Jury Duty takes one real juror, Ronald Gladden, and throws him in with a bunch of actors staging a fake trial to see how Ronald reacts. Everything from the judge to the dinner orders is carefully planned and totally fake. James Marsden stars as an overblown egomaniacal version of himself relegated to being an alternate juror.
Jury Duty created a situation where the jury was sequestered because of paparazzi chasing after James Marsden. The trial, which should have taken mere days, went on for three weeks because of crazy situations the people making the film created. For three weeks, the actors had to be around Ronald and not break character as they all got very well acquainted.
The jury was brilliant at their various roles. The characters were funny and weird. One guy, Noah (Mekki Leeper), had a whole drama going about his girlfriend on vacation without him.
Another guy, Todd (David Brown), invented crazy stuff and tried to bring it to court, like the wearable chair made of crutches you see above.
The bailiff, Bailiff (Rashida Olayiwola), had the job of herding this bunch around and was very convincing as a police officer. Everyone was convincing and in character.
Ronald Gladden never suspected what was happening to him as the case proceeded. He was named jury foreperson and took it all very seriously. He knew strange and unusual things were happening in the trial, but he was determined to reach a fair verdict. He was kind to everyone, helped everyone, lead well, and generally turned out to be a 100% great guy.
The series is a FreeVee original. You can see it on FreeVee with ads or on Prime Video with no ads. There are 8 short episodes and plenty of humor in this unusual series. If you watch it, I’d love to know what you thought of it.
what luck the producers had in finding Mr. Gladden. i wish i had just one like him in all of my jury trials. this series was a delight. oh, and isnt Mr. Marsden just great in everything he does?
A genuine good man. A gem.