"Breaking In" Review: Has Bret Harrison Finally Found His Hit?
If I were to make a list of actors I’d like to see have a successful show, I would definitely put Bret Harrison at the top of the list.
He’s always so adorable in everything he does, but nothing seems to stick. First, he was part of “Grounded for Life” as it was headed toward its end. Then it was “The Loop,” which didn’t work for FOX. Things looked much brighter for the critically acclaimed “Reaper,” but the ratings never rose and The CW had no choice.
Now Harrison is back in a new FOX comedy, “Breaking In.” It’s not a good sign that FOX waited so late to premiere the show, but since it’s got “American Idol” for a lead-in, I’m going to hold out some hope. Especially since it’s pretty entertaining.
Harrison is Cameron, an expert computer hacker who hacked his way into a free ride at college and doesn’t plan on ever leaving. That is, until he gets caught by Contra Security, a security outfit companies (and universities, in this case) pay to test their security systems. Contra’s head honcho, Oz (Christian Slater), gives Cameron a choice—come work for him or go to jail. So Cameron reluctantly joins the team.
His coworkers are Cash (Alphonso McAuley), an obsessive fanboy who loves to prank Cameron and the beautiful Melanie (Odette Annable), who Cameron immediately falls for, but who has a rather interesting boyfriend (Michael Rosenbaum).
In the premiere, Oz puts Cameron in charge of an operation. And Cameron plans to do the job and then leave the company. But, of course, this is a sitcom so nothing works out quite like he had planned.
As I said, Harrison is adorable in everything he does. And it’s nice to see that someone has finally found a good TV role for Slater. The show is definitely offbeat, but that’s a good thing. If I had to pin it down I would probably call it a hybrid of “The Office” and “Leverage.” You can’t get much more offbeat than that…
I was actually secretly hoping that this show would fail so that Harrison could return to “V” next season (if it gets picked up) and because I think Slater would be a good replacement for Charlie Sheen on “Two and a Half Men.” But now that I’ve seen it, I want it to succeed just so I can see what the mysterious—and pretty funny—Oz does next.
“Breaking In” premieres tonight at 9:30 p.m. on FOX…
Photo Credit:David Johnson/FOX
