Jury Duty

Ronald Gladden believes he is taking part in a documentary about jury service. Everyone around him is acting. The original Jury Duty builds a comedy around that imbalance, with an increasingly peculiar trial requiring an ordinary man to respond in good faith.

James Marsden is particularly funny playing an unhelpful version of himself, but the ensemble's discipline matters just as much. The situation has to remain credible enough for Ronald to keep participating even as the people beside him become more troublesome.

What makes it appealing is the warmth. The comedy is not simply waiting for the unsuspecting participant to look foolish. His attempts to be considerate often improve a situation the actors have carefully made worse, giving the programme a different emotional direction from an ordinary prank show.

This is the Ronald Gladden season, best approached without a detailed account of its individual incidents. If you enjoy the ensemble awkwardness of The Office, it offers a related pleasure with one person who has not been given a script.