Getting called to jury duty is one of those strange adult tasks you dread the day you have to complete, but this new Amazon Freevee TV show might change your mind.
It’s the first day in court and you’re a juror — lawyers, a judge, and 11 jury members are sitting next to you ready and anxious to complete their civil duties. Except… they’re all fake. Each is a hired actor planning to make this experience the strangest few days of your life. Ronald Gladden is the unaware star of the Amazon Freevee TV show Jury Duty, where he is the only member of a 12-person jury who does not know the trial he is overseeing is entirely fake. As far as he is concerned the cameras are set up for a documentary-styled project. What he doesn’t know is the experience is part of an 8-episode comedy series aimed to push the boundaries of reality TV. Over the course of a week, he is stuck overseeing the strange case preceding and dealing with his fellow jury members’ crazy tirades.
The cast consists of a few familiar faces including actor James Marsden who plays the egotistical Hollywood star version of himself. You might also recognize comedian Mekki Leeper who is featured in HBO Max’s Sex Lives of College Girls. Yet the real star of the series is Ronald himself who after 6 episodes of the ongoing show has captured the hearts of all watchers. There couldn’t have been a better casting than the extremely supportive 30-year-old contractor who responded to a CraigsList ad for the supposed documentary. He has assured us on his social media he had no clue what he was in for and considers himself far from an actor.
This unique style of the show proves itself as extremely complicated to pull off but entirely worth it when done right. It’s important to note the show is entirely unscripted, meaning each actor’s dialogue is left up to their artistic improvisation with a few loose guidelines for plot points. In an interview with Chicks in the Office, James Marsden described the difficulties of the “one-take” show saying you must be “nimble” and ready to “pivot” with the show’s course. Even more difficult was being sure Ronald was convinced this was a real case, meaning the actors put up with hours of real court practices every day.
Jury Duty’s success and originality have left us to wonder if a new style of reality TV is on the horizon. With the gaining traction of the show’s popularity, we can expect other production companies to follow suit in trying out this format. Yet, the question left up in the air is if it’s possible to successfully organize something similar now that the public knows it’s a possibility. Similarly, there’s a question if it’s ethically moral to put an innocent person as the butt of an extremely elaborate joke.
All we know for sure is it’s worked out perfectly for the creators of Jury Duty so far, and we hope to see Ronald get everything he deserves.