Task
Sky Atlantic, Monday, 9pm

The Newsreader
BBC2, Thursday, 9pm

Rob And Rylan’s Passage To India BBC2, Sunday, 9pm.

The Records Show
RTE1, Sunday, 6.30pm.

Mark Ruffalo has been playing the Hulk for so long that for a few minutes his character in Sky Atlantic’s new drama Task feels a bit strange somehow: he looks the same, but he’s not quite acting the way you normally expect. I mean, it’s probably a sign of how good an actor he is that he’s given such a lump of green CGI marla a personality at all, but I’m grateful to see him leave behind those tedious green screens for something more flawed and engaging.

Task comes from the creator of Mare Of Easttown, and it brings the same kind of rundown settings and weary endurance to the screen. Ruffalo plays Tom Brandis, a former philosophy student and Catholic priest who’s now an FBI agent taking some time on deskwork while he grieves (for reasons not immediately clear). He’s unexpectedly asked to lead a team investigating a spate of robberies on the homes of local drug dealers, which at first seems insubstantial to him. But when one of the robberies goes terribly wrong, it suddenly becomes a much darker and more soul-searching kind of job after all.

So there’s an investigation at the front of this, but it’s more philosophical than just that. It has two overlapping stories, Brandis’ own and that of Robbie (Tom Pelphrey – you might know him as Wendy’s brother from Ozark), the lonely man who’s been leading the robberies. Both characters are basically decent, but struggling with their own emotions and family life (though Robbie is optimistic despite being financially strapped). Not only do you have some sympathy with both, you sense that they could even have been friends in another life, and since Robbie only targets drug dealers (and does what he does from desperation), you wonder how Brandis will view him when they meet.

That’s a lot of subtext, though of course there are twists and setpieces challenging all this as we go along. Luckily the whole cast is excellent, in particular the two leads with their expressive, sympathetic faces: Ruffalo we already know (and he’s fabulously convincing as a drunk here too), but Pelphrey will earn recognition for this. It is a bit grey and slow at times early on, which might put people off, but most scenes add something to the characters and their stations; there’s a sense of human frailty and simple unhappy endurance here. If the crime story element also bears fruit, this looks like being one of the more memorable shows of the year.

The Newsreader

Meanwhile The Newsreader, the Australian drama returning for its third and final season, is more solid than memorable. In fact all I can really recall from previous seasons is that Anna Torv is in it, and it’s set in the world of 1980s TV news, following the clashing emotions and ambitions of the characters there. Most centrally, Torv plays current affairs reporter Helen Norville (whom we meet here in 1988 arriving at the scene of the Lockerbie crash), and Sam Reid plays her professional colleaguerival and ex-lover Dale Jennings. It turns out they’re feeling friendly again – but as they head to the national TV awards, there is news which seems good but might come between them.

The first episode was well done, with a convincingly glitzy awards ceremony that featured archive footage of the likes of Bryan Brown and Kylie (yes, you know – that Kylie); and one of the most interesting things about the whole series has always been the way in which it revisits some of the bigger news stories of the day as if they are fresh. That said, it can be hard at times to connect with stories of arrogant people (there are several) with hair so big it has to be walked sideways through doors, and there’s a slick, corporate element as well that, let’s be honest, isn’t as enjoyable as the hype around Succession would have us believe. But this is otherwise a well-made and well-performed series, with some interesting central characters and a few potent scenes that delve into mental illness and the price we pay for success.

Rob And Rylan’s Passage To India

If Rob Rinder and Rylan Clark seem like odd bedfellows, that was the main selling point of last year’s Grand Tour, which sent them off across Italy with generally watchable results. But as oddly enjoyable as it was, I’m not sure how many people were really crying out for another joint adventure – surely some of the fun of the first one was them learning things about each other, something they can’t replicate?

What do I know – they might have found a solution to the difficult second series problem by going to India together in the footsteps of Rinder’s favourite author, E.M. Forster, searching for the subcontinent’s art, culture and ancient wisdom. And India is a memorable experience for any first-time visitor, one bound to perplex both of them at different times – in a show where the presenters come before the destination, what more could a viewer want?

The first episode saw them in Delhi, where they – and fair dues to them, with so many eyes on them – venture tentatively into the chaos, wandering around Chandni Chowk and learning how the 16th century Humayun’s Tomb inspired the more famous Taj Mahal. It’s…fine. It’s too performative, with Rob starting to feel romantic at the sight of the glittering palaces, and Rylan shouting “Camel! Camel!” at some camels. But it’s just authentic and entertaining enough to keep you watching with one eye, if only because Rob’s quick enough to rein in Rylan’s occasional overdone squawking. And in fairness – I suspect this also comes more from Rob than Rylan – it shows some interest in history, touching on the country’s history of British colonialism: at one point Rob mentions that the Empire, apart from anything else, extracted a truly staggering £36 trillion from the country. Still, between visits to yet another billionaire and Rylan’s constant “I’m a bit thick, ne” act, you do get a bit tired with it; and when the pair started rapping it was downright painful. A little bit less look-at-us padding next time, please – if it’s felt there is a need for a next time.

The Records Show

RTE’s new Sunday teatime show is the returning The Records Show, in which Katie Hannon explores our national archives, digging up interesting stories we might not know, or finding new angles on ones we do (and often following up with a new investigation or interview of her own). It’s an unassuming little show that you could happily ignore without missing anything, but it’s sometimes more diverting than you expect.

According to Hannon, there are over 50 million documents stored in the Archives, so while there’s plenty of material there presumably it’s a dull trudge trying to find something worth reviving (though some boxes seem to have helpful comments like “kiss and cry” written on them). For the first episode Hannon, seemingly enjoying it, covered the random origins of a St Patrick’s Day tradition (handing the US President a bowl of shamrocks), and the detailed, hidden dining logistics behind the Queen’s visit here in 2011 (relating back to previous years when we apparently served only pub-grub food at state gatherings). None of it is revolutionary, but in a way that’s part of the fun: just a pick ‘n’ mix of morsels that are sometimes admittedly bland but sometimes go down nicely at that time of the week.