Jury Duty (Prime TV Show)

Anybody watch this? I can't make up my mind if it's good or not. Half of it is hilarious and the other half is like......no way, that's ridiculous.

I really enjoyed it.

I have some ethical qualms about deceiving someone in this way, but on the whole I felt like the show did a good job of keeping things mostly in an acceptable realm of stress to apply to a person.

I also get the sense that there was a lot of mundane stuff. The filming took 17 days and so many hours. And from that you just get 7 episodes that are 30 minutes. Even then, as it goes on, he starts remarking things like "This feels like reality TV" or "This is like a movie."

I loved the actress who played the bailiff.

My favorite sequence was probably the part where the witness was "interpreting" the texts from the angry client.

"It says "I can't even", then skull with bones, skull with no bones, skull with bones."
"And what do you think she means by that?"
"It means she, like, can't even."

Never heard of it. I have prime so will give it a look.

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I doubt Ronald was unhappy about the deception especially in view of the fact that he earned himself $100k.

Yeah, there had to be a ton of boredom “on set” during the 17 days. I think they said there were 28 witnesses, which I can’t even imagine.

When Ronald said “This is like a reality show” for a second I thought the cover was blown.

I loved the show. Thought it was very funny. I especially liked the black guy who used to be an attorney & I loved the attorney who played the judge. The bailiff was adorable. Ronald asked her “Are you even a cop?” Like he really thought she was.

PS This show would be very funny if they crossed the pond & made a British version.

Maybe. Even people who win money can sometimes have mental health complications after being on widely-watched shows. I would like to hope that some of the screening for the show involved picking someone they felt would handle that reveal well.

Interesting to me that out of “thousands” (apparently) who applied to the ad on Craigslist they chose Ronald. He got lucky & so did they.

(Pretty sure the blurb at the end of the show said 2,500 people applied. But, whatever.)

It's very much like 'The Office' in parts. And some of the acting was pretty good.

I've done jury duty and it can draaaaag.

I’d like to see what Amazon’s legal department came up with for this show.

What would have happened if the person (unlike Ronald) didn’t want to be in a tv show. What would the ramifications be now that all the filming was done & editing was under way?

As Ronald himself said (paraphrasing) “I thought I was in a show about jury duty, but, actually, I’m in a show about me.”

Who owns the footage of the show? Does Ronald own the parts where he is featured? Who came up with $100k to pay him? Is he owed more than that? Maybe much more?

Everyone says this. Do they mean the American version? It never occurred to me that TheOfficeUK was anything like Jury Duty.

I've not seen the American version. It was exactly the same type of cringe fly on the wall comedy IMO. Same camera zooms at cringe moments etc.

Very much in the rhythm of The Office (U.S.) too. I loved the show. It was kind of adorable. They cast the right guy, but I do worry too about the psychological effects of going for weeks unaware that you are being documented. That's a panic attack in and of itself, for me! I'm sure they screened the personalities to some degree or another for liability risks??

It was charming.

"Because.... um...." *looks sheepishly at Ronald* "...because I'm racist?"
"Man, you were in Sonic? Yeah? I heard that wasn't very good at all...."

Definitely worth a few nights to binge. It plays like the first season of most shows though, with odd ups and downs, but a lot of this had to be improvised based on what the guy does. ALL DAY LONG. The logistics of it all is pretty satisfying if nothing else.

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Yeah, the producers said Ronald got ahead of their “script” so many times. They were constantly adjusting to him.

Well, I'm sure he signed releases. He knew he was in a show and that he was "playing" himself.

Oh, I forgot that he thought he was on like a documentary on courts and jury duty or something. Right?

Right. So he knew he'd be on TV, he knew he was doing filmed interviews, etc.

He didn't know everyone was lying to him, which is the part that would really mess with you.

Define “show”. He didn’t think he was “playing himself”. He was being himself. Huge difference.

Presumably he signed releases based on his application on Craigslist. He didn’t sign any release that all the footage was fake except for his footage.

If it were me I would investigate why I was given $100k & not some other amount. But, that’s just me.

Right. He signed a release that he was on a show and that his real name would be used, etc. I'm not sure if legally you have to tell someone if what they're experiencing is real or staged, only that you have their permission to use their face and name. But I am not a TV lawyer, so who knows!

Depends on the person, I guess. If someone filmed me & posted it to TikTok I would be furious if they hadn’t asked for my permission.

If I, in good faith, entered this like Ronald did & then found out I would be on tv around the world I would also be furious & I would feel violated. Ronald wasn’t bothered at all & viewed everything in a positive light & that’s why the show worked so well.

But being on TV wouldn't have been a surprise. He knew he was on a TV show, being filmed and interviewed, etc, and would have given consent to have the footage shown. He just didn't know the real nature of the show.

I actually suspect that part of the reason that the show created so many sideplots was so that they could still air several episodes minimizing or almost removing Ronald if (a) he'd been really upset about the deception or (b) turned out to be a sleaze.

Yep, this was hilarious.

Sat down & watched this entire thing again plus most of the commentaries in the extras. So funny & glad I didn’t bail out of this.