Director: Jake Szymanski
Twelve strangers sit through what looks like an ordinary civil trial in Jury Duty, except one juror on the panel is the only person in the room who does not know the whole thing is staged.
What is Jury Duty about?
Ronald Gladden reports for jury duty on a minor lawsuit and finds himself boxed in with a courtroom full of actors following a loose script, from a distracted judge to a foreman with increasingly strange demands. Over several weeks of sequestered deliberation, the fabricated case grows sillier and the improvised cast leans harder into their bits, while Gladden keeps trying to do the one job he actually signed up for: reach a fair verdict with his fellow jurors. The show plays the premise almost entirely straight, filming Gladden's genuine reactions as absurd courtroom detours and lunchroom disputes pile up around him.
Cast & crew
James Marsden appears as an exaggerated, self-obsessed version of himself, playing off Gladden's straight-man patience, while the surrounding jury bench of Alan Barinholtz, Susan James Berger, Cassandra Blair, Ross Kimball, Mekki Leeper and David Brown commit fully to characters built to test how far Gladden will go along with the bit.
Context & significance
Released in 2023, Jury Duty belongs to a small run of hidden-camera comedies that dare a single unknowing participant to hold a story together, and it earned praise for keeping its ruse from ever curdling into cruelty toward its one real juror.
Where & how to watch
Jury Duty streams on K-Time with a free account login, presented with Persian subtitles for viewers who want the courtroom chaos in their own language while following the English dialogue.