Unstable Netflix

Stream It Or Skip It: 'Unstable' On Netflix, Where Rob Lowe And John Owen Lowe Play A Comedically Grieving Father And Son · Opening Shot: A large, modern house.

And while we found the characters at the Dragon corporation to be funky and funny, we kept wanting to go back to seeing Ellis and Jackson work through their grief while rebuilding their relationship. But they are the main attraction, and their scenes together really make the show fun to watch. When the show goes into the lives of the other people in the office, like the weak Malcom trying to assert his authority by banning pistachios from Ruby and Luna’s lab, the plots elicit some laughs but mostly shrugs. Parr play a not-very-veiled and very stupid version of the Winklevoss twins, and they’re also funny in their brief scenes. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere. That, and the fact that their real-life relationship translates well onto the screen, makes the Jackson/Ellis story so compelling. In his bedroom, Ellis sits on the edge of his bed and watches a video of a dog being pulled out of icy water, and tears up. Jackson has resisted Ellis’ lifelong desire to make his son into a new version of him; he’s struggling as a flutist, despite his interest and skill in the biotech work his dad is doing. Our Take: If it weren’t for the very obvious family chemistry between Rob Lowe and his son John Owen Lowe, we would probably chalk up Unstable as more of a workplace comedy than a contemplation on grief and family. Ellis and Luna connect on a much nerdier level, as they find out outside the karaoke bar. Anna knows what needs to be done; she sends Malcolm (Aaron Branch), Ellis’ former assistant and now a project manager, to New York to appeal to Ellis’ son Jackson (John Owen Lowe) to come back home. That’s the case with a new Netflix series about grief and family, that debuted only a month or so after a similar show on Apple TV+.

A review of Netflix's new comedy starring Rob Lowe and his son.

At its best, “Unstable” feels like a throwback to the kind of quirky network sitcoms that used to thrive in the aughts—“Raising Hope,” the aforementioned “Better Off Ted.” But this feels less like a clever riff on the ditziness of out-of-touch tech CEOs than it does a warmed-over vanity project for the Loweses, one that thrives when neither of them are actually on screen. But major credit should go to Tom Allen and JT Parr as a pair of twin tech bro VCs who serve as recurring antagonists: think the Winklevoss twins by way of the McPoyles from "It’s Always Sunny," and you’ve got a glimmer of their dimwitted charm. But in contrast to the real figure, Ellis is actually an altruistic genius, one whose idiosyncrasies come from a childlike wonder that fuels his innovations. Cue the move back home, the reluctant resuming of duties in Dragon’s R&D lab, and the struggle to patch things up with his attention hog of a pops. Shades of the short-lived cult sitcom “Better Off Ted” abound (creator Victor Fresco co-executive produces “Unstable,” along with both Lowes), both shows looking for the funny in giant tech conglomerates that may or may not have disastrous ripple effects for society at large. Jackson, for his part, is the “normal” one, and John Owen occasionally gets to stretch outside the straight-man role set out for him.

The list goes on and on and with the new Netflix workplace comedy Unstable, Rob Lowe and John Owen Lowe are the latest father and son to team up on-screen. They ...

With plenty of great workplace sitcoms currently on the air, this series seems destined to be forgotten in a month's time. With some of Netflix's biggest shows coming to a close, Unstable had the potential to be the streamer's next big comedy hit, but instead, it's just another cliche-riddled workplace comedy featuring all the tropes that have been done far better before. The usually reliable Fred Armisen makes a recurring appearance on the show, but his character is almost too over-the-top and cartoonish as a loony therapist, which is weird to say for a series that's called Unstable. Fresco has proven to be incredibly creative with his other projects, like Andy Richter Controls the Universe and the aforementioned Santa Clarita Diet, but alas, his latest series seems uninspired and surprisingly lazy in its writing. Branch is entertaining to watch as Malcolm, but the writing for his character feels built entirely around stereotypes and character archetypes. Hoping to bring a brighter outlook to the company, Anna has Jackson, who works as a flute teacher in New York, fly out to California to try to put Ellis on the right track again — and hopefully, make him a more stable boss.