Sitcom pilots are tricky things. Whereas drama pilots are typically longer and only serve the purpose of setting up the plot, setting, and characters, sitcom pilots have to accomplish the same thing in half the time, while convincing the audience that the show can make them laugh enough to warrant a return. Perhaps that's the main contributing factor in this season's barrage of 'couples at different points in their relationship comedies' (Mad Love, Perfect Couples, Better With You, Traffic Light, and the upcoming Happy Endings), they're rather easy to set up with just a quick scene showing an interaction between each couple and then one together as a large group (this also crosses over to the 'family' category of sitcom, i.e. the Modern Family pilot). So, a pilot with a concept more complex, such as 'Breaking In', then that faces a considerable challenge, one that I think Breaking In met considerably well.
That's not saying it was anywhere near perfect. First off, and I'm attributing these to the time constraints of a sitcom pilot, the setup was very, very rushed. The premise is that Christian Slater runs a company that breaks in to high security buildings/centers to show them they have faults in their systems, then offers their own security services. Bret Harrison stars as Cameron Price, a college student who hacked his college's system to give himself a full ride for the past many years, and is blackmailed by "Oz" (Slater) into joining his security team after the University hires them to expose cracks in their system. All of this is set up in the first five minutes or so, before the main credits roll. It seemed like kind of a "here's the plot, let's get on with the jokes" type setup, which I lament, but understand. It's very refreshing to get a sitcom like this in a season of nothing but "Perfect Couples" shows, and if the setup feels rushed to get us to what the meat of the show is going to be, I'm okay with that, as long as it makes me laugh.
And it did make me laugh. But it also made me cringe at some jokes that just arrived contrived and fell flat instantly. Again, I think this is typical for a pilot, but what separates the good series and the bad series are the ones that consistently do-away with the thuds as the season progresses and the writers become more comfortable with their characters. Speaking of characters, many of the characters feel like broad versions of stereotypes, something that many of my now- favorite comedies have had to deal with in the past (like Community, although the moment in the pilot where Jeff shouts "And you have Aspergers!" at Abed showed me it was self-aware enough to address them in the future), and there were hints at a more developed future for the characters, so we'll just have to wait and see. The one thing that really bugged me about the characters in the pilot was Odette Annable's character's boyfriend. She was portrayed as a genius, but when her douchebag boyfriend showed up, not only does she not see the obvious, but she sees the exact opposite of the obvious. It doesn't make sense.
And for a sitcom with a premise like this, the plots and plot progression are going to be vital. As for the main plot of this episode, the carjacking, I much preferred the second half. The first half was kind of lame. They were teasing up the genius of Cameron, but the best he can do is a remote control helicopter? Not necessarily foolproof. Or technical. And barely practical. I though his solution in the second half showed some promise, however. His solution was quite logical and somewhat practical, particularly for a college student. I liked the little subplots of the episode, like Josh's (Trevor Moore) manipulation of Cameron and "Cash" and Cameron's prank wars. As it stands I like Breaking In enough to keep watching it. However, if it steps up its game, I could easily see it become a top priority for me because, as it is right now, when Cougar Town returns, Breaking In gets DVR duty. The show is airing and premiered the best a comedy on FOX has premiered in the past couple years, so here's hoping Christian Slater gets a win for once.
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