Jury Duty is a Reality Show that takes a look at the inner workings of the American jury system through the eyes of the jurors themselves.
Or at least, that's what Ronald thinks.
In reality, Jury Duty is a Candid Camera Prank series in which oblivious Every Man Ronald Gladden is placed in a fake trial without realizing that every single person involved, besides him, is a paid actor. Ronald has to deal with situations ranging from a fellow juror who won't stop falling asleep to a completely incompetent defendant, all while deliberating on a trial that gets increasingly bizarre as it goes on.
Jury Duty contains examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: When a jury member hurts himself and gets carried away in a stretcher, James bids him farewell using the wrong name, showing that he didn't really care about the guy.
- Adam Westing: James Marsden plays an egotistical, shallow version of himself who's desperate to be let out of jury duty.
- Artistic License – Law: While the trial was conducted in a rather normal fashion through much of filming, aided by the fact that the legal professionals are all played by actual experts, it does take a lot of license, particularly on the final day, to make things crazier.
- Bad Influencer: One of these is a witness for the trial. She runs an anti-dog adoption campaign online.
- Candid Camera Prank: The premise of the series. Notable for being basically one very long prank with one victim, instead of multiple.
- Closed Circle: As it's a sequestered jury trial, no one is allowed to leave without supervision or use the internet. Makes pulling off pranks much easier.
- Courtroom Antics: Constantly happening throughout the trial. Part of the appeal of the show is to witness what shenanigan the court room has set up for that day.
- Dramatic Irony: In one episode, while discussing James’s questionable acting techniques, Ronald concedes that he can’t judge since he’s not an actor. Beside him, Ross—who is, unbeknownst to Ronald, being played by an actor—responds with a completely straight face: “Yeah, who knows.”
- Every Man: We don't get to know much about Ronald other than the fact that he's a solar panel installer, and if he has any weird quirks or distinctive points of view, it didn't make it into the series. He's simply a Nice Guy who reacts to the oddness around him like a normal person would.
- Everyone Can See It: Jeannie is instantly horny for Noah and hits on him shamelessly right from their first meeting in the waiting room. Noah is oblivious, and Ronald has to break the news to him.
- Fair-Play Whodunnit: Ronald is given enough clues to figure out what really happened and deliver a correct verdict. Luckily, he's enthusiastic enough to put in the effort.
- A Fool for a Client: The defendant starts representing himself toward the end of the trial after his own attorney starts grilling him on the stand. The plaintiff also insists on making her own summation.
- The Gambling Addict: Ken, who constantly wants to play betting games when the jury is on break.
- Hidden Depths: Ronald turns out to be quite a good foreperson, especially during the deliberation episode. Although the events are staged, he does a good job conducting the conversation, listing evidence, addressing each juror's concerns, and diffusing tension. When he finds out Ross is the sole dissenting vote, Ronald also manages to resolve the situation and obtain a unanimous verdict without singling him out. Of course, this is only "hidden" in the sense of what we've seen of Ronald on the show, since he's a real person.
- Implied Answer: After James begs Ronald to take the blame for his giant poop, the plumber guesses that Ronald is the one who made the poop. Ronald answers, "It might have been!" with good-natured humility, implying that he was the one who did it but not technically lying either.
- Jump Scare: While investigating the creepy mannequins in the dark attic of the factory, Ronald and Lonnie are surprised when Todd suddenly appears among them. Ronald finds the situation hilarious and bursts out laughing.
- Jury Duty: But of course.
- Manipulative Editing: In the final behind-the-scenes episode, we're told that jury duty was rather boring most of the time, with zaniness only happening occasionally, which helped it seem more real to Ronald. We see only the zany parts. James Marsden also reveals that he behaved normally through most of the filming and would take efforts to make amends and apologize for his selfish outbursts to prevent Ronald from developing a hatred for him, but these were all left out of the episodes. We see once such incident in the final episode, where it's revealed that Ronald became too upset by James destroying the cake, so James was sent back in with a replacement cake to apologize.
- Method Acting: Parodied In-Universe; James Marsden tries to method act as an everyday small-town American for a few days for one for his upcoming movies but fails miserably, upsetting the other jurors more than anything.
- Mistaken for Racist: After a mishap when the jury tours the shirt press, Todd is forced to change into one of the defective misprinted "Jorf" shirts. When the jury visits Margaritaville later that night, a table actually leaves their seat early and offers it to the group because they support Todd's shirt. It turns out that "Jorf" is a white supremacist dogwhistle, and they have to get Todd a new shirt from the Margaritaville gift shop so they aren't kicked out for his offensive clothing.
- Mockumentary: In a sense. It's a documentary on Ronald, but everything else is acted.
- Never the Obvious Suspect: The accused, in spite of being a disreputable loser, is ultimately not liable.
- Nice Guy: Ronald proves to be a nice, upbeat guy who and goes out of his way to help his fellow jurors. The actors express interest in hanging out with him for real.
- The Prima Donna: James Marsden is characterized as this during the show. He is unbelievably full of himself and pulls constant selfish stunts, such as hiring paparazzi at the trial in an attempt to get out of jury duty and later obtaining special treatment to return home that the other jurors do not have. He spends the entire show more focused on getting a part in the film than bonding with the others and flips out when he loses the part, flipping over Ross' birthday cake in a fit of rage. Obviously, this is all a bit that makes fun of his perceived image as a pretty-boy actor.
- The Reveal: The supposedly Happily Married Ross is revealed to be on the outs with his wife. Amusingly, it looks like Ronald is distracted when this revelation comes to light, so Ross has to personally apologize to Ronald for misrepresenting himself to ensure that Ronald takes notice.
- Rich Bitch: The plaintiff is a self-centered rich woman. The jury notes that she spends most of the trial sitting with a pouty expression. She uses her testimony to complain about how jealous she thinks everyone is of her. It's ultimately determined by the jury that she caused the defendant's accident through unsafe working conditions, covered it up, and then blamed it on the defendant.
- Secret Test of Character: In "The Verdict," Alan Barinholtz (Judge Rosen) breaks character to reveal that the entire show has been this for Ronald. The various decisions Ronald made (covering for James Marsden, befriending Todd, helping Noah and Jeannie get together, refusing Ken's money) are the reasons why the show awards him $100,000.
- Shout-Out: When Trevor takes over his own defense and calls himself to the stand, he asks a question and then moves to sit in the stand, then he repeats this until the judge asks what he is doing, before adding this isn't Bananas. note
- Small Name, Big Ego: James Marsden is characterized as a mid-level Hollywood star who vastly overestimates his fame. Only a few of the jurors know who he is, and most of them only vaguely recollect his biggest roles.
- Spot the Thread: In the final episode, the actors relate how terrified they were of making some small slip-up that would be Ronald's first step toward realizing that the whole thing is a sham. In one instance, after the bailiff accidentally referred to the one of the actors by her real name, Cassandra, the production staff introduced a character named Cassandra to explain who the bailiff was talking about. Ronald never gets close to realizing the truth.
- Stylistic Suck: The animation the defense shows of the incident is rudimentary, confusing and aggressively buggy, glitching out five seconds in. The lawyer comments how this is the last time he will trust his nephew for animations.
- The Summation: Since the show centers around a trial, there are naturally multiple instances of this, including the actual statements in the courtroom and Ronald's summary of the case during the deliberation period. After he breaks character, Alan Barinholtz gives this to Ronald, praising his performance and ethical choices.
- Take That!: At the table of Margaritaville customers who are later revealed to be white supremacists, one of them is wearing a "Reagan/Bush '84" t-shirt.
- Technical Virgin: Noah attempts to get around his "no sex before marriage" rule by putting his penis into his partner and having a third party (James Marsden) jump on the bed.
- Transhuman: Todd, one of the jurors, really wants to become one.
- "Truman Show" Plot: Essentially everyone Ronald interacts with for three weeks is a paid actor, which he is totally unaware of.
- You Remind Me of X: Ronald, in an attempt to connect with his hotel neighbor Todd, watches A Bug's Life with him, which Ronald explains is because Todd reminds him of Flik. Since they are both quirky inventors that think a little differently from others, Ronald thought Todd would appreciate seeing someone like him on film.
