Man - this is like reality TV!

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2023 

#15 : Jury Duty 

Would this reality TV experiment have been so endearingly gripping if it hadn’t cast such an unbelievable sweetie as its main contestant? Luckily, we had no need to find out. Every participant in this supposed documentary about jury service in the US was an actor, apart from central participant Ronald Gladden, who was unwittingly put into super-elaborate situations designed to test his moral compass. From taking the blame for James Marsden’s toilet-blocking poo to proudly stepping up as the foreperson, Gladden proved himself to be a TV hero time and again – selflessly doing the right thing, no matter how excruciating the setup. At times, it was heart-meltingly lovely television – as long as you could stand the awkwardness.

I'd heard this was good and knew it was a fake reality show, but I didn't know anything more about it than that - I'm happy to find out though.

And well, The Guardian pretty much sums it up - everyone in a court case is an actor, except for Ronald.  But that doesn't really begin to describe quite how elaborate it all is - you've got a whole courtroom set-up with all the staff, the various parties involved in the trial and, obviously, the jury.  Who are twelve (plus two alternate) extremely interesting characters - the actors have been given specific quirks to keep us amused and, boy, do they fully inhabit the roles!  

They're a charming bunch that bond really well along their journey so that you really care about them and forget they're actors (except for James Marsden, who acts to make it perfectly clear that he's an actor) - which in turn makes you forget that Ronald isn't an actor.  It also gets funnier the longer it goes on as you get to know the people, and it's well written as ridiculous situations crop up which Ronald has to somehow navigate. 

And Ronald deals with them all and boy is the man a sweetie!  Watching it, I wasn't entirely convinced he didn't have some idea that something was going on, but he really runs with it.  It's also interesting to think what would have happened if they'd started down this path with someone that it just didn't work with - who knows, maybe they did and Ronald was the tenth one in the chair!

At the end, the rug pull episode is absolutely charming and Ronald could quite easily have freaked out when he learns that literally everything has been a lie, but he takes it all in his stride.  It's also very interesting to learn how they did it all - they had multiple scenarios lined up depending upon how Ronald acted, but at times he was picking things up too quickly for them which meant some making it up as they went along!

Overall, it's a fun watch - it's a bit silly but its heart is in the right place.  There are times that the structure does detract from the humour - it feels like more of a social experiment designed to teach us about jury interactions whilst also making Ronald jump through hoops, but he always does so very charmingly.  And when it's funny, it's laugh out loud funny so it's a recommendation from me if you want something diverting - it's available to watch on FreeVee on Amazon Prime if you fancy it.

#14 - A really enjoyable comedy
#16 - Nope, still don't get it