Pelphrey knew his Philly accent needed the power of a thousand Tush Pushes. A Delco dialect so region-specific that it's spoken in only three Wawas across the Keystone State. Intonation that makes wooter ice sound like royal English. Each individual sentence should—no, it must—have the power to fix Joel Embiid's meniscus. Or, at the absolute least, win another Super Bowl for the Eagles.

"That was keeping me up at night," Pelphrey tells me, deadly serious. "I was like, If this sounds bad, I'm gonna jump off the bridge."

We're at the Warren Street Hotel in Lower Manhattan, enjoying a late brunch on a Thursday morning in August. The 43-year-old actor stars in Task, a new HBO series from Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby. Like Mare, Task is a gritty crime drama set in—you've certainly inferred this by now—the Greater Philadelphia Area.

 Also like Mare, it demands its cast to adopt an accent drenched in Yuengling and Cheez Whiz, nearly to the point of parody. But this is no SNL sketch. (Even if SNL famously parodied Mare.)

In Task, Pelphrey stars as Robbie Prendergrast, a good-intentioned father who develops a nasty habit for raiding local drug houses under the cover of darkness. It puts him at odds with FBI Agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo), who is asked to develop a task force to investigate the crimes. 

Cue all sorts of peak HBO Sunday-night antics, including heavily tattooed gangs, a searing dual portrait of grief, and awe-striking performances from Pelphrey and Ruffalo. The series debuts the first of its seven episodes on Sunday night.