The Mockumentary That Won The Internet
Jury Duty is a mockumentary chronicling a jury trial through the eyes of one juror, who doesn't realize that everyone except him is an actor. The series premiere began with 54% on Rotten Tomatoes but quickly found a following on social, and garnered praise by everyone from Questlove to Darren Aronofsky all in its first month of release.
A look back at why the series resonated in pop culture and how its campaign came to life reveals insights both in what audiences are working through, and how to win over the internet with some personality.
Kindness...is still contagious What heated Jury Duty into FYP placement initially was that fans first fell in love with the genuine kindness of non-actor and star of the series, Ronald. Why was Ronald so compelling? For a generation with heightened awareness that everyone is looking, perhaps the idea of someone who is this genuine when he thinks nobody is looking, hit home.
Taking a generation raised on The Office behind the 4th wall of it 15 years after The Office premiered, Netflix revealed that within a single year subscribers spent 52 billion minutes watching the series. Jury Duty is no question inspired by the endearing nature of The Office, but elevated by a main character who is unaware that a mockumentary is taking shape around him. This tactic made the audience part of the mockumentary cast and pulled them behind the more traditional type of 4th wall that existed between The Office and its viewers.
A flip on the culture of “main character energy” Coming of age with social has bred a culture in which the audience increasingly looks at life as if they are a protagonist in their own show. They control their own narrative through social curation, and reality is the world on the other side of that screen. So, it’s not surprising that a series in which the protagonist is the only real thing in an entirely scripted world, is a provocative storytelling format that resonated.
Jury Duty is a new angle of inspiration for any upcoming movie, series, or music launch: where is our Ronald? Identifying and pushing that winning personality that social can rally behind, whether it’s another side of a known artist (jojoruski) or a stand out character within an ensemble (Cousin Greg), is a fun way to re-think winning over audiences by captivating internet culture.