Breaking In

Not your normal day at the office.

Breaking In is a show similar to Leverage or The A-Team, albeit with a more overtly comedic tone. It is about a college student who is employed by a firm that breaks into companies to test their security. FOX swiftly canceled it due to weak performance for a show airing after American Idol. It was Uncancelled when FOX renewed it for a second season, but was cancelled on April 12, 2012.

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Tropes used in Breaking In include:

• Aborted Declaration of Love: Played with for Cameron and Melanie. Cam really does confess his love, but then blames it on hallucinations from the heat.
• Actor Allusion: In "Take the Movie and Run," the crew schemes to get back the stolen goods by trading them for a copy of a Xena: Warrior Princess film starring Megan Fox and cast Melanie as a Megan Fox look-a-like. Melanie is played by Odette Annable - who is often noted for her resemblance to Fox.
  • While at Comic Con, Dutch picks up and then wears for the rest of the episode a Superman T-shirt.
    • And in the same episode, Oz mentions they gotten a broken arrow. Gee, Oz did have background with that type of stuff.
  • Once again a character played by Bret Harrison is reluctantly made to do a job by a manipulative boss/mentor figure. He's also in love with a brunette he works with and his name is almost the same too (Sam/Cam).
  • Oz has used the phrase "Greetings and salutations" on more than one occasion.
  • In "Game of Jones" there is an Indiana Jones Shout-Out where Cash is pretending be a fictional worker named "Henry Jones." When he uses a green screen to video chat, he looks suspiciously like Sean Patrick Flanery
• Adorkable: Cameron and Cash.
• Air Vent Passageway: Subverted.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys:
  • Inverted - Cameron wants Melanie.
  • Played Straight - Melanie says she usually likes bad boys.
  • Double Subverted - Dutch really isn't that bad of a guy. He's sugary sweet and really loves Melanie, but is kinda unstable.
• Ambiguously Bisexual: Josh. In the pilot episode, he did state that he is "flaming".
• Arc Words: Cameron's "It's the least I could do."
• Banging for Help: The team's initial instincts.
• Batman Gambit: Oz.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Lampshaded after the team runs up against Amy's security system.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Molly.
• Biker Babe: Melanie.
• Black and Nerdy: Cash
• Black Best Friend: Also Cash.
• Blackmail: How Oz gets Cameron to join the team.
• Book Dumb: Melanie
• Camp Straight: Cam
• Can You Hear Me Now?: During the "team-building exercise".
• Catch Phrase: Tons.
  • Oz's "I'll allow it."
  • Cash's "Boom goes the dynamite!"
  • Lampshaded by Oz: "You just got Oz'd. (beat, takes out voice recorder) Possible catch phrase."
• The Cavalry: Oz, most of the time.
• The Chick: Melanie
• Chekhov's Skill: Cash's sleight of hand.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: In the pilot of season 2, Josh has disappeared without explanation. Dutch is gone too, but they at least Hand Wave it as his having been arrested for selling clean urine to airline pilots.
• Classy Cat Burglar: Melanie.
• Daddy's Little Villain: Also Melanie, to some extent.
• Deadpan Snarker: Josh and Melanie.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Cameron and Josh.
• Divorce Assets Conflict: Apparently averted with Oz and his wife Amy.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Cameron.
• Escalating War: Between Cameron and Cash.
• Mr. Fanservice: Christian Slater as Oz.
• Exposition Diagram: One is usually presented for the characters via TV screen, but we get to see them execute it themselves.
• Expy: Patty Boggs, played by Nora Kirkpatrick, is a major Expy of her character Katherine in Greek
• Fake Guest Star: Dutch and Josh
• Fast Roping: Melanie and her dad.
• Five-Man Band:
  • The Hero: Cameron
  • The Lancer: Oz. Subversion as he's the boss plus the Team Dad to boot.
  • The Smart Guy: Cash
  • The Big Guy: Josh
  • The Chick: Melanie
  • Sixth Ranger: Dutch
• Freudian Slip: Cash in the following exchange with Anna:

Cash: I love you. I mean, I don't love you that way, I just say that a lot. Because I live with my mom. (beat) Dammit.

