Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat 

13

There is only one point of interest around these Jury Duty documentaries: where and how do they possibly find dupes this incredibly nice? And this incredibly agreeable? I don’t want to be a cynic or anything, but the big stooge they found for both the original Jury Duty and this follow-on setup seem impossibly sweet and earnest. As if the show is just taped together through the magic of editing and not the reality it purports to give us. But that’s just me, the skeptic. So, let’s go with it and pretend that this season’s “real” person, Anthony, is not, in fact, an actor or aware of what’s going on and is just as clueless and incredibly amazing as he comes off while working as a temp at this completely fabricated company on this completely fake company retreat. You get the idea.

Now, when this show actually revolved around jury duty, it gave the proceedings an air of authority. Official proceedings and whatnot. Any unease the non-actor / subject would have with the wackiness around him might be assuaged by the fact the wackiness was happening in a seemingly official government building surrounded by government employees. Nobody could possibly fake that. Here, we are whisked away to a camp in the LA hills for a supposed company retreat for a hot sauce company. The whole setup feels like a fake out. Hire this dude, Anthony, as a temp at a company that feels innocuous enough to be maybe be real, but then Isolate the subject in the wilds of Agoura Hills with no Internet. And, like season one, surround him with a cast of some pretty recognizable character actors. Honestly, do they find these people who have never watched television? Is it part of the questionnaire they fill out when they’re looking for these innocents? Granted, there is nobody as recognizable as Kirk Fox or Susan Berger (the old lady with the red hair) in this season, but I would have immediately seen through the ruse when several of these TV actors like Alex Bonifer (Dougie Jr.) show up. I’ve seen that guy as a third lead in multiple seasons of Kevin Can F**k Himself and would have clocked him immediately. Granted, I watch a ton of television, but you’d think it would be risky to put anyone in the cast who’s previously been on TV or in movies at all. Like they should only hire local theater people. Because nobody goes to local theater — at least willingly.

I can’t say this was a particularly interesting season of television. The retreat itself involved a lot of sitting around. There was nothing particularly harrowing or even particularly funny. There was no star dynamic like there was in the first season with James Marsden, who was posed as the selfish asshole that our non-actor had to balance against. Instead, this season brought in the outside private equity company big bad, Triukas, looking to buy the family-owned Rockin’ Grandma’s Hot Sauce. The series clearly manipulates our non-actor, Anthony, into a position to oppose the take over and save the day from this evil corporation staffed solely with gingers (which I suppose is a funny gag in an of itself). The show sets up a series of tensions and scenarios — first brining in the ne’er-do-well son, Dougie Jr., who is supposed to inherit the company from his dad, Doug (Jerry Hauck), and having Anthony befriend the kind, but bumbling, heir apparent in an attempt to smooth over some long-simmering family drama. And then subsequently bringing in the Triukas gang, who Doug has decided to sell the company to, intentionally exposing Anthony to their true nefarious plans for the staff and putting him in a position to be the company’s savior. And between these two big pillars of tension, we have inter-staff romantic tension and a boss who is clearly going through crisis. All of which is thrust upon Anthony in one way or another, who handles absolutely everything with the right amount of empathy and action. Almost too much as to make me suspicious.

And while all of this is well and good, there just isn’t enough propulsive energy in the show. Which I understand is a challenge when things are unscripted and you have no clue how your subject will react to setups and scenarios, but there was just some spark missing from this season. Some danger, or at least something that felt like it could go sideways. Or a compelling villain like Marsden. The editing process, or whatever it is, rendered Anthony almost cartoonish in his devotion to a company and staff who he’d known for like three days. Which is why I was constantly left wondering if — and I have no clue how this wouldn’t happen — Anthony spotted one or more of the hundreds of cameras, caught some of the cast out of character or just basically realized that reality couldn’t be this wacky and just played along. Or maybe he just watched as much TV as I do and recognized one of the cast. Again, it’s tough not to be skeptical when the dude is just so perfectly lovely and helpful. Manipulation by the producers aside. When it comes down to it, this is fine as a background watch. It’s vanilla and occasionally funny and sweet in places. But with so much compelling media out there, I’m not sure it warrants much more than a curiosity to stream if you somehow run out of content.

MORE SEASONS