Jury Duty, TV comedy series on Amazon's "freevee".

[Buckeye_Democrat]

This new TV series started playing automatically on my smart TV, after I dozed off while watching an old sci-fi movie a few days ago. I awoke as the TV series was playing, which quickly evoked laughs from me. Then I started watching the episodes from the beginning.

I highly recommend it! It's from the creators of "The Office".

There's one non-actor who thinks that he's participating in a real jury trial. Everyone else is an actor causing bizarre situations for him to observe! Most of the actors are lesser-known improv artists, but one of them is James Marsden (who portrayed Cyclops in the early X-Men movies) who is playing himself as an extreme narcissist.

The non-actor had never served on a jury, but he always wanted to do it. So he replied to a Craigslist ad for a supposed documentary about the American judicial system, not knowing any better that it wasn't how jurors are selected.

The non-actor was always referenced as "The Hero" in the no-dialogue daily scripts for the actors, since poking fun at the guy was never the intention. The goal was instead to keep prodding him to be the savior who seizes sensibility from the fiasco trial, which (spoilers!) is ultimately what supposedly happened by the 8th (final) episode. So the non-actor came out looking good, after enduring a few weeks of crazy (but not too crazy) situations.

Six episodes have been released so far.



A brief clip from the show:

[cilla4progress]

1. Seems cruel, predatory -

No?

[Buckeye_Democrat]

2. It doesn't come across that way at all.

The non-actor clearly enjoyed himself, repeatedly laughing at the ridiculous scenarios that he saw.

And he was surely paid for the trouble.

The "jurors" seemed to spend more time eating and interacting with each other at their sequestered hotel than sitting in the jury box, as the fake-judge kept ordering recesses as the actor-caused problems kept occurring.

[EYESORE 9001]

3. From the description

it sounds plausible that the non-juror gets some measure of comeuppance against his erstwhile tormentors.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. According to James Marsden...

... who has been interviewed about the show after it was done, the writers kept emphasizing that cruelty to the non-actor was not the intention. He was meant to be an observer of all of their strange behavior, and to emerge as the hero of the trial.

The judge appointed him as the foreperson of the jury to help that happen.

The reason for making him the foreperson was based on something the non-actor didn't even do. Then he later admitted to the other "jurors" that he didn't even do the alleged good deed, feeling a little bad about it, but they just congratulated him for his "good fortune" during one of their many recesses.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

7. One of the Marsden interviews about it...

[cilla4progress]

4. Ok.

I didn't know if they were mocking him. Surely they got his approval before airing.

Like Candid Camera ...🤣

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. I'm guessing the same.

If he didn't want others to see it, I'm sure it wouldn't have aired against his will.

[GopherGal]

8. Sounds like an interesting contrast to most reality shows*...

in which the aim is usually "be the biggest antisocial dick in order to get maximum camera time and become a star"

*The Apprentice definitely *not* excepted. In fact, that seems to be what Faux Noise and the entire Repuke media sphere has turned into (see MTG, L Blabbert)

I think it's not quite clear to me how "in on the joke" some of the participants are, especially in the shows where deceiving the contestants is a main part of the premise (see "I Wanna Marry Harry&quot versus they felt bound by a release they signed before filming when they had only partial information about what was in store for them...

[hlthe2b]

9. Oh, my. I just read a blurb about this & binged the first six (of eight) total episodes: HILARIOUS!

Highly recommend. I can't wait for the last two episodes to drop. The non-actor who becomes the jury foreman is so earnest, yet not at all naive'. I think he's just enjoying the craziness. I can't imagine when all is said and done that he'd be upset by this whole saga (that is assuming he really wasn't in on the whole thing).

I have enjoyed it, though. Having gone through a couple of juries voir dire episodes, as well as the whole mass screening effort that precedes, I have to say that is soooo on target. It actually took me back to sitting through the interminable waiting while looking at all the others assembled and wondering who was who and their various stories.

Well done. And, funny. And no, I don't believe it was at all a cruel exploitation. Quite clever, though.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

10. Yes, the non-actor isn't naive.

That surely made it a challenge for the actors to not push the craziness too far!

He said it seemed like a reality show at one point, with all of the strange happenings, and the actors were more constrained for awhile. James Marsden later revealed that they sat through about five hours of boring legal-speak in the courtroom thereafter (since the actors portraying the lawyers used to actually work as lawyers), which was edited out of the TV show, to make it more credible for the non-actor.

The non-actor has not looked like a fool at all. Just a normal guy who keeps being entertained by the weirdness all around him!