‘Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat’ Review: The Emmy-Nominated Hit Returns as an Hilarious Workplace Comedy [B+]

In 2023, America fell in love with Ronald Gladden, a sweet and laid back guy who answered a summons and wound up the star of the Emmy-nominated series, Jury Duty. Prime’s surprise hit garnered four nominations, in fact, for casting, writing, series, and, of course, for supporting actor James Marsden, who played an entitled, out-of-control version of himself. The show was so impactful for Marsden that he returns to the second season not on screen, but as an executive producer.

Creators Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky had a seemingly impossible challenge when it came to finding the right storyline for a second season of Jury Duty. After all, the sequestered jury bit had already been done and a new season needed to be something very different. Something that could be bigger, but also more contained. And thus, Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat was born.

The second season’s clueless nice guy is Anthony, a temp hired by the company’s HR Manager, Kevin (Ryan Perez), specifically to help with the many jobs and tasks related to taking the employees of a small family hot sauce business on their annual retreat in the Southern California hills of Agoura. As it was in Jury Duty, everyone in Company Retreat is an actor except for Anthony, who has no idea he is the subject of a good-natured hidden camera prank. Among the actors creating this experience for him are Jerry Hauck as Doug Sr., the retiring CEO who plans to hand the company over to his son Dougie Jr. (Alex Bonifer). Dougie is a Tommy Boy type who cares about his father’s company but is utterly clueless about how to run it. This is to be Doug Sr.’s last retreat before handing over the company to his son and he wants it to be unforgettable. For Anthony, it certainly will be.

We also meet the rest of the cast, or rather Anthony’s temporary colleagues, including Amy (Emily Pendergast) from Customer Relations who loves the fact that she has the same Starbucks order as Taylor Swift. Kate (Erica Hernandez) from Sales & Marketing is very good at her job and wants everyone to know it. Warehouse manager Jimmy (Jim A. Woods) apparently got himself into trouble some years ago and has course corrected by virtue signalling every chance he gets. Jackie (LaNisa Renee Frederick) from Distribution & Logistics just wants a break. Claire (Rachel Kaly) is the Web Designer/IT expert who does everything she can to avoid the sun and loves the TV show Bones. There is also the Other Anthony (Rob Lathan) and Steve (Warren Burke) from Sales and Marketing. And of course the receptionist, PJ (Marc-Sully Saint-Fleur) who aspires to be a snack influencer and, honestly, PJ is so delightfully effervescent that I would subscribe to his channel.

These are the delightfully quirky characters Anthony meets on his first day at work. The people he will spend the next week with at an retreat outside of Los Angeles. It is to be a week of team-building, motivational speakers, and family bonding. But of course, the minds of Jury Duty couldn’t let it be that simple. Along the way there are emergency sexual harassment training seminars, games that get out of control and a little bit violent, misread signals, and a company that might not survive in Dougie’s hands. Before the first day is over, Anthony the temp is a fully committed member of the team surrounded by a cadre of goofy, intense, sometimes unhinged hot sauce aficionados.

As we learned in the first season, a show like this can only work if you care about the main character, your outsider, the only one who isn’t in on the joke. This person has to be likeable to the cast and to viewers, has to be open-minded and react well to the exceptionally strange things he (or she) will witness over the ensuing several days, and not only watch it happen but fully take part in the antics all while believing this is all really happening. Somehow, the creators have done it again with Anthony, a charming, almost supernaturally calm twentysomething who is not shy about jumping into the middle of games, contests, interviews, whatever it may be. He comfortably engages in conversations, sometimes very personal ones, with several of his temporary co-workers, as though he has been there for years and will see them all back in the office next week. Anthony almost seems too perfect for a job like this.

The other reason this show works is because the unwitting participant, in this case Anthony, isn’t put into any situation intended to make him look stupid or to embarrass him. They toss a regular guy into a room full of lovable lunatics and see how he reacts to it. There is nothing mean-spirited about it and, therefore, while Anthony wonders how this could all be happening, we aren’t laughing at him for being so gullible, we who are watching just wonder how we might react in a similar situation. There’s a kindness and consideration that goes into crafting this series and now with two seasons completed, this is very clearly an intended part of the development and not just a fun little bonus.

Company Retreat, while similar to Jury Duty in many ways, is also quite different. While the first focused on how to pull off the ruse and keep Ronald in the dark, the second feels more like a recreation of a workplace comedy that just happens to have one real person in the mix. There are confessional interviews and conversations Anthony isn’t present for, some scenes that don’t really involve him at all. If the show’s conceit wasn’t part of the marketing, viewers might not be able to guess which of the characters were actors and which were real. It makes the new season feel separate from the first. And because it’s an event paid for by a company, there are opportunities for special guests and surprise cameos that are much easier to weave into the carefully structured script. The second season is entirely its own, something new that doesn’t try to copy its previous success, but instead to just have some more fun in a new situation. We can only imagine what genius scenario they will think of next.

Grade: B+

Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat will premiere on Prime Video on March 20, debuting with three episodes, followed by two episodes on March 27, and a three-episode finale on April 3.