Crime
Task
Max’s newest release, Task, takes audiences to task with a slow-burn storyline involving graphic violence, nudity and crude language.
Joe Leaphorn isn’t one for unneeded conversation. Or change. He likes things the way they have always been. Which turns out is an easy effort for him as a Navajo tribal police officer.
Overt racism, generational poverty and government overreach are as normal as breathing for Joe and most of the people he knows.
So is murder. Though it shouldn’t be.
Joe and his wife, Emma, lost their son in a horrific accident not long ago. And while it’s drawn them together, it’s also torn at the fabric of their ragged souls.
At first, Joe didn’t know what to make of it all. But now he believes his son’s accident wasn’t accidental at all; he was murdered.
He’s not sure who killed his son. But recent clues have led him to believe that it may be a well known group steeped in black magic and witchcraft: The People of Darkness.
The evidence is growing ever more inescapable, but whoever is responsible for this horror doesn’t want Joe, or anyone connected with him, to remain alive.
Pretty soon the only job Joe has is to keep breathing as he uncovers layers of evil–and to make sure his fellow officers, and his beloved wife, do the same. But how? That’s the real question.
Produced by George R.R. Martin and Robert Redford, AMC+’s TV-14 series Dark Winds is taken from the 1970s novels by journalist Tony Hillerman. It primarily follows three characters, chronicles their intricate daily lives and dramatizes the dark perils that seem to constantly beset their Navajo community.
We meet the staid but educated Joe Leaphorn and his spiritually steeped wife, Emma. Then there’s former-FBI-agent-turned-private-investigator Jim Chee. And finally, we’re introduced to officer Bernadette Manuelito, who is starting to wonder if her destiny lies outside the reservation.
While this series obviously follows a murder, turning this into an appealing-but-predictable mystery, the real hook here is in the show’s characters. They’re real, tangible and have a lot of heartfelt backstory, which viewers see doled out in each episode.
They also see plenty of violence (one of the biggest issues here), hear a smattering of profanity and deal with a lot of ancient tribal spirituality, including dark magic and witchcraft.
Yes, characters bring a lot of heart, forgiveness and kindness to the series. But there’s plenty more that emphasizes the show’s own tagline: “Where the law ends…vengeance begins.”
Officer Joe Leaphorn and private investigator Jim Chee search for a stolen box that has mysterious links to the death of Joe’s son.
Officers engage in many shootouts, once against a high powered gun. A few characters are shot themselves and bare bloody wounds. An evil man attempts to kill two officers by locking them in a creepy house filled with clowns and dolls and repeatedly shooting the house. Joe finds the remains of a bomb after a man is killed in a car explosion. Joe’s wife is injured and hospitalized after the explosion.
Joe talks to a fellow officer about a prior explosion that killed six men and one boy. A man claims that his two fingers were bitten off by a three-horned sheep (his bloodied hand and bagged fingers are proof). A man is shot in the temple and killed while sitting on the toilet. (We see his bare thighs.)
Joe and Jim learn about a group called the People of Darkness. It’s said that this is a Navajo group, and while the characters are unsure, they find that it’s closely tied to a group of “wealthy, white hippies.” Both Joe and Jim comment on the “crazy dark witchcraft” that is tied to the group. A man believes that a member of the group, a “white man” who is “a witch,” cursed his father and gave him cancer. Joe’s wife asks him to perform a ceremonial act, according to their beliefs, that should restore the “balance” to their family and ward off spirits of death.
A married couple kisses. A man gets out of bed in his underwear.
An elderly woman finds out that her nephew is stealing from her. Jim Chee vows to retrieve a stolen box for a wealthy woman, but he finds that the box contains essential secrets linked to a murder case.
God’s name is misused once, paired with “d–mit.” Other profane words include “a–hole,” “d–n,” “s—” and “bulls—.”
A woman offers Jim Chee a glass of hard liquor and drinks one herself while smoking a cigarette. A young Navajo man is reprimanded for smoking marijuana and abusing “substances.”
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
Max’s newest release, Task, takes audiences to task with a slow-burn storyline involving graphic violence, nudity and crude language.
It’s fun, but the show is guilty of lack of restraint in the second degree—a senseless crime if ever there was one.
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