A scene from ‘Jury Duty’
‘Truth is stranger than fiction’ or for Ronald Gladden, it’s stranger than a scripted reality show. As cameras follow him, Ronald walks to the Huntington Park Superior Court to be part of the jury trial for which he has been summoned. Believing himself to be part of a documentary following the lives of the jurors, he welcomes the recording equipment placed in the court premises. he chats with fellow potential jurors, one of them james marsdenand is eager to complete the trial and return to his friends to narrate his small part in a documentary.
Except, all the cameras are really here to focus exclusively on Ronald, who is now part of a mock trial, surrounded by actors acting as jurors in a mock courtroom. Even James Marsden is acting out what appears to be a spoiled Hollywood star.
An unfortunate paparazzi incident (courtesy Marsden’s popularity) causes the ‘judge’ to order the jurors to be scuttled for the remainder of the trial. Thus, in Amazon Freevee’s jury dutyRonald – a simple solar panel contractor – becomes puppet master for a motley crew of actors as they display increasingly strange behavior over the 17 days of the court trial, the aim of which is to elicit all kinds of reactions from him.
Jury Duty (English)
director: Jake Szymanski
mold: Ronald Gladden, James Marsden, Mekki Leeper, Eddie Modica, David Brown, Cassandra Blair, Maria Russell, Alan Barinholtz and others
case: 8
Order: 27-30 minutes
Story: Ronald Gladden walks into the courtroom to serve as a juror. However, unbeknownst to them, it is a mock test
Over the course of eight episodes, the camera switches between a civil trial and the jurors’ time in a hotel where they are similarly secluded. Both segments play like a high-budget extended episode, written to scare, confuse and shock Ronald. just for Laughs Gags.
The show is written to put Ronald in the spotlight, in awkward situations, and to present him with moral dilemmas. As the group becomes tighter, his responsibilities become more serious. One day he’s coordinating the group’s lunch orders, the next he’s negotiating a very awkward breakup between a juror and his girlfriend. It’s hilarious to watch Ronald suffer in silence in front of the ‘documentary’ cameras, with a near-constant grin, as the jurors increase their cynicism.
However, you can only script to a certain extent when a portion of your episode depends on one person’s reaction. So, the crew (behind the cameras, as well as the actors in front of Ronald), constantly shift gears, change tones, and achieve a feat of improvisation.
With this type of hoax/prank show, the audience is usually made to feel on par with the listeners. We know that there is a hidden camera, that these are actors, that this is a simulated scenario. however, jury duty Only for a while does it allow us to go into that inner sanctum.
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As the days pass, Ronald, who believes himself to be part of a real trial, begins to form genuine bonds with his fellow jurors. He helps Todd (a socially awkward man obsessed with cybernetics) get a makeover; He encourages Noah to believe in himself by asking the other jurors to walk out; and he spends almost the entire day as the scene partner of Marsden’s audition tape. All these events are definitely marked by the actors playing their specific parts. Ronald, honest to god, would be anywhere but in the middle of being the fall guy for Marsden’s poor toilet manners. And yet, he changes.
This is where the distance between us and the show starts increasing. The jurors, Ronald included, now form their own inner sanctum of a strange but genuine friendship.
However, towards the end, the show slows down a bit. The trial part of the show, inside the courtroom, has not been able to entertain us in the same way, and outside the courtroom, it has become a remarkably different show from the one we started watching. Thankfully, this is also when the show’s finale begins.
can be described as a mixture between the Truman Show (1998) and trial error (2017), jury duty Provides eight hours of easygoing enjoyment. The show wears its heart on its sleeve to convince us that there are people in the world who can help us be our best, who can help us show the better parts of our nature.
Jury Duty is currently streaming on Prime Video