“Jury Duty” was a surprise nominee for Outstanding Comedy Series at the Emmy Awards 2023.
Let’s dive into some trivia and facts about the series.
- Jury Duty is an American reality hoax sitcom television series
- The series is created by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky
- It is about a fake jury trial
- It stars Ronald Gladden as a juror who is unaware of the hoax
- James Marsden co-stars alongside an ensemble cast
- It premiered on Amazon Freevee on April 7, 2023
- The series received three nominations at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards
- These nominations include Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Marsden
- The series chronicles the inner workings of a jury trial in the US through the eyes of juror Ronald Gladden, a solar contractor from San Diego
- He is unaware that his jury duty summons was not official, and that everyone in the courtroom aside from him is an actor
- Everything that happens, inside and outside the courtroom, is planned
- On September 15, 2022, it was reported that a semi-improvised docu-style comedy series starring James Marsden and a group of up-and-coming actors with improv backgrounds had secretly been filmed for Amazon Studios
- The 17-day shoot was filmed in a real courtroom south of Los Angeles
- According to executive producer Todd Schulman, Jury Duty began as an attempt to make a sitcom like The Office about a trial, with a real person at the center of the show who doesn’t know that he’s surrounded by actors
- Creators Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky both previously worked as writer-producers on The Office
- In order to find a non-actor for the show’s lead, an ad was put up on Craigslist
- Marsden stars as an alternate version of himself
- Alongside other actors including Alan Barinholtz, Susan Berger, Cassandra Blair, and Rashida Olayiwola
- Cody Heller serves as showrunner and executive producer, and Jake Szymanski as director
- The series is also executive produced by David Bernad, Lee Eisenberg, Ruben Fleischer, Nicholas Hatton, Stupnitsky, Szymanski, and Andrew Weinberg
- The first four episodes of the series premiered on Amazon Freevee on April 7, 2023
- The fifth and sixth episodes followed on April 14
- The final two episodes, including the season finale, were released on April 21, 2023
- The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 75% approval rating
- With an average rating of 6.5/10
- Based on 24 critic reviews
- The website’s critics consensus reads, “While this courtroom comedy isn’t as tedious as actual jury duty — largely thanks to a very game James Marsden — the verdict is still out on whether its stylistic gambit pays off”
- Metacritic gave the series a weighted average score of 51 out of 100
- Based on 7 critic reviews
- Indicating “mixed or average reviews”
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