Netflix Comedy Series Brings Back Sitcoms In Full Force

For those who haven’t watched Unstable, the light-hearted workplace comedy—sounds ridiculous after we mentioned the car fire—dropped on Netflix on March 30, 2023, to generally favorable reviews.

Executive produced by its leads, Rob Lowe and his son John Owen Lowe, this father-son comedy follows socially shy Jackson (John Owen) as he begins working for his successful and admired but narcissistic-adjacent father Ellis, at the latter’s high-tech bio-research facility, to prevent him from spiraling down due to the death of his wife.

Unstable was actually inspired by John Owen Lowe’s social media trolling of his father, and it basically centers its narrative on a father-son relationship dynamic that’s very relatable for those whose dad is often the center of attention while they feel exactly the opposite.

The series itself was announced in April 2022, with Lowes as the producer, along with Victor Fresco and Netflix handling the show’s production. The series was reasonably popular with Netflix’s audiences, leading to the announcement of Season 2 in November last year.

Well, Season 2 of Unstable finally arrived, and the opening scene has Ellis doing pushups behind bars—except it’s later revealed that he isn’t since his business partner pulled some strings to help him avoid jail time.

The writing team for the series revealed that they had him going to prison at one point and to one white-collar prison to another, but since art mimics life, the writers decided to go with the most likely scenario for someone in Ellis’ position. Thus, Ellis now faces zero consequences, which is both funny and, unfortunately, true.  

We won’t dive into the narrative of Unstable any further, but we’d like to raise a few questions regarding Jackson’s involvement with the company now that Dragon, the aforementioned biotech company, needs a new face.

Also, what’s going on with him and Luna, and will he develop new feelings for one of his co-workers? All of that remains to be seen by those who haven’t had the chance to look at Season 2 of Unstable—though we strongly recommend watching Season One if you haven’t already.

Fortunately enough, plenty of that father-son chemistry Robert Lowe and John Owen Lowe brought to the screen in Season One is also present in Season Two of Unstable.

At the same time, the addition of Lamorne Morris, who portrays Ellis’ competition, and Iris Apatow, who portrays Anna’s horrible ex-stepdaughter and a summer intern in Ellis’ company, should add another layer of fun to the entire narrative. For those interested in watching both seasons of Unstable, both seasons of the series are currently available on Netflix.