FOX’s Breaking In brings Leverage to The Office

Back in 2008, I remember two new shows that debuted with notable actors who’d never led their own television show: Life on Mars with Harvey Keitel, and My Own Worst Enemy with Christian Slater. Though, personally, I didn’t find either show overly lacking, having those notable movie stars didn’t save them from early cancelation. Slater tried again with The Forgotten … which quickly lived up to its name. So, when word came of yet another Slater-led show — and it was coming to FOX, no less — I’m sure I wasn’t alone in holding hat-to-breast for its early burial.

For those of you who’ve held out hope that maybe — just maybe — Slater can pull it off in his third try, I’ve got good news for you. FOX’s new comedy Breaking In — debuting tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 9:30 — may not be “fresh” by any measure, but no matter: it’s entertaining and fun. The show stars Slater as Oz, an entrepreneur of sorts who runs Contra Security, a company specializing in finding weaknesses in its clients’ security systems. While the Contra office is buzzing with employees, Oz’s hand-picked stars lead the way.

Bret Harrison (Reaper) plays hacker Cameron Price, the newbie of the team. Cam is quickly and admittedly smitten with the lock- and safe-picker of the group, Melanie Green, played by Odette Annable (Brothers & Sisters, October Road). Lastly, there’s Alphonso McAuley (Chocolate News) as Calvin “Cash” Sparks, the house geek and gadgeteer, who loves nothing more than making “newbie” Cam feel … welcome.

Actually, I shouldn’t say “lastly” there, because there are a couple of other notable members of Contra, though they’re strangely not present in any group shots, like the one above. One in particular is Trevor Moore (The Whitest Kids U’Know) as Josh Armstrong, the master of disguise. In both of the first two episodes, he’s clearly one of the main members of the Contra team, so why no star billing?

I first caught the pilot a long time ago, and then again just a few days ago. While I didn’t notice any notable differences between the two copies, I was definitely not sold on the series the first time out. I remember being put off by the Cash character, and I wasn’t feeling Oz’s vibe. Cash has some humor that is a bit over-the-top in the pilot, but it evens out in the second episode. For whatever reason, I warmed to the show in its second viewing, and that continued through the second episode.

It’s very easy to compare Breaking In to a couple of current shows, most notably TNT’s Leverage and NBC’s The Office. In fact, FOX touts Breaking In as a “workplace comedy,” which makes it incredibly easy to draw a line from it to The Office. The Josh Armstrong character, at least as he comes off in the pilot, can immediately be compared to The Office‘s Dwight Schrute (though he comes off much less unlikeable in the second episode.) Then you have the small band of quirky heisters, each with his or her specific purpose, quirks and set of skills, like Leverage. Deb even pointed out that there’s a little bit of Better Off Ted in there.

Oz is the perfect character for Slater. The man’s meant for comedy of this sort, and if this show doesn’t make it, I hope he continues the same path elsewhere. Bret Harrison — the only other actor in the show I’m familiar with — is great as the new hacker of the team, but it’s hard at times not to think he’s being Sam from Reaper. Thankfully, though, I believe he’ll outgrow that typecast feel pretty quickly.

I often don’t like to judge a show on its first episode — really, I doubt anyone does — so it was nice to have seen two episodes before writing this post. The fact is, I believe the show may have gotten better in its second episode, which bodes very well for the series. It doesn’t matter if the show’s compared to Leverage and The Office — those are two proven, great shows! In the case of Breaking In, it works.

Clacked by Keith McDuffee
on Apr 05, 2011 @ 12:00 EST5EDT