With the head of a hidden-camera prank show, the heart of a workplace sitcom, and the body of a true crime documentary, the boundary-blurring new comedy Jury Duty makes for an odd chimera of genres.
The original series released by Freevee (the Amazon-owned streaming platform formerly known as IMDb TV) follows a court case from start to finish, its proceedings turned into farce by a boneheaded defendant, a bumbling lawyer, a bailiff at the end of her rope, and a boxful of kooky jurors. The simple pleasures of the half-hour hangout show – in which a shared location and occupational purpose knit a loose collection of people into a dysfunctional surrogate family – combine with the vicarious fun of armchair investigation for a hybrid that can seamlessly cater to multiple on-trend viewing blocs. In algorithmese, we’d describe this pairing of crime-and-punishment suspense with absurd public-service drudgery as “recommended for fans of Making a Murderer and Parks and Recreation”.
