Jury Duty, the mockumentary of sorts that cast an unsuspecting person in the lead role of an elaborate comedy experiment without telling them, should never have worked. The amount of variables necessary to sustain the bit within a functioning Los Angeles courthouse was like playing with fire on Amazon Freevee’s dime. The personalities they sat in the jury box to exacerbate the awkwardly specific sensation of serving your civic duty with strangers under fluorescent lights were hilarious. But any one of the actors playing it too big or too scripted could have ruined the whole illusion in a second.
It shouldn’t have work and yet it did. Ronald Gladden was humble and heroic in this facsimile of life, becoming a friend to his fellow jurors, including James Marsden (playing an exaggerated version of himself), while weathering the eccentric ways in which the actors were tasked with sowing chaos. In the end, besides being genuinely funny without being crass, Jury Duty showed there really are good people in the world, ones who choose kindness and a generosity of spirit over cynicism—or at least find a balance between them.
The show, which was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the Emmys, probably should have quit while it was ahead. Thankfully, common sense and reason did not prevail. With Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat, co-creators Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, along with a host of collaborators like returning director Jake Szymanski, decided the first season wasn’t enough of a test on their nerves. This time around, they blow out the walls of their experiment and make their jobs infinitely harder by focusing on the staff of Rockin’ Grandma’s Hot Sauce, a mom-and-pop shop that’s about to head out on its annual company retreat. Whereas the courthouse was a somewhat controlled environment, this getaway with a staff with a shared history isn’t.
Once again at the center of it all is an innocent bystander who doesn’t know what they have signed up for. Anthony Norman, a temp worker from Florida, is hired to be the assistant to the HR manager during the retreat, which is intended to be a changing of the guard from owner Doug Sr. (Jerry Hauck) to his amusingly wayward son Dougie Jr. (Alex Bonifer). From the second they get there, Anthony is already more tolerant than most of the hijinks the staff gets into, including the unbridled energy of being unshackled from your nine-to-five (while still being paid) and even a marriage proposal on the first day. Things only get weirder—and, for some reason, Anthony only leans in further.
Company Retreat works because it doesn’t care where it goes so long as Anthony is respected and the actors are having a blast. But what genre is this exactly? It’s not a hidden-camera show because Anthony is told they are filming a documentary about the change in leadership at Rockin’ Grandma’s. It’s not a prank show because the producers are clear that their hero is never their target for ridicule. It isn’t a traditional mockumentary, even though the hallmarks of talking heads and deadpan looks to the camera are there. It’s also not a competition series to see if Anthony can make it to the end for a cash prize.
The show is something else. It’s almost like a science experiment where the conditions have been meticulously set so that one new variable can be introduced to test a theory. And the theory is an ambitious one: What is one man’s capacity to stand resolute in the face of petty feuds, inappropriate work romances, out-of-office relaxing of morals, and maybe even the end of everyone’s jobs? The series already confirmed that a high tolerance for physical comedy dressed up as human error is possible with Ronald in season one. Will Anthony make it to the end of the retreat without questioning too much of the so-called reality he’s stepped into?
Company Retreat’s real value is in the characters that populate Anthony’s temporary world. The challenge put on the actors is not only learning their characters but also years of supposed history with their co-workers. Season one was a jury pool of strangers. This, on the other hand, is an ecosystem that will set off alarm bells if any residents don’t live and die by the past they should know by heart. In a way, that tension and the commitment required to uphold the situation in this comedy makes Company Retreat feel even more lived in and immersive. Bonifer as Dougie, the goofy but devoted heir apparent to the hot-sauce kingdom, is a standout because he has the toughest role. He must accept the keys to the company and everyone’s livelihoods while simultaneously messing things up for comedic effect and forming a friendship with Anthony. If the latter isn’t willing to believe in Dougie, he has no incentive to stick around when the antics start to outweigh his hourly rate. But Bonifer imbues Dougie with such warmth from the beginning that his blunders are endearing instead of annoying.
Given the dozen or so characters to service, Emily Pendergast as customer-relations rep and Taylor Swift devotee Amy is perhaps the funniest cast member. Energetic and eager to seize life in new ways as she rounds 40, the camera automatically cuts to her in group shots because her short-but-sweet responses are brilliantly deployed, making the viewer also want to know where she is at all times. Pendergast, who is a member of the Groundlings with Bonifer, is among the most potentially recognizable “staff members” here, having been in the final season of Veep as the wife/stepsister of Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons). But the others, while consistently working, blend into the real-as-far-as-Anthony-knows-it troupe that forms around him. Blair Beeken brings a frantic and ultimately crucial energy as Majorie, the activities manager at the Oak Canyon Ranch, who often drops her anxiety right on Anthony’s cabin doorstep. IT savant and Bones enthusiast Claire (Rachel Kaly) also gets some of the funnier sight gags, from lathering herself in increasingly thick layers of sunscreen to ignoring an allergic reaction because she doesn’t want to waste good seafood.
But it’s Anthony who is the real find here. Instinctively, he does what most people hope they would in a situation where things just seem a little too weird to be true. He has the patience to stick it out. With a smile and genuine curiosity for how he can help people, Anthony is so naturally charismatic that he carries the audience through each bit. You worry for him as much as he worries for everyone around him, even though he only met them a few days ago.
Across the board, the cast is tremendous at building out the stage for this show to highlight Anthony. Against all odds, this has worked—twice now—because the creatives here understands that if they aren’t living every second on the brink of jeopardizing their own experiment, then maybe they are going too easy on themselves. And frankly, nothing is more convincingly real in 2026 than looking around at your world and asking, “What the hell is going on?”
Hunter Ingram is a contributor to The A.V. Club. Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat premieres March 20 on Prime Video.
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