The first season of “Jury Duty” thrived on discovery. For the audience, mashing together a scripted sitcom with a hidden-camera prank show stoked our collective curiosity. “How will this work, exactly?” “Can they pull it off?” “And what’s the deal with James Marsden? Isn’t it weird that he’s on the jury? Shouldn’t that make the prankee a wee bit suspicious?”
For the producers, including co-creators Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, discovery was part of the process. For as much control as they exerted on the setting — sequestering the jury, for one — they couldn’t control their “hero” character, Ronald Gladden. They could nudge him here and there, with a pointed comment from an actor or a situation that required his intervention, but they couldn’t guarantee he’d follow the script. He didn’t know there was a script, so how could he? Balancing their orchestrated plans with the spontaneity of a real participant is what gave the series its gleeful tension.
What helped “Jury Duty” become a minor phenomenon was how those distinct forms of discovery overlapped. In the end, it felt like the people making the show and the audience got to share in learning one heartwarming fact: Ronald was a good dude. He rose to the occasion. He was friendly with strangers (even when they were extra strange), and he led the jury to a righteous verdict (despite not wanting to lead them at all). Everything was fake, but what we discovered about Ronald was real — or, you know, real enough to play on TV.
Three years later, “Jury Duty” is back, only without the jury. Season 2 ditches the courtroom for a company retreat, trading the isolated environment of a trial for the isolated environment of an offsite (at a ranch just north of Los Angeles). The new hero is Anthony, who’s hired as a temp at Rockin’ Grandma’s Hot Sauce just before the staff heads to their annual weeklong team-building trip. Once again, Anthony is the only person involved who doesn’t know the whole thing is fake, and once again, he’ll have to endure a multitude of awkward situations and unforeseeable challenges if he hopes to guide “Corporate Retreat” to its expected ending.
But the thrill of discovery is largely gone. Part of its absence is unavoidable, since audiences are now familiar with how a season of “Jury Duty” works. Credit to Eisenberg and Stupnitsky for recognizing that loss and switching up the setting. (One could argue they had to move outside the jury room, which might make it too easy for the “hero” to figure out what’s going on. But that, to me, overestimates the show’s ubiquity. This isn’t 1995, and Amazon Prime isn’t NBC. Lots of people who report for jury duty have never heard of “Jury Duty.”) Their new cast is a lot of fun, too, even without a charming celebrity among the series regulars. (James Marsden cannot be replaced.)
Where “Jury Duty” Season 2 goes awry is two-fold. First, Anthony is too good a subject — like, actually too good. He’s so nice that his generosity is irrefutable from the first episode, leaving him little room to grow or change in a season that’s acutely, adversely focused on making him look good.
In the first season, Ronald meets James Marsden and immediately slams one of his films. “That was not a good movie,” Ronald said after learning Marsden starred in “Sonic the Hedgehog.” Although he showed up the next day, having rewatched it, full of compliments, the jury remained out on whether Ronald would put his foot in his mouth — or worse — throughout his journey on the polite prank show.
In Season 2, when the head of HR at Rockin’ Grandma’s Hot Sauce, Kevin Gomez (Ryan Perez), tells Anthony he’s planning to propose to his co-worker, Amy (Emily Pendergast), the new hire is beside himself. He’s eager to help and even offers advice on how to pop the question. Then, when he’s left alone to do some paperwork, the camera catches him grinning, laughing, and stomping his feet in excitement. He’s excited… for a proposal… between two people he just met, in a job he’s only supposed to have for a week.
I’m sorry, but that’s a nice guy. He may be too nice for this world (here’s hoping Anthony is always surrounded by good people), but he’s certainly too nice for “Company Retreat.” The ensuing episodes barely tempt him toward the dark side. As the team heads to Agoura Hills for their offsite, they play games and sit through presentations. They go out for dinner and stay up late watching TV. They do the typical stuff you do at a remote work event, but these co-workers are quite close, their bonds are strong, and they’re very, very supportive.
