I want to start the new year by hate-watching Task (2025) on HBO MAX, because:
1. It has one of those dumb one-word titles that don't tell you anything.
2. It's about a "family man," a trope that suggests that men who have reproduced are not only a thousand times more valuable than those who haven't, they are innately virtuous. When a "family man" commits a crime, everyone is shocked.
3. The "family man" is Tom Pelphrey, who showed his "big red dog" in A Man in Full. It had to be a prosthetic, of course, but a red dog is a red dog.
4. The focus character is Mark Ruffalo. I only knew him from The Normal Heart, where he plays a gay guy, and this photo, with a swishy femme expression and a guy hugging him, made me think that he was gay in real life. Turns out that's actually a woman, his wife. Nothing wrong with liking masculine women, but why the swish, unless you're deliberately trying to make people think that you're a gay couple?
Ready for the hate?
Scene 1: Juxtaposed scenes of Mark and Tom's day, not only scene by scene but shot by shot, so sometimes it's hard to tell who is doing what. Both get up in an empty bed (dead partner!), are alcoholics, and live with a teenage girl, who hates them, plus one or more toddlers.
Mark goes to college job fairs to recruit for the FBI. Do they need to recruit? Being an FBI agent is the dream job for criminal justice majors; they must get 1,000 applications for every opening.
Tom (left) and his Buddy work as garbage collectors, and on the side they pick up bagsful of loot from a scary-looking guy sitting on the steps at various houses. They must run a burglary operation.
Scene 1: Juxtaposed scenes of Mark and Tom's day, not only scene by scene but shot by shot, so sometimes it's hard to tell who is doing what. Both get up in an empty bed (dead partner!), are alcoholics, and live with a teenage girl, who hates them, plus one or more toddlers.
The difference: Mark is respectably dressed, while Tom is extremely sleazy-looking.
They head to work:
Hey, Tom has a picture of a guy hanging from his rear view mirror as he listens to a podcast about "learning to love again." Dude is gay!
Mark goes to college job fairs to recruit for the FBI. Do they need to recruit? Being an FBI agent is the dream job for criminal justice majors; they must get 1,000 applications for every opening.
Tom (left) and his Buddy work as garbage collectors, and on the side they pick up bagsful of loot from a scary-looking guy sitting on the steps at various houses. They must run a burglary operation.
They stop for lunch, and discuss moving to an island in Canada together (gay couple!), and then internet dating. Buddy has tried it, but "people" google him, find out about his criminal past, and aren't interested. People, not ladies. Dropped pronouns -- dude is gay.
Tom is planning to get into it; he's lonely, and wants a "life partner" It's been a year since his wife left; he's ready to "find someone." No pronouns! These guys are both gay. That must be why the wife left.
Queerbaiting after the break