Initially, the Dark Hearts, the fictional drug-dealing biker gang in the new HBO miniseries “Task,” was born out of plot necessity. As IndieWire previously covered, the narrative structure of “Task” was inspired by Michael Mann’s 1995 crime classic “Heat,” placing its audience in the position of rooting for both FBI Agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) and the thief, Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey), he is chasing.
“Robbie’s a good guy, and I always saw him as a good guy, and Pelphrey saw him as a good guy, so we needed someone to add danger to the story. It was a plot need early on,” said “Task” creator Brad Ingelsby on an upcoming episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast when discussing the origins of the Dark Hearts. “So, who’s closing in the walls around Robbie? The audience needed to be scared, and eventually you have to have a bad guy come in and the audience go, ‘Oh crap.’”
One of the reasons “Task” is a success is that while it leans into conventions of the crime genre with tropes including a “Sons of Anarchy”-like biker gang, it is grounded in reality and regional specificity. Growing up 30 minutes outside Philadelphia in Chester County, just a stone’s throw away from Delaware County where “Task” is set, Ingelsby had heard tales of the legendary motorcycle club The Warlocks, but as he started to do his research to flesh out the details of his Dark Hearts bikers, he hit a wall.
“All the cops and detectives we talked to were like, ‘Dude, they’re all druggies. They’re all just selling so they can get high. And there wasn’t a loyalty, there’s no code,’” said Ingelsby. “And yet I didn’t want to lean into that stereotypical [gang].”
While the ruthless Dark Hearts were born of the need for an antagonistic force, Ingelsby wanted them to have the same complexity as his other characters, and for the audience to understand, if not sympathize with, the pressures being placed on the father-son-like relationship between Perry (Jamie McShane) and Jayson (Sam Keeley).
“In the early drafts, the bikers didn’t work as well, and Brad knew it,” said “Task” executive producer and director Jeremiah Zagar, who collaborated with Ingelsby in developing the project. “I felt like [what] was missing was the realism of that biker gang, and what they did, the specificity of how they did it, and the specificity of culture.”
When Zagar and his producing partner, Jeremy Yaches, came aboard “Task,” they started to help the research-driven creator find consultants who went beyond law enforcement’s narrow view of the regional MCs. It was during this period that Zagar, who grew up in South Philly, received an unexpected phone call from a friend he hadn’t spoken with in nearly 20 years.
“He was my closest friend growing up, my best friend when I was a kid. We basically lived together, and he moved in with my family for a summer. The closest thing I had to family that wasn’t blood,” said Zagar. “I hadn’t talked to him in forever and he said, ‘I’m a recovering drug addict, I’m involved with the church, [but] I was in this biker gang for years and all that’s over now.” And I said, ‘This is so crazy. I’m doing a show about a biker gang, do you want be a consultant on the show?’”
At the time “Task” was still being written, Zagar’s friend had reservations about officially consulting due to his pending legal matters stemming from his biker days, and decided to do so “somewhat undercover.” Those legal problems, though, are now resolved: His name, Carim Mow, officially appears in the “Task” credits, and IndieWire has been granted permission to print his name in this article, as his role in helping Ingelsby crack the Dark Hearts was invaluable.
“He expressed a love for this culture in this community, a sense of brotherhood and purpose that we didn’t get from the cops because he was inside that gang, and those were his family,” said Zagar of Mow’s contribution. Added Ingelsby, “We leaned on him a lot, throughout the series… He was such a great resource to call and go, ‘Hey man, here’s what we’ve written. You make it better. Tell us what’s not real and what’s real, and we’ll change anything.’”
The level of specificity mattered and went beyond Ingelsby’s scripts. Mow, who was a presence on set, also aided Zagar, his crew, and the cast in bringing authenticity to the gang’s relationship to motorcycles, guns, and drugs.
“When he spoke to the actors about the guns that they use or the drugs that they sold, or the way they sold those drugs, why they did that, and how they did it, was with such specificity and knowledge and intimacy. And I think it made the show great and I think it made those characters so great,” said Zagar. “And it was really cool — it was a moving way for me and my friend to reconnect.”
Episode 5 of “Task” airs on HBO and HBO Max on Sunday, October 5.
To make sure you don’t miss Brad Ingelsby’s October 20 interview about “Task,” subscribe to the Toolkit podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.