Comedy Binges: Jury Duty & Deadloch

Are you in need of a new show to binge through in one epic afternoon? Well I have two excellent suggestions for you. 

Jury Duty: The premise is simple - there's a man named Ronald who has been called in for jury duty. A film crew is present and he has been told that they are here to film a documentary about the jury duty process. Unbeknownst to Ronald, however, this is not a documentary, this is a set-up. He is the only regular person on this set. Everyone else -- the judge, the lawyers, the plaintiff, the defendant, and his fellow jury members -- are all actors. And for the next week, he is embroiled in a fake trial that has been fully scripted, with the only outlier being that the actors have no idea how Ronald will react to their shenanigans and will have to improvise accordingly. Oh also, one of the actors, is the very recognizable actor James Marsden, who plays "himself" except as a blowhard who keeps trying to get our of jury duty and puts Ronald into very compromising situations.

This show had the potential to be a prank show that mocked the unwitting Ronald. But what makes it so truly excellent is that the crew are committed to ensuring Ronald is the hero of the show. They let him drive decisions, and there is always a Plan A and a Plan B based on his reactions to ensure that if anything they do makes him feel bad, they immediately rectify the situation. Yes, he is put into some uncomfortable situations, but he rallies like a champ and over the course of jury duty, you can see how a true camaraderie builds between Ronald and the other actors because he is genuinely such a sweet and accommodating guy. 

Created by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, Jury Duty is a wonderful hybrid reality-sitcom with a lot of heart and humor. It is constantly funny and surprising, and the final episode, when all is revealed to Ronald, further emphasizes what a massively well-orchestrated show this is, where so many things could have gone wrong at any minute, but somehow miraculously didn't. This is a show unlike anything you've seen before, and it will thoroughly entertain you for eight short episodes. What are you waiting for?

Deadloch: Speaking of shows unlike anything you've seen before, strap in for an incredible gruesome Australian murder mystery that is somehow also insanely funny. Honestly, I do not know how the creators, Kate McCartney and Kate McLennon, developed the tone for this show, but it is absolutely remarkable how a show about a serial killer in a sleepy town in Tasmania where everyone has lots of angsty secrets also manages to be a hysterical comedy about a town that is overrun by a bunch of lesbians.

Yeah, this is a very queer show and it is spectacular. The senior sergeant of the local police station is Dulcie Collins (Kate Box) and she is a very reserved and logical woman. Unfortunately, when the dead body shows up, management sends in Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami), an extremely brash detective from Darwin who is the polar opposite of Dulcie in terms of her approach to following police procedure. But of course, while this unlikely duo initially butt heads, soon enough they join forces to investigate this crime as the body count starts to go alarmingly high and the inhabitants of the entire town are spiraling out of control with doubt and suspicion.

There are plenty of red herrings, lots of personal drama, and I promise the resolution of the mystery is satisfying but somehow also elicits a wry chuckle as the killer and their motives tie back to this show's overall feminist, queer ethos. I love mysteries, I love feminists, and having a show where for eight episodes you watch two complicated but determined women solve a gruesome murder case despite all the obstacles thrown their way by cis het white dudes is a pure joy. And lest I forget, there is a whole other storyline on colonialism and the Aboriginal land that this town was built on in the first place. So yeah, Deadloch really checks all the boxes and is quite possibly going to be the best thing you binge all year. Get to it.