When James Marsden walked into Jury Duty’s fake waiting room and sat next to everyman Ronald Gladden, the unsuspecting juror lit up. “Oh shit, dude, that’s where I know you from,” he tells Marsden. “You’re in X-Men.” Then, as the hidden cameras captured everything and the fake actors got into their places, the two continued to gab away about more of Marsden’s movies—some of which Gladden hilariously didn’t know he was in. It was the perfect distraction.
Fast-forward to the end of the 2023 experimental comedy series, when Jury Duty awarded Gladden $100,000 for being “a hero.” Until then, the idea of Gladden winning anything but a few laughs after revealing the giant hoax hadn’t even entered the equation. Jury Duty was just a show about putting a gullible guy in embarrassing situations and seeing what he would do. And when you’re around a celebrity like James Marsden, you don’t act the same way you would if it was a normal stranger. Especially when Marsden is going out of his way to become your new best friend.
Now, the series is back with Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat, which premiered its first three episodes last week. The show’s creators surely knew that a second season couldn’t include the same actors. If you walked into another courtroom and saw James Marsden, you’d suspect you’re on the show from the very start. The gig might have been up if you saw any celebrity waiting for jury duty. So, the Prime Video series changed up almost everything about the formula and placed their new subject at the center of a Hot Sauce company’s crazy retreat.
As the newly hired temp worker, new subject Anthony Norman is in charge of keeping the good vibes going. Throughout sexual harassment trainings and failed wedding proposals, Anthony is called upon to react to several situations that would embarrass anyone on screen. Anthony’s temp work just doesn’t carry the same gravitas at Rockin’ Grandma’s Hot Sauce as Robert’s jury foreman position. The new subject is often reacting to the embarrassment of others instead of actively making decisions in a leadership role, as Gladden had to do in season 1. Norman’s lowly place in the company ladder makes it so that staying silent or simply agreeing with whoever’s in charge is often the best way to ensure that he keeps his job.
If only James Marsden was here.Courtesy of Prime
Also, sadly, Company Retreat doesn’t bring back Marsden, who earned an Emmy nomination for his work in season 1. In the backdrop of a corporate getaway, Jury Duty’s sophomore effort doesn’t really give a celebrity to appear at all, actually. So, Company Retreat loses season 1’s genius cover: the subject would be so distracted by someone like Marsden that they wouldn’t notice there’s a camera behind every locked door in the building. It’s also not as funny when a regular guy asks you take the blame for wrecking a toilet with your giant shit—instead of that turd mountain belonging to James Marsden. Jury Duty is loaded with great improv performers, but it needed Marsden as an agent of chaos to really pull off the juggling act. Marsden was so damn good that you feel his absence in season 2.
Plus, aside from Gladden, a lot of the comedy in Jury Duty season 1 came from how someone as recognizable as Marsden would react to a given situation. Like a Saturday Night Live sketch come to life, Jury Duty wasn’t just about watching some regular guy like Gladden in an embarrassing situation—the audience also got to see if Marsden could convince Gladden that he left that giant shit in the toilet without cracking himself.
Without Marsden, all we’re left with is another Gladden and a clogged toilet.
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