How “Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat” went 'much bigger in scope' for season 2 (exclusive)

Meet Anthony Norman and the new cast behind Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat.

Key Points

• Executive producers Todd Schulman and Dave Bernad unpack the challenges and comedy of the new setting.

• "It's just so ripe for satire," Bernad says. "Most people have worked in some sort of corporate setting."

When you're the creators ofJury Duty, your friends will inevitably have opinions about the second season.

The debut run of the documentary-style comedy, which hit Amazon Freevee in 2023, focused on one civilian — in this case, Ronald Gladden — who thinks he's been tapped fora lengthy trialonly to realize after the fact that everyone around him, from the judge to the sequestered jury members, are actors.

Once the show took off, "Everyone we knew would pitch us," Todd Schulman, an executive producer with Dave Bernad, tellsEntertainment Weekly. "Someone pitched the idea of doing it at a DMV. That felt like it would be a challenge."

With the official backing of Amazon for season 2, which premieres March 20 on the new streaming home of Prime Video, "a few ideas" became immediate finalists, Schulman notes, but the makers rallied behind one concept in particular: a company retreat.

TitledJury Duty Presents: Company Retreat, a new average Joe — temp worker Anthony Norman — thinks he's been hired by the Rockin' Grandma's hot sauce brand to help facilitate the company's annual retreat at Oak Canyon Ranch.

Why a company retreat setting? Bernad explains their ethos.

"You need a setting and a container that naturally brings a group of people together," he says. "It felt like a natural place where someone would be separated from their phone and he'd be immersed in the world and pulled away from his everyday life. We knew if we did a company retreat that was out of the city we'd get that similar setup. It's just so ripe for satire. Most people have worked in some sort of corporate setting."

Funny enough, a small group of six producers on the show held their own three-day company retreat in Ojai, Calif., to work out the particulars. It was Schulman, Bernad, director Jake Szymanski, and fellow EPs Lee Eisenberg, Gene Stupnitsky, and Nicholas Hatton.

It became clear, even with the simple process of delegating rooms, that this setting afforded a lot of opportunity for hijinks. "There were clearly four good rooms and one not-so-good room that had bunk beds," Schulman recalls. "It was like, 'Who's gonna take that bed?' And then we started talking about how that could play out in the story."

From batting around different ideas, scenarios, and characters, a general theme emerged: David versus Goliath.

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"We started talking about movies we grew up with, likeSki School[1990],Animal House[1978], andCaddyshack[1980], and this classic trope of slobs versus snobs," Bernad explains. "We just loved the idea of this underdog group of people who have to fight against corporate overlords, which of course is ironic that we're doing the show for Amazon."

The setup for season 2 revolves around this company retreat being the last one before Rockin' Grandma's CEO Doug (Jerry Hauck) retires and passes the torch to his son, Dougie, Jr. (Alex Bonifer), the kind of lovable burnout who once tried to make it in a Rastafarian music group in Jamaica. Doug announces during the festivities that he's exploring the sale of the hot sauce label to a private equity firm called Triukas, which injects some drama into the environment.

Among the faces surrounding Anthony are Emily Pendergast as Amy from customer relations; Rob Lathan as the assistant sourcing manager and "Other" Anthony; Rachel Kaly as web designer and I.T. member Claire; Stephanie Hodge as Helen from accounting; LaNisa Renee Frederick as Jackie from distribution and logistics; Jim Woods as warehouse manager Jimmy; Erica Hernandez and Warren Burke as Kate and Steve from sales and marketing; Marc-Sully Saint-Fleur as receptionist PJ; and Ryan Perez as Kevin from HR.

Of the non-Rockin' Grandma's staff, there's also Blair Beeken as Oak Canyon Ranch activities manager Marjorie and Wendy Braun as Triukas rep Elizabeth.

According to Schulman, there's a reason season 2 is premiering three years after the first season. "These shows are very hard to make," he says, while Bernad points out, "The show is much bigger in scope than season 1."

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Take the setting shift alone. "The company retreat was a lot more freeform," Bernad continues. "So Anthony had a lot more time to roam around and f--- around. It was much harder to structure the day and structure the time we were shooting, which then made it harder to move our cameras around or get prepared for scenes that we knew were upcoming."

He credits a fellow EP, Haddon, for "some really genius ways to get Anthony outside of the camp so that we could move people in and out."

"I think about the people who make this show all the time," Schulman says. "Every single person who works on this show, from the director all the way down to a production assistant, has the ability to single-handedly end the show. We have our PAs driving with Anthony every day to go run an errand so that we can rehearse. If that PA slips up and says the wrong thing, that's the end of the show."

Given the March premiere, we can safely say they pulled off the unthinkable once again.

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly