Hollywood is taking another crack at hacker culture – this time with a decidedly contemporary twist: a sitcom that will depict the zany doings of a group of security geeks who work as corporate penetration testers.
The new show, breaking_in, is scheduled to debut on April 6 and will star Christian Slater (nooooooo!!!!) as the CEO of a private consulting firm that “breaks into companies before the criminals do.” Think of it like a cross between CSI and The Office plus some quirky t-shirts and laptops. (And, yeah, they’ve got a “Dwight“.)
Of course penetration testing may be a bit too niche an occupation. According to this article, the network had cold feet about the show, but pushed ahead with two pilot episodes before finally picking breakin_in up in November.
Hollywood has a mixed record when it comes to dramatizing the sometimes tedious work done by computer hackers and security geeks. Most depictions of hacking on the big screen make breaking into sophisticated networks ridiculously easy – going right back to seminal films like War Games and Sandra Bullock’s awful The Net. No telling yet how funny the writers on breaking_in can make social engineering and network pen testing, but this trailer gives you a taste of what the show will be like.
