“Jury Duty” which sneaked up on the world in 2023, inserted an unwitting ordinary person into a prearranged courtroom scenario otherwise populated by actors. It was like “The Truman Show” mixed with “Twelve Angry Men,” or a segment of “Candid Camera” stretched into a series, or Nathan Fielder’s “The Rehearsal,” minus the neuroses and cruelty. It won a Peabody Award and earned three Emmy nods.
For an encore, creators Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky have devised “Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat,” premiering Friday on Prime Video. Anthony Norman, 25, the new season’s out-of-the-loop hero, has been hired for what he believes is a temp job at the small, family owned Rockin’ Grandma’s Hot Sauce. The company is going on its annual retreat, the last for retiring founder Doug Womack (Jerry Hauck), who expects to hand the reins to his son, Dougie Jr. (Alex Bonifer), a business school dropout recently back after four years in Jamaica, where his ska-influenced “with sort of” EDM band failed to launch, or anyway, to launch with him.
It’s part situation comedy, part reality show, part prank show. The cast, with its collection of types and quirks, might easily serve a straight workplace comedy. Indeed, even without its central gimmick, “Company Retreat” would still make a decent sitcom; there are funny characters speaking funny lines; there’s some good slapstick. And unlike some some prank shows, its intentions are good, its attitude humane — the entire purpose of the show is to bring out the best in its unsuspecting star, not to humiliate him. “Y’all are a close-knit family,” Anthony observes early on, and before long, he’s part of it, motivated to protect the company, which he will refer to as “us.”
Other characters (tactically) ask his advice and opinions; they give him responsibilities. HR manager Kevin (Ryan Perez), who styles himself Capt. Fun for purposes of the retreat, appoints Anthony as Lt. Fun, and when Kevin takes off after an embarrassing incident, he promotes Anthony to captain, a job he takes seriously.
Much happens. The days at the fictional Oak Canyon Ranch Retreat in the nonfictional Agoura Hills are loaded with incident — the retreat itself is essentially sleepaway camp, including pool time, games, a cookout, a talent show — and disasters. A person goes missing, as does a case of Doritos. Antagonists arrive in the form of a private equity firm looking to acquire the company, activating an endgame.
Some of what the pranksters say or do for the sake of a gag skirts credibility. (Dougie: “People think this job was handed to me. And I’m just excited to like prove that it’s not, like, a hand job, it’s an earned job.”) From this side of the screen, some come across as “actors,” but they only have to register as authentic to Anthony; and there’s no reason why they wouldn’t — no reasonable person would imagine all these folks had been gathered in a charade for his benefit. (Anyway, at 25, you’re still young enough to believe all sorts of things.) Though situations and characters may be too odd to be true, the tack Anthony takes is that they are too odd not to be — “not something you can just make up.” “If I go home and tell my parents about this,” he says, “they’re going be, like, ‘You’re lying.’”
Whatever subtle manipulations the producers employed to move him into the next desired position, they have backed the right horse. Anthony’s a feeling person — he’s moved when Doug gives Dougie “the spoon that was used by my grandma … when she used to make hot sauce in our kitchen when I was a little boy.” He’s a team player, happy to help receptionist P.J. (Marc-Sully Saint-Fleur) in his quest to become a snack influencer, and a team leader, unafraid to speak up or fill an awkward silence.
“Anytime I get an opportunity to, like, just jump out in the front and just be like ‘How can we do this?’ … or somebody asks for a helper, ‘Let me jump in there.’” “I got you” is something Anthony says a lot.
You can watch the show as straight narrative, forgetting the hoax and regarding Anthony, who is as much a spectator as a participant, as just another character. (The most surprising thing for me was how easily I took characters I knew to be “false” as substantial in themselves.) You can watch specifically for the prank element, or marvel at the actors, playing their parts over several days, sitting with Anthony through motivational speakers, an “emotions and vulnerability expert” and a sexual harassment seminar, competing in crazy games, going out for dinner — things of which we only see snippets, as in an episode of “Big Brother.”
Best of all, you can follow Anthony on his emotional journey. In the end we see that this has been not a joke but a test, as in a fairy tale, in which the hero proves his mettle and gets his rewards: love and riches.