Too supportive. When PJ (Marc-Sully Saint-Fleur) finds out Jackie (LaNisa Frederick) has been letting him manually blow up all the pool floaties, when he could’ve been using the electric pump she’s been hiding, it’s time for some drama. Co-workers get on each other’s nerves all the time. Little oversights turn into big feelings.
Alex Bonifer and Jerry Hauck in ‘Jury Duty: Company Retreat’Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video
But not here. “My bad,” Jackie says when PJ confronts her. “It’s OK,” PJ says, and that’s the end of it. Anthony watches it all go down, and if the scene played out differently, he may have had to choose sides or calm them both down. He could’ve been tested, pushed, forced into a decision. Instead, he’s just a spectator in a season that’s too focused on making viewers feel good and not focused enough on building excitement through conflict.
“Company Retreat” doesn’t need to be antagonistic. It doesn’t have to be a cringe comedy a la “The Rehearsal” or “The Chair Company.” Pushing too much hostility between team members or pushing Anthony too hard to be the peacekeeper could easily create an ugly atmosphere that spoils the vibe. But without friction between the characters, and without any doubt about what Anthony will do in any given situation, Season 2 quickly turns saccharine and flat.
It also puts too much emphasis on a mid-point plot twist. At first, it seems like the season’s drama is going to stem from whether the Rockin’ Grandma’s owner, Doug (Jerry Hauck), will name his goofy son, Dougie (Alex Bonifer), as his successor. Doug is retiring, but there are plenty of reasons to doubt Dougie’s ability to replace him. He never finished business school. He’s been living in Jamaica for four years, trying to get his band off the ground, and he’s prone to imitating the locals a la Adrien Brody on “SNL.”
He’s set up to be a nepo baby disaster, and yet the team loves him anyway. No one raises legitimate, easy-to-spot doubts about Dougie’s leadership abilities, because “Company Retreat” is too damn nice. But Dougie’s qualifications don’t really matter. Turns out, Doug is considering selling his hot sauce company to a massive corporation. That’s right, another family-owned and operated small business might get sucked up by a faceless, soulless conglomerate. When they show up in their black cars wearing black suits, there’s no mistaking it: Big business is the villain, and this small business needs saving.
Did I mention “Jury Duty” is an Amazon show?
Awkward!
It’s one thing for scripted satiric series like “The Boys” or “Fallout” to allude to their streaming boss while poking fun at the merciless ruin brought on by American mega-corps like Amazon; it’s baked into their DNA. At worst, Amazon uses those shows to shield itself from extra criticism. (“We’re not that bad — if we were, why would we release these programs?”) At best, the creators are attacking the problem from the inside. (You gotta reach the people where they’re at!)
But “Jury Duty” didn’t need to focus on a small business. It didn’t need to invite the idea of Amazon shuttering mom-and-pop bookstores, pharmacies, and more community favorites to make a hidden-camera comedy about nice people. It didn’t need to introduce a big corporation as the season’s enemy, prompting Anthony, the man literally identified as “hero” in the scripts, to say things like, “The employees [at corporations] can become numbers and not people. These employees are people.”
It’s a clumsy choice and an extra layer of buzzkill on a season that’s just trying to offer broad, feel-good comedy. But instead of admiring the insight and dedication that went into pulling this whole thing off, instead of marveling at Anthony’s indomitable kindness, instead of appreciating the solid ensemble of committed actors who built a whole world for one guy to play in, it’s too easy to think about all the real people who used to run family shops like Rockin’ Grandma’s who are now office drones treated like “numbers and not people.”
Maybe your mind won’t go there while watching, but it’s bound to drift somewhere. There’s just not much to discover at this “Company Retreat.”
Grade: C
“Jury Duty: Company Retreat” premieres March 20 on Amazon Prime Video with three episodes, followed by two episodes March 27, and a three-episode finale April 3.
