‘Jury Duty,’ Please Drop All 17 Days of Unaired Footage

Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d type: I need more Jury Duty in my life.

As someone who’s been summoned for jury duty thrice in a single decade, I was deeply uninterested when I first heard Amazon Freevee was making a docu-series exploring the American judicial process through the eyes of a jury. Only after learning the series was created by The Office writers/producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky was I excited to give it a try. And after binge-watching all eight episodes I’m left begging for more.

In 2021, over 2,500 people applied to take part in a docu-style project about jury duty, but only one man, 29-year-old Ronald Gladden, landed the gig. Gladden was selected to serve on the jury for Hilgrove v. Morris alongside 11 others, but what he didn’t know was that his fellow jurors were actors, the case was fake, and the details of the trial — and his experience — were meticulously planned. In reality, he was the unsuspecting star of Jury Duty, a now critically-acclaimed series that’s taking over TikTok.

In Jury Duty‘s finale, “The Verdict,” all is revealed when the show’s cast and crew come forward and tell Gladden how they successfully pulled off such an epic prank. As Gladden takes in his new reality and makes refreshing sense of all the bizarre events that unfolded over the past three weeks, production walks him (and viewers) through the process, set, and control room, pointing out hidden cameras and sharing all the times they thought their show would fail. Viewers are treated to previously unaired footage and given special glimpses at audition tapes, rehearsals, actors accidentally breaking character, and the extensive planning that took place behind the scenes. The emotional finale — overflowing with hugs, applause, laughter, tears, and revelations — is one of the year’s best television episodes. But there’s one problem: It’s only 30 minutes long.

Jury Duty‘s fake trial lasted 17 days and included 12 witnesses, 28 pieces of evidence, and more than 30 hours of in-court testimony. When the cast wasn’t in court, they were rehearsing, hanging in their rooms, or bonding during the occasional group outing. And I, for one, want to see every delightfully awkward second omitted from Jury Duty’s eight episodes. The four hours of edits we witnessed — especially the finale — were brilliant, but they weren’t enough. I want to see every funny, mundane, candid, and panicked moment from this process. What I’m saying is: drop all 17 days of footage, Jury Duty!

In an interview with GQ, Gladden said some of his favorite moments from the experience tragically didn’t end up making the final cut. “Those moments that didn’t make it, nobody would’ve ever believed me if I would’ve told him, if this wouldn’t have all been filmed,” he said. “Like the one that one that comes to my mind all the time is that when we were at the taco truck, when James offers to buy everybody lunch and then the judge walks by and obviously it doesn’t work, they ask him for his credit card—I don’t know why they didn’t include this—but he turned to me and he’s like, ‘Hey, do you wanna split this with me?’ I was like, ‘No!’ That was a hilarious moment to me.”

That is a hilarious moment, which reminds me I want a Jury Duty bloopers episode! Please give us an episode entirely comprised of control room reactions! A rehearsal episode! Take us through the process day by day! Give us more James Marsden! Release the full soaking tape! We know the cast bonded post-filming, why not host a reunion special? Give Jury Duty the Friends reunion treatment for goodness sake! The people need more.

In addition to the pursuit of positive, kindhearted entertainment and a commitment to showing Gladden in a heroic light, one of the greatest parts of Jury Duty was the collective concern for Gladden’s well-being post-filming. The cast and crew wanted to ensure Gladden didn’t feel abandoned when the cameras stopped rolling, so they made conscious efforts to keep their friendships alive and are still in touch to this day.

Jury Duty creators, if you’re reading this, fans of the show aren’t ready to say goodbye to the cast, crew, or America’s new National Treasure/Sweetheart Ronald Gladden yet either. So please consider some sort of encore.

Jury Duty is now streaming on Amazon Freevee and Prime Video.