When the 2023 Emmy nominations were revealed last week, one of the big surprises was the presence of Amazon Freevee’s hybrid reality/scripted comedy Jury Duty, which placed in four categories including best comedy series.
Whether or not the series – a Truman Show-like experiment about a staged civil court trial in which only the foreperson is unaware of the ruse – ends up bringing home any gold, its prevalence among the other contenders – including the past awards mainstays Ted Lasso, Abbott Elementary, The Marvelous Miss Maisel and Only Murders in the Building; critical darlings Barry and The Bear; and Netflix’s cultural juggernaut Wednesday – counts as a victory lap for the underdog hit.
