Unstable Season 2: Here's The 'Funny And Unfortunately True' Reason Why Rob Lowe's Ellis Didn't Go To Prison
The following article contains mild spoilers from the Season 2 premiere of Unstable, now streaming on Netflix.
For a light-hearted workplace comedy, the first season of Netflix's Unstable left viewers on a surprisingly twisted cliffhanger: Ellis Dragon, the occasionally imbalanced but relatively harmless CEO of a major biotech company, went full Waiting to Exhale on his corporate nemesis. In other words, he torched her car. And he torched it good.
Were the show set in any sort of realistic universe, Ellis would be spending the entirety of Season 2 behind bars. But "realistic" has never been the name of Unstable's game, so the premiere quickly sweeps that silly arson mess under the rug in favor of Rob Lowe's character remaining a free man.
"It's a very unstable, quirky, insane environment this year," John Owen Lowe — the show's co-creator, co-star and real-life son of Rob Lowe — explains to TVLine, adding that they "leaned in even harder to the insanity" of it all.
The idea of Ellis paying for his crimes was "definitely discussed" by the writers. "We had a script at one point that had him in one of those white collar prisons," Lowe recalls. "But we decided that the most honest portrayal of what would happen to somebody like Ellis — someone held in that regard — is that they would face zero consequences. It's both funny and unfortunately true. The most accurate portrayal is that somehow this person would skate away, basically unscathed."
Speaking of skating away from things, the Jackson/Luna pairing you've probably been anticipating since their finale kiss... is not to be. Rather than addressing his feelings for her, Jackson finds himself sucked back into more fatherly shenanigans, which remains a common theme for him this season as he (spoiler alert!) develops romantic feelings for a new co-worker.
"Jackson is more self-aware than his dad, but because of how much space Ellis occupies in Jackson's mind, he has yet to to develop the ability to have healthy relationships with other people," Lowe explains, adding that "we'll continue to see his inability to communicate throughout Season 2. And we'll see how that affects his relationships and even his friendships."
As always, the inspiration for Ellis and Jackson's complicated dynamic comes straight from the actors' real-life relationship. "It's true to my life," Lowe says. "When you have a parent that forces you to extend the majority of your energy into just navigating that relationship, it's not super conducive to forming healthy relationships with other people." (Ouch.)
OK, let's talk: Are you enjoying Unstable Season 2? Grade the premiere below, then drop a comment with your full review of the Dragons' newest adventures.