Behold the birth of the Depressing Rural Pennsylvania Televisual Universe. Emmy winner Julianne Nicholson has joined the cast of HBO’s Task Season 2 — and Variety reports that she will very specifically be playing her character from the 2021 limited series Mare of Easttown, a role which won Nicholson one of her two previously mentioned Emmys.
The crossover makes sense, as Mare of Easttown and Task were both created by Brad Ingelsby and focus on working-class life in the less populated areas of Pennsylvania. Well, except for the part where Task is a crime drama focused on a task force led by Mark Ruffalo’s Tom Brandis, and Nicholson’s character, Lori Ross, isn’t a member of law enforcement — she’s a wife and mother. A wife and mother who admittedly got tangled up with a murder investigation in unexpected ways, yes, but it’s not clear how she’ll be involved.
However, Lori was the best friend of the titular Mare, played by Kate Winslet, so this may be laying the path for Winslet to make her own appearance on Task, versus the second season of Mare of Easttown that’s been rumored about for years. Per Variety, Winslet did say that “I think we probably will do it” — or maybe Detective Mare Sheehan will join up with Brandis down the line. TV is magic that way.
