The verdict has been issued.
“Jury Duty” is a quirky comedy that aims to be funny and uplifting. But look beneath the surface and this is one of the most insidiously cruel shows on television.
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling mentioned this during the Barbie press tour in 2023, when Season 1 became a viral hit. The actress asked Gosling if he liked it, to which Gosling replied, “Well, I mean, what about him? Is he okay?”
It was a relevant question then, and it remains so now that the show is in its second season (Prime Video’s “Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat”).
“Jury Duty” essentially puts real people in a “Truman Show” scenario. Remember, the 1998 movie follows Truman (Jim Carrey), a man who doesn’t realize that his town is on a soundstage, that his friends and family are all actors, and that his life is being broadcast for everyone’s entertainment. The movie didn’t shy away from how horrifying it is for him to eventually find out this.
In Season 1 of “Jury Duty,” Ronald Gladden was an ordinary man who believed he was part of a jury in a trial. Unbeknownst to him, the trial was a sham and everyone around him was an actor.
Gladden told the Post in 2023. “The day of the exposure…I had no way to process it.”
He added that it took him “a whole weekend” to figure out “what happened,” and that he sent a message to James Marsden, who was nominated for an Emmy for the first season, asking, “Are the cameras still following me?”
He also told iHeartRadio, “Randomly things would just fall on me as months went by. I’d be doing laundry or dishes or something and I’d be like, ‘Oh, wow, that was fake?'”
If a show makes people question their own reality, something is wrong. In the name of comedy it goes too far.
Indeed, Gladden seems to be doing well lately. Since then, he has appeared in several ads (for Mint Mobile and Elf Cosmetics), was photographed with the Kardashians, and signed a contract with Amazon MGM Studios.
But he didn’t sign up intentionally to confuse his mind. Whatever the end result, it is inherently cruel.
“Jury Duty” isn’t as brutal as shows like “The Biggest Loser” or “America’s Next Top Model,” or even romance shows like “Love is Blind,” where people sacrifice their dignity to get on TV and are judged on aspects of their appearance and personality. But at least those people (mostly) went into it knowing that.
The show’s producers refer to Gladden and Season 2’s real-life character Anthony Norman as “heroes.”
On screen, both Gladden and Norman explain that the purpose of “Jury Duty” is to “celebrate” how benevolent “heroes” are, as they gamely humor and kindly treat the bizarre antics of those around them, unaware that they are actors (rather than freaks).
The goal is not for the “heroes” to become the butt of jokes, producers told Page Six. The tone of “Jury Duty” isn’t mean either. That’s goofy.
But does it matter? Putting a real person in a psychologically upsetting situation is terrible, no matter how good it is packaged into a show that’s supposed to be.
In its tone and audience reception, “Jury Duty” is like a slightly deranged version of “Ted Lasso” in mockumentary. This is a brand of bad comedy designed to make audiences leave feeling good.
But in reality, they treat humans like lab rats for entertainment.
