believes in the people around him to bring their best — even when it's the characters' worst — to every scene. To an outsider, his gentle presence on set can be confusing.

"My mom came to set one day and we were driving home, and she's like, 'Brad's not in charge,'" Pelphrey said. "I was like, 'What you do you mean?' She's like, 'He can't be in charge.' I said, 'Yes, he is. Why are you saying that?' She just said he was so nice to her. I've had the pleasure of working with a lot of nice people over the years, but to my mom's point, there's just something so unassuming about him."

'That's what's in his bones' 

Much like "Mare of Easttown," the world of "Task" presents multigenerational struggles that put kids and young adults at the mercy of role models who can barely keep their lives together.

"What I love the most is that these are flawed people," Salli Richardson-Whitfield, an executive producer who directed several episodes of "Task," said of Ingelsby's gifts as a storyteller. "The good people are flawed, the bad people are flawed. I think it teaches us to give everyone grace. ... It doesn't make them completely unredeemable people."

Mark Roybal, another executive producer who also worked on "Mare of Easttown," compared Ingelsby's scripts to rich novels that come alive for viewers to imagine what's left unsaid.

"They're full of backstory that might not make it into the show, but you know that it's in there," Roybal said. "The actors and production design will bring it out, even though it's not explicit."

Roybal was a producer on the Coen brothers' 2007 film adaptation of "No Country for Old Men." That movie's groundbreaking take on the Western and noir genres pressed viewers to wrestle with deep questions alongside heart-pounding action. "Task" isn't a whodunnit in the way "Mare of Easttown" was, but it poses emotional and moral qualms that are no less fascinating to watch unfold. Its high-octane sequences play out in a way that – like "No Country for Old Men" – leverage the anticipation of a collision course.

"I think he's created something that's unusual in that it's a riveting, fast-paced, intense cop show that is 100% rooted in the truth of the characters," said Martha Plimpton, who plays a high-level FBI role in the series. "The thing about Brad is that he's so disarmingly sweet ... you wonder where the hell all of this comes from. That's what's in his bones. It's that tension and that friction and that sense of struggle, but also family and closeness."

Peter Kramer/HBO

in 'Task,' Martha Plimpton's Kathleen McGinty is a veteran FBI official who's being forced into an early retirement.

Questioning and believing 

One of Ingelsby's favorite exercises while planning his shows is going on Zillow to find the exact houses where he imagines each of his characters would live. He'll tell his location scouts to find spots that look like them if the homeowners aren't open to welcoming in film crews.

"I know Drexel Hill. I know Springfield. I know those houses," Ingelsby said. "I've driven those roads. I've been inside those homes."

"Task" delivers plenty of Philly references and a fresh set of actors doing their best Delco accents. Two scenes involving the show's Dominican drug lords were filmed in the kitchen of Ralph's Italian Restaurant in South Philly and the owners' home behind it. A number of action scenes were shot in Wissahickon Park and the Lehigh Valley's Bangor quarry is a recurring locale. Ruffalo's character Tom uses a plastic Phillies cup to scoop ice from his freezer and then fills it with liquor.

"It's always a balancing act between wanting to make it specific to the area and not feel like we're jamming the area down people's throats," Ingelsby said. "How do we get these details in so the audience knows where they are in the world without smashing them over the head? Telling an honest story about the area means a lot to me."

Peter Kramer/HBO

Mark Ruffalo leads an FBI task force in Brad Ingelsby's new HBO limited series 'Task.' He's shown above on set with castmates (left to right) Fabien Frankel, Thuso Mbedu and Alison Oliver.

For Ingelsby, who attended Radnor's Archbishop John Carroll High School and later studied at Villanova University, writing and identifying with Tom was a way to continue exploring his faith.

"I struggle with religion a lot, although I'm always on the path and I consider myself a believer," Ingelsby said. "I'm always questioning it. I think Tom's a guy that's always asking himself in the story, 'Why does suffering exist if God is so all-merciful?'"

Ingelsby's Uncle Ed, paraphrasing a rabbi, once told him that asking questions is more valuable than knowing answers because the search for meaning is what brings people closest to God. With "Task," Ingelsby isn't concerned with being seen as a visionary filmmaker. He just wants his stories to help people make sense of their own lives.

"The great compliment that I can get as a writer isn't that like, 'You reinvented the wheel. You challenged yourself to do something different," Ingelsby said. "It's like, 'Hey, I saw some of myself in that story, man.' ... Maybe if we're lucky, if we've done a really good job, it helps them get through part of their life or it makes them look at the day a little bit differently. If I can do that, I'm a happy guy."