Court shows like Barbara Salesch have as much to do with the real processes in German courtrooms as Love Island has with real love. In the revived judicial soap, events are overturning: witnesses appear out of nowhere, perpetrators flee head over heels. If that’s what you’re into, if you also have a heart for elaborate TV experiments and maybe even like the cult film The Truman Show, then you have to watch Jury Duty.
Where’s Jury Duty: The Key Facts About Reality Court ComedyWhat is the concept of Jury Duty?
Jury Duty follows a seemingly normal trial in California from the jury’s perspective. 11 members of the group are actors. Because everything about this case is staged and follows a (more or less) fixed script. Ronald Gladden is the only one who doesn’t know that. He witnesses a made-up case involving an accident in a textile factory, where in the end everything depends on whether the accused was doing a large or small business on a pile of clothes.
Jury Duty – S01 Trailer (English) HD
Ronald meets a wrong judge, a wrong plaintiff and wrong lawyers. And real-life actor James Marsden (X-Men, Westworld), who was also summoned to serve on a jury, but that’s just the beginning of a grotesque chain of events.
Like The Truman Show in Small: Why the Jury Duty Concept Works Great
Almost all events in the series are geared towards Ronald. Any crack in the illusion, no matter how small, could make him suspicious and question his reality – which would ruin the show. Jury Duty is like a light version of The Truman Show. In the media satire, the main character (Jim Carrey) is presented with an uninterrupted reality of life from birth. Jury duty doesn’t go quite that far, but the effort that goes into making Ronald believe a “real” trial is enormous.
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I probably wouldn’t have stayed longer than one episode though. Where does Jury Duty get its addictive pull? Quite simply: The written, scripted part of the series is also designed with love. The characters in Jury Duty live on even when Ronald isn’t in the room. The series could easily function without its reality twist. Because some of the gags are great, the court process is bizarre, but definitely exciting. And the jury — from party girl to teacher to sleepy senior citizen — have complex inner workings that rival mockumentary sitcoms like Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
If you only watch one Jury Duty episode, watch the last one
There is a bittersweet tragedy inherent in Jury Duty. The jury begins to really like each other. relationships emerge. The thought that all this is played and has to be resolved sooner or later becomes extremely painful at some point. Especially from Ronald’s perspective. The unveiling of the experiment therefore takes up the entire last episode – and with this episode Jury Duty creates it Leap to Masterpiece.
Cast and crew sensitively confront Ronald with the facts of the scam. The series moves far beyond a simple “Haha, fooled!” effect, as we know it from prank shows. Ronald is guided through the set, he learns the mechanics behind the reality facade. At the same time, and this is much more important, he gets to know the real people behind the characters. Genuine sympathy replaces fake affection in real time.
If at the end of the final episode a lettering announces that Ronald is still in contact with the cast, that sounds cheesy, but you really want to believe it.
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