• Gentleman Thief: Oz.
• Gilligan Cut: Cameron wonders out loud how hard it can be to strap a hood to a car. Guess what happens next.
• Got Volunteered: Cameron.
• Goth: Josh was one in high school.
• Has Two Mommies: Josh was apparently raised by a couple of lesbian astronauts.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Cameron and Cash.
• Hollywood Hacking: Nicely averted.
• Hustler: Melanie's dad.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Cameron.
• Impossible Task: Every mission seems easy at first, until complications pile up into this. Oz usually has a way around or through it, though.
• Ivy League for Everyone: Justified in that Cameron hacked his way into college.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Referenced in the episode "White on White on White".
• The Load: Dutch.
• Manipulative Bastard: Josh.
• The Masochism Tango: Oz and Amy.
• Master of Disguise: Josh.
• MacGyvering: Oz expected the team to be able to corrode the locks with the acid from tomato sauce in the lasagna he left them. Then again, he was lying about being in any real danger.
• Mistaken for Gay: Cash. Hilariously. Dutch spends a whole episode doing this to Cameron
• Moment Killer: Roni (no surprise, considering she's played my Megan Mullaly)
• Naive Newcomer: Cameron, for the first episode.
• Nerds Are Virgins: Averted. Cash apparently got laid at Comic-Con a few times.
• Noodle Incident: "So, long story short, the doctor got it out and now I get to be in a medical journal."
• Only Sane Man: Cameron, sometimes.
• Oz Is Watching: All. The. Time.
• Playful Hacker: Cameron, formerly.
• The Prankster: Cash, in the pilot episode.
• Preppy Name: Cameron.
• Put on a Bus: Melanie in season 2 left Contra because she was afraid of getting too close to Cam.
• Raging Stiffie: Cameron, courtesy of Cash slipping viagra into his coffee as a prank. Of course, right as it afflicts him Melanie seeks refuge under his desk from Dutch.

Melanie: Really?

Cameron: I got it from Cash!

• Rookie Red Ranger: Cameron.
• Running Gag: "Cone of silence! Activate your cone of silence!"
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Dutch and Melanie.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Melanie's logic on Dutch.
• Sixth Ranger: Dutch.
• Special Guest: Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR driver.
• Shout-Out:
  • Creepy Carol puts on her lipstick just like Molly Ringwald does in The Breakfast Club. (Badly.)
  • Melanie's father's cover name, Gordon Shumway (the real name of the title character from ALF).
  • For the Comicon mission, Josh disguised himself as a Na'vi
  • Cash's crush is named An(n)a Ng
  • The Indiana Jones' tribute mentioned in Actor Allusion.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Phoebe for Anna Ng.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Oz's response to Cameron asking how he monitored his internal temperature:

Oz: I certainly haven't implanted a chip in you if that's what you're insinuating.

• Team Dad: Oz, but don't say that to his face.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch: Cameron and Cash.
• True Art Is Incomprehensible: Invoked. A million-dollar painting the team attempts to steal is a blank, white canvas.
• Uncancelled: Returned to the air in March of 2012.
• Understanding Boyfriend: One of Dutch's few redeeming qualities.
• Unusual Eyebrows: Josh gets his singed off and then drawn back on by Dutch in a 'surprised look'.
  • He's not surprised, he's interested.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: The Nerf gun battle in "White on White on White".
• What Does She See in Him?: Cameron's internal reaction to how Melanie loves Dutch.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Oz is seen at times with samurai swords, bows and arrows, the works. Justified in that his heist business would most likely reap a lot of rewards.
• Zany Scheme: Once an Episode, so far. Cameron calls them Oz Schemes.