Jury Duty: Don't Sleep On This Satire

Satire Has Never Been So Heartwarming

Jury Duty isn't just laugh-out-loud funny; it is also tender and hopeful, writes Joshua Muyiwa.

BRIT comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s avatars of talk show host Ali G and Kazakhstani television journalist Borat pushed the boundaries of awkward, absurd television. It devised wild scenarios to test celebrities and civilians alike. In doing so, it set out to reveal these people as fools or false prophets. And the fact that these were people in positions of power, had us laughing along. It felt like the person being pranked was getting their just desserts.

Since then, there’s been an avalanche of reality television shows that keep us glued to our screens because of the wild antics of these individuals who are clearly desperate to be on television; and have been cast for that precise reason. They will do anything to draw attention to themselves. These shows maintain a veneer between the spectator and the spectacle that allows us to tell ourselves, repeatedly: that will never be me.

Jury Duty takes both these premises, blends them and then supersizes it. This show expands on the scale and the commitment of this trickery, and even dangerously stretches the joke for 17 days. The show makes up an entire case including the jury selection process – all to convince one ordinary man into believing that this is his reality. That man is Ronald Gladden. From the get-go, we are in on the prank. Ronald thinks he is participating in a documentary on the US justice system, but we – the audience – knows it is all carefully, cautiously choreographed. Everyone else involved is an actor except for the 30-year-old solar panel installer Ronald.

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Jury Duty: Don't Sleep On This Show!

By Joshua Muyiwa

Over the eight episodes of the show, Ronald is the normal one among the fools. And what a range of fools! There’s a pensioner Barbara nodding off through the trial; nerdy Noah, who learns his girlfriend has taken this opportunity to holiday with an Instagram hottie called Cody; cybernetics-crazed Todd, who wears “chair pants” — two crutches attached to his backside for leaning when there are no chairs. But, there are always chairs! These are just some of the clowns in this circus, and these quirky character choices assure us that Jury Duty is high-value entertainment. You’ll be at the edge of your seat because you know the show’s success depends on Ronald being unaware: one wrong foot, and the whole thing comes apart.

One of the major ways Jury Duty ensures its make-believe world is sealed off from the real one is its perfect placement of X-Men and Westworld actor James Marsden into the mix. Here, Marsden brilliantly plays the self-obsessed, attention-seeking and absolutely annoying version of himself – a Hollywood star. In the first episode, Marsden tries to get out of jury duty because he’s famous and would be a distraction. He even gets his agent to send paparazzi to the courthouse to bolster his argument. But the judge finds sequestering the entire jury together in a hotel is the best solution. In this way, it manages to keep an around-the-clock eye on Ronald.

In its finale episode, Jury Duty pulls back the curtain to reveal the producers hidden behind the set of the courtroom. And the fact that they managed to arrive at this point is credit to everything and everyone playing their part perfectly. But the most wonderful thing about this moment: Ronald isn’t a fool at all. We aren’t laughing at him. Instead, we’ve been rooting for him the whole time. Through these eight episodes, he falls on his sword a number of times to let the others look good: he takes the blame for clogging the toilet when Marsden was actually responsible. He is sweet, patient and kind, even in the most frustrating moments. Throughout the show, he makes room for everyone else’s eccentricities. One of Ronald’s sweetest gestures is the time he invites Todd to watch A Bug’s Life with him. His reasoning is that just like the misfit ant in the film, Todd will see that it’s okay to be different too. Ronald is simply heartbreaking in his genuineness, his humanity.

Everything could have gone terribly wrong with Jury Duty, and I’m sure the showrunners and editors would have been able to still cut together an entertaining show. But with Ronald at the centre, they have managed to give us a show that isn’t just laugh out loud funny, cringey but also tender and hopeful. Perhaps, like Ronald, even in the most trying situations, the best path isn’t our contemporary slogan ‘be yourself’ but rather ‘be better, do better’.

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