Should You Watch Jury Duty With Your Kids To See Why Everyone Loves Ronald So Much?

People can’t stop talk about Jury Duty, the mockumentary style series streaming on Amazon Prime, and for good reason. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen — a weird combination of The Truman Show and 12 Angry Men, if you will. It’s funny without being unkind, which is such a great lesson to pass on to your kids. But should they watch? It might not seem like a good fit at first, but Jury Duty might bridge the gap between preteen and parent.

What is Jury Duty about?

The unwitting star of Jury Duty is Ronald Gladden, an affable, friendly guy who thinks he has signed up to be in a documentary about jury duty selection. Except there’s one catch; everyone around him is an actor except Ronald, and he doesn’t realize it. Even when he meets actual well known actor James Marsden, who has ostensibly shown up for jury duty himself and befriends Ronald.

Director Jake Szymanski told The Daily Beast that the original concept for the show was to imagine “if you were making a show like The Office, but Jim wasn’t an actor and didn’t know it was a TV show?” It was a risky game, filming someone who didn’t know they were part of a fictional series. But fortunately for everyone, Ronald turned out to be a truly lovely human down to his core. Which is what makes this show a good choice for older kids.

There are plenty of lessons for young viewers to take away from Jury Duty.

While this fictional series could have been a cruel joke to play on Ronald, it’s not at all. Because the creators of Jury Duty made sure they were never being unkind with their humor. “We’re not trying to punch down,” Szymanski told The Last Laugh podcast. “We all held ourselves to that standard. Because you could see an opportunity for an easy joke every now and then, but it wouldn’t have been the right type of joke for what we wanted the show to be.”

This is such a great example to share with your kids, how to be funny and empathetic and silly all at the same time. Plus, Ronald is kind to everyone on the jury no matter how bizarrely they might be behaving. He really does make the show a sort of Ted Lasso-esque feel good series to watch with kids who are 13 and up.

But parents might want to watch ahead...

While Jury Duty is good-natured and unusual and fun, it also gets pretty inappropriate sometimes. Like a raunchy courtroom scene, lots of salty language peppered throughout, and some sexual innuendo. Common Sense Media rates it appropriate for kids 15 and up. So proceed with caution.

What is Jury Duty rated?

Jury Duty is rated 16+ while Common Sense Media recommends that it’s appropriate for kids 15 and up.

How can you watch Jury Duty?

Jury Duty is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video, and as the first season has wrapped up you can watch all eight episodes. With your kids or on your own is up to you, but if you are looking at a way of bonding with your teen in a way that doesn’t feel forced or awkard, this might be the show for you.