2023’s “Jury Duty” was one of TV’s most pleasant surprises that year—tucked away on Amazon’s now-defunct ad-supported streamer, Freevee, it was a curious blend of courtroom drama, reality TV, and prank show that positioned an unsuspecting subject (in that season’s case, mild-mannered juror Ronald Gladden) in the middle of a fake scenario (a court case) and surrounded him entirely with actors playing characters. Gags and plot developments were meticulously planned around him, an entire “Truman Show” ecosystem designed purely to befuddle one ordinary man who didn’t know he was in the middle of a semi-improvised sitcom.
For all its flaws, “Jury Duty” worked like gangbusters, so naturally a second season comes quick on its heels. The problem is, you have to start from scratch; Ronald knows the score, and a second court case would just be treading familiar ground. So showrunners Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, veterans of “The Office,” head back to terra firma by setting this season’s scenario not in a courtroom, but a cozy “Company Retreat” for a fictional company. And wouldn’t you know it, it might be better than the first?
The upgrade “Company Retreat” represents is one of refinement, as Eisenberg, Stupnitsky, and director Jake Szymanski (“Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates”) hone in on the elements that made the first season work so well, while jettisoning or downplaying what didn’t. This time, we’re treated to the week-long corporate retreat of Rockin’ Grandma’s Hot Sauce, a fictional family business whose patriarch, Doug (Jerry Hauck), plans to retire and leave the biz to his stoner failson Dougie (Alex Bonifer), who it won’t surprise you to learn just returned from a years-long stint in Jamaica, with all the patois to go with it. (He’s like if Wyatt Koch was also Ras Trent.)
Dougie Jr. (Alex Bonifer), Doug (Jerry Hauck), AnthonyEnter Anthony Norman, our mark, a gregarious young man with a brilliant smile and an eager-to-please nature who’s thrilled to be joining the company as a temporary assistant for the company’s HR head, the deeply corny Kevin (Ryan Perez), who dons a captain’s hat Day One and declares himself “Captain Fun” at the upstate ranch where they’ll be retreating. But when Kevin gets embarrassed by a botched proposal to fellow employee Amy (Emily Pendergast) and flees the ranch, Anthony suddenly gets promoted to Captain Fun. More than a fly on the wall, he’s fully incorporated into this little company family, one awkward interaction at a time, and finds himself in the middle of a David-and-Goliath story to save his scrappy small business from being sold to a soulless corporation (seemingly staffed entirely by redheads).
And this is where “Company Retreat”‘s protagonist sets himself apart from “Jury Duty”‘s funny, but reserved, Ronald: He jumps into the role headfirst. The first season leaned on its out-there cast of characters, led by movie star James Marsden as a preening fictionalized version of himself, to carry their “hero” through the season. And granted, “Company Retreat” has its fair share of endearing oddballs, whether it’s Jim Woods’ warehouse manager Jimmy, who’s got a lot of white guilt in his past to overcome, or Rachel Kaly’s disaffected work-from-home employee Claire, who’ll power through a crab allergy because she just loves it so damn much.
But whether it’s the company setting or just their subject’s innate charisma and extroversion, “Company Retreat” actually manages to make Anthony feel like a protagonist rather than a straight-man outsider. Anthony takes charge, invests deeply in the constructed characters around him, and unwittingly makes himself an integral part of this fake company. He rolls with every curveball the show throws at him, whether it’s a frenzied room-search for a box of stolen Cool Ranch Doritos or a climactic race to stop Doug from signing his company away. (Late in the show, he delivers a rousing speech to save the business that, ironically, you could NOT write. It’s enough to drive you to tears.)
Kate (Erica Hernandez), Claire (Rachel Kaly), PJ (Marc-Sully Saint-Fleur), Kevin (Ryan Perez), Jackie (LaNisa Frederick)It helps, of course, that the show never feels like it’s poking fun at Anthony directly or making him look the fool. There’s a deep well of empathy running through both seasons of “Jury Duty,” where the subjects are faced with outlandish scenarios and receive them with, frankly, admirable grace. Watch Anthony’s restraint at figuring out that one employee has been drinking from what he thought was a large water bottle but was, in fact, a Fleshlight, or the way he leans in to a group watch of an episode of “Bones” at one employee’s insistence. “I feel like I’m on a TV show, but this is not something that you can just make up,” Anthony says early on; it’s so ridiculous, in fact, that he simply must accept them as reality and navigate it as best he can.
And that, of course, is the thorny dilemma that lies under the “Jury Duty” premise: What are the ethics of deceiving someone this thoroughly for weeks on end? Especially when, unlike last season, this is someone who’s been told he’s been gainfully employed, only to find out the company he thinks he’s saved, and the friends he’s made, were never real? As with Season 1, we get the required rug-pull, and the finale episode where we see all of the logistical legerdomain necessary to pull off the prank, and it’s as impressive as it is heartwarming. The cast all talk to him about feeling a kinship with Anthony, and he admits as much in return. But can you, when it’s all built on a lie?
But it’s easy to put these niggling ethical questions aside when “Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat” manages to pull off the impossible feat of making lightning strike twice. All while making the subject of its deception look not like a rube, but frankly a saint who brings out the best in everyone around him. And to do that while also delivering some deeply cringe laughs is nothing short of miraculous.
Whole season screened for review. Premieres March 20th on Prime Video.
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