James Marsden is serving on a jury in his latest TV role.
Amazon Freevee has unveiled the trailer and announced the premiere date for the upcoming docu-style comedy Jury Duty. The first four episodes of the series, starring Marsden as an alternate version of himself, will drop on Friday, April 7. Two new episodes will then be released until the finale on April 21.
Jury Duty chronicles the inner workings of an American jury trial. The show has a major twist in that one particular juror, Ronald Gladden, a solar contractor from San Diego, CA, is a real-life member of the public, who has no idea he is taking part in a fake trial and is surrounded by actors. Everything that happens, both inside and out of the courtroom, is carefully planned. But as far as Gladden is concerned it’s a real court case.
Early on in the show Marsden even tries to get out of jury duty, by announcing: “I’m a recognizable, public figure,” to which the Judge (Alan Barinholtz) replies: “Respectfully, I don’t recognize you.” Watch the trailer above for more from the “jury” and this “trial,” including how seriously Ronald is taking it.
Amazon Freevee
The ensemble cast of comedic actors, in addition to Marsden and Barinholtz, includes Susan Berger, Cassandra Blair, David Brown, Kirk Fox, Ross Kimball, Pramode Kumar, Trisha LaFache, Mekki Leeper, Brandon Loeser, Edy Modica, Rashida “Sheedz” Olayiwola, Kerry O’Neill, Whitney Rice, Maria Russell, Ishmel Sahid, Ben Seaward, Ron Song, and Evan Williams.
“What interested me was the challenge of creating a hero’s journey for someone who has no idea the world around him was completely manufactured and whether or not this high wire act could lead him to unite this family of wonderful weirdos and in the process become an inspiring leader for us all under the process of serving Jury Duty,” said Marsden in a statement.
“Jury Duty originated with a question: Was it possible to make a sitcom like The Office about a trial, populate it with brilliant comedic performers, and put a real person at the center of the show who doesn’t realize he’s surrounded by actors?” added executive producer Todd Schulman. “We honestly had no idea but when we pitched it to Freevee we pretended like it was a sure thing. Thank God we pulled it off.”
Said Lauren Anderson, head of AVOD Original Content and Unscripted Programming, Amazon Studios, “there are no guarantees but there’s ambition, creativity, pure comedy, and the desire to do something different but with great care. That’s what drew us to this wildly inventive idea from this incredible group of producers. How does one respond when the most outlandish moments happen in something as seemingly mundane as jury duty? We hope audiences are pleasantly surprised by what they see and delighted by what the show says about humanity.”
Jury Duty is executive produced by David Bernad, Lee Eisenberg, Ruben Fleischer, Nicholas Hatton, Cody Heller, Schulman, Gene Stupnitsky, Jake Szymanski, and Andrew Weinberg. Eisenberg and Stupnitsky co-created the series, Heller serves as showrunner, and Szymanski directs.
Jury Duty, Series Premiere, Friday, April 7, Amazon Freevee
