Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Unstable’ Season 2 On Netflix, Where Ellis Goes To Extremes To Make His Son Jackson His Heir Apparent

The dynamic between Rob Lowe and his son John Owen Lowe was one of the best things about the first season of Unstable , which they co-created and star in. It felt like the interactions we’ve seen between the Lowes in real life, which is loving but also with a lot of humor. That dynamic is still there in the show’s second season, but the show’s workplace aspect is getting a bit of a boost.

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Opening Shot: Ellis Dragon (Rob Lowe) is wearing an orange jumpsuit, doing pushups behind bars.

The Gist: Ellis starts to hear noises and breaks, despite his efforts to stay strong. But he’s not really in prison; he’s in a simulation set up by Leslie (Fred Armisen), the therapist appointed by the board of Dragon, the biotech company Ellis founded. Ellis’ son Jackson (John Owen Lowe) comes down to the basement, complaining about the hot water being off. Leslie says it’s part of prepping Ellis for prison. “You’re both idiots,” Jackson tells them.

Even though Ellis destroyed a car and got arrested, he won’t end up in prison, thanks to Anna (Sian Clifford), Dragon’s CFO; her ex-husband knows people in the DA’s office. The one concession Anna has to make is that she has to bring on her horrible ex-stepdaughter Georgia (Iris Apatow) as a summer intern.

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Ellis seems to be happy with the development, ignoring the blowback on Anna’s life. Anna tells him that the board wants a “fresh face” to represent the company at the next BioTexpo, and of course Ellis thinks that’s Jackson. Jackson just wants to be clear of his father’s drama, and get back to what he put on pause with Luna (Rachel Marsh) before Ellis torched that car. But when Ellis tells Jackson that he’ll take over when Ellis finally retires in 50 or 60 years, Jackson looks for a way out.

He finds it with Peter Martin (Lamorne Morris), whose biotech company Jackson highly admires; he’s introduced to the mogul by Luna and Ruby (Emma Ferreira). They hit it off and Peter offers Jackson a job. When Jackson tells Ellis that he’s leaving Dragon, Ellis has a predictably wonky reaction; he tells Jackson he now has to pay $85k/month in rent, which prompts Jackson to go room with his friend Malcolm (Aaron Branch), a project manager at Dragon.

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As usual, Ellis will never be defeated, and he springs a surprise when Jackson comes by his father’s house to retrieve something and sees him celebrating a new business arrangement with Peter.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Unstable ‘s first season, which was more about grief and family, resembled Shrinking , but now it’s more of a workplace comedy along the lines of Loot .

Our Take: The first season of Unstable , created by the Lowes and sitcom veteran Victor Fresco, managed to incorporate the characters that work at Dragon and make them a part of what was essentially a father-son story. What’s interesting about the second season is that the grief factor, which involves the relatively recent death of Ellis’ wife/Jackson’s mother, is almost nonexistent, at least at first. The idea of Jackson being there to be the stabilizing influence on his father that his mother once was has essentially made way for the idea of Ellis doing whatever he can to keep Jackson in the fold at the Dragon corporation.

Seeing that aspect of the story minimized is a bit of a shame, because it added some depth to the father-son squabbles that were a signature of the first season. One of the most successful aspects of the first season was that Rob and John Owen Lowe translated their real-life father-son chemistry to the screen, and that remains in the second season. But having those squabbles tied to the fact that they miss the stabilizing influence of Jackson’s mother made the comedy poignant and funny.

Both Morris and Apatow are welcome additions to the office dynamic at Dragon, though. Morris’ character Peter is there to be someone at or near Ellis’ “tech genius” level who is going to challenge the way Ellis does business, and Apatow’s character Georgia is there to shake things up at the office because, well, this is just a gig for her.

Having them around emphasizes that Fresco and Lowes senior and junior are leaning on the workplace aspect of the series, something that as we mentioned were strengthened by the end of the first season. Anna, Luna, Ruby and Malcolm had just enough quirks to make them watchable, and the simmering attraction triangle between Luna, Jackson and Ruby was fun, so we’re okay with seeing more of them in Season 2.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Jackson is incredulous when he sees Ellis and Peter celebrating the fact that Ellis just bought Peter’s company, just to bring Jackson back into the Dragon fold.

Sleeper Star: As usual, Fred Armisen does a lot with a little as Leslie. It’s gotten to the point where Leslie is less a therapist than Ellis’ live-in confidant, and Leslie seems to be enjoying being paid well to be Ellis’ friend.

Most Pilot-y Line: Ellis’ “dirt” on Peter is that he did 5 years of college fencing without redshirting as a freshman first. Even Ellis knew that was weak.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While Unstable ‘s second season makes a move towards more of a workplace comedy and less of a comedy about grief and family, the show has established a funny workplace. And with the additions to the cast, the second season should be as funny as the first one was.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

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