I did not see this coming, but here we are... because an all new Very Special Jury Duty Edition of Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Jury Duty! My favorite new show so far this year is Poker Face. But a very close second would be Jury Duty. The concept is unreal... a fake trial was created where nothing was real and everybody in the courtroom is an actor. Except one guy who actually thought he was serving on a real jury for a documentary. And it's insane...
When I first heard of it, I wasn't going to watch it because I was worried that the entire point of the show was going to be making fun of this poor man. But nothing could be further from the truth. Ronald Gladden is the hero we all need right now. He's incredibly kind, decent, and sweet. They couldn't have possibly lucked out any harder, because he's also jaw-droppingly entertaining...
Seriously. It's amazing reality television. The Truman Show come to life.
What follows may contain spoilers, so be sure to watch the show (which is free on Amazon FreeVee) before continuing.
• Ronald! Once you see the last episode where poor Ronald is told that his entire world for the last 17 days was fake... your heart sinks a little bit. That would be a lot to take in for anybody. It's like... could you ever trust your reality again? For a little look behind the scenes, here's an interview with him on The Elvis Duran Show...
For a lengthier look into the show from Ronald's viewpoint, KFC Radio has you covered...
I really, really hope that we see more of Ronald. He's just too good to fade away.
• Marsden! As if Ronald wasn't reason enough to watch, they somehow got James Marsden roped into this. And he is comedy gold!
I've seen Marsden occasionally on different talk shows, but nothing could have possibly prepared me for how good he was in Jury Duty. If you want a more extensive look, that's on KFC Radio too...
The fact that Jame Marsden seems to be a good guy as well makes the show that much better.
• May the Schwartz be with you! There are numerous moments with Ronald that are too good to be true... and his lighting up when mentioning that he didn't know Ben Schwartz was the voice of Sonic in the Sonic The Hedgehog movie is definitely one of them...
Literally there can't be too many good things coming Ronald's way.
• jorf! In the fourth episode, Todd "soils his shirt" in a freak mannequin accident. Since they are at a T-shirt company, Todd ends up trading his soiled shirt for a misprint shirt with "jorf" printed on it. It's supposed to be a misprint, nonsense word... and I thought it was so cool that I simply had to have one. Except later at Margaritaville the jury finds out that jorf means something awful. Well, not really, but in context of the show. So then I'm like "GOOD LORD! I COULD NEVER WEAR THAT SHIRT!" Even though it's all fake. What it "means" is fake. And that's what messes with your head. This show makes fake become real.
• SECONDS? The sad thing about this show being a massive success is that they really can't do a second season because everybody has seen it. Or at least knows about it. They would have to go really deep to find somebody who hasn't seen it, and I don't even know that would be possible.
If you haven't watched this... what are you waiting for?. It's free to watch on Amazon FreeVee.
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I could only get through the first 2 episodes of Jury Duty.
Part of me is glad that it seems to have worked out well for Ronald Gladden. Another part of me is fucking appalled at the whole idea of a show where someone is falsely-imprisoned, under threat of incarceration for contempt-of-court, isolated from the rest of the world and then manipulated into being the straight-man in a bunch of improv skits.
I think the producers were pretty shrewd in their selection of Gladden. He might just be the only man in LA who wouldn’t have responded with either violence or a lawsuit.
-S