In the US: Wednesdays, 9.30/8.30c, Fox
So here’s something I’ve learnt this week – it turns out that if you can’t actually get the actors you want, there is in fact an entire set of impersonators you can get instead for probably not even a tenth of the price.
Take Breaking In. This has Bret Harrison of The Loop and Reaper as a hapless college student who’s been hacking the college computers to ensure that he never has to graduate and can stay there forever. Except he gets found out by a team of semi-reformed criminals who are hired, Sneakers-stylee to break into places to test their security. They blackmail him into working for them.
So for something like this, with a boss who’s a bit devilish, a bit alpha-male-ish and smokes cigars, you’d want someone like Jack Nicholson. But if you can’t afford Jack Nicholson, you can get Christian Slater instead, since he can do a rocking Jack Nicholson when he wants to.
Now there’s obviously got to be some girl interest for Harrison to pine over. However, she has to be out of his league and just want to be friends. That’s what happened in The Loop. That’s what happened in Reaper. It must be in his contract. So how about we get Missy Peregrym, who did that in Reaper so well? What’s that? She’s starring in some Canadian show? Okay, how about we get Odette Annable née Yustman from Brothers and Sisters instead? They look the same, they act the same. They don’t cost the same.
Now we need some black guy who’s a bit sassy. Clearly, it would be great if we could get Chris Rock or Orlando Jones. No? Fine. Alphonso McAuley’s cheap. He’s barely been in anything. So let’s get him.
So now we pretty much have our cast, how about we get someone to do an impression of a funny script, by nicking a load of bits from other shows, and see where that takes us? Hmm?
