Both on-screen and off-screen father and son Ellis (Rob Lowe) and Jackson Dragon (John Owen Lowe) have the perfect opportunity to explore their unique familial relationship in Victor Fresco’s (Santa Clarita Diet, Better Off Ted) eccentric comedy Unstable. It follows a grieving father who’s gone off the rails after the death of his wife and his estranged flutist son trying to keep him from falling off the proverbial cliff. Probably not the sort of pitch that screams COMEDY!
The show’s creator Victor Fresco spoke with Creative Screenwriting Magazine about creating an elevated comedy which explores a sparring father and son in emotional free fall. The concept for the show was inspired by the fun banter that spawned when John relentlessly trolled Rob’s Instagram account with pointed barbs and assorted witticisms.
Fresco used this relationship dynamic as the basis for the entire show. There wasn’t going to be a wife for Ellis or a mom for Jackson. The decision to incorporate the thematic elements of grief and loss were more of a narrative necessity. Ellis and Jackson had to figure it out on their own.
TV shows like Shrinking on Apple TV+ explored the seismic shifts death may cause in an individual which offered some thematic components to Unstable. Fresco was also inspired by Ricky Gervais’ show Afterlife. Fresco didn’t want to create another show about the stages of grief. “While I wanted it to be authentic in their grieving and have them acknowledge that this was happening, I didn’t want the show to be day in and day out about grieving. And I wanted Unstable to be a lighter comedy,” clarifies Fresco.
Grief is a secondary element of the show
Fresco focused on making the Ellis-Jackson relationship as raw, relatable and real as possible. “They never ramp into a change in that relationship. That felt more true to me rather than come to an understanding or a new plateau or some other giant realization. It’s more ‘this is just how they are together.’”
Victor Fresco. Photo by Todd Williamson/ Getty Images
Ellis is a highly-successful, narcissistic biotech entrepreneur whose mission in life is to make the world a better place. Jackson is struggling to find his place in the world as a gigging flautist while living in Ellis’ huge shadow. Ellis doesn’t help matters when he constantly goads his son to “get a real job” and join the family business.
“I think what is more universal is that a lot of sons look up to their fathers and want to please them, while at the same time live their own lives. That’s a box that we as sons can get easily get put into, especially if you have a demanding father.”
“On the father’s side, it’s difficult to know where to draw the line between trying to help your children and overwhelming them and making them feel bad about themselves as they are,” elaborates the TV writer who has a father and is also a father himself.
Ellis is everything you’d expect from an alpha tech billionaire. “He’s a very strong, confident, opinionated, successful entrepreneur and has very strong opinions about what his son should be doing. And the more you are adamant about those opinions to your child, the more they will resist them. And the more they hear the message of, ‘You’re just not happy with who I am,’” meanders Fresco.
Writing Unstable
Lowe Senior and Junior didn’t approach Victor Fresco with a pilot script for Unstable, or even an outline or treatment beyond their father-son relationship. Fresco prefers a workplace comedy format featuring a work and a traditional personal storyline. He also references his love of advanced science which he explored in Better Off Ted. “I like people who are really smart and really good at their jobs. That gave us that opportunity to explore the peripheral characters.”
At times, Unstable plays like a quirky science-fiction comedy with scenes including an invisibility cloak or the carbon sequester project Dragon is working on. Fresco wants Ellis to be working on something of global significance rather than an egotistical indulgence. He wants to reframe the negative public perception of many successful entrepreneurs. “I feel like generally they don’t have a good rap, and they’re not people we root for, because they’re extremely rich and they’re generally only interested in making more money. A lot of them are bullies. So I was thinking of how do we make Ellis a likeable character? And for me, he is more interesting if he was trying to do something bigger than himself.”
Jackson Dragon (John Owen Lowe) & Ellis Dragon (Rob Lowe). John P. Fleenor/ Netflix
Creating a viable biotech world was essential to making the world of Unstable work. “It needs to be a legitimate field, but it is something people are trying to develop although they haven’t gotten up to scale yet.” This reinforces the concept that Ellis was in a world of uncertainty and he is a ‘work in progress’ both in his professional and personal lives. “We’re not quite there yet.” But Ellis is hopeful of an imminent breakthrough.
Unstable unfolds as a layered comedy with its own distinct timbres. Victor Fresco doesn’t feel his writing warrants such an academic approach. “I just write a certain way and I don’t think I’ve been consciously trying to navigate it. What I am drawn to are things that are very funny, and things that feel real.”
The TV writer’s main focus is that his characters are in a “slightly larger than life world,” but act in a very natural way. “The danger of hyper-real worlds, if your characters are also hyper-real, is that it starts to feel silly and you don’t buy it.”
Admittedly, Ellis is a “slightly larger than life character because he’s quite eccentric and disconnected. But he’s still grounded. Then I like to take it to an emotional place if we can get there authentically.”
“I think our way into that emotion is all through the son, who I think feels more of the pain of the relationship, and the pain of not being as connected with his father as he would like to be,” muses Fresco.
Although Ellis is ostensibly the bigger character, Fresco considers Jackson to be equally important. “It’s kind of a two-hander about both of them, but really, Jackson is our way into the story, And funnily, I think he’s our protagonist if I had to pick one. He’s our lead character because we can relate to him more and he also is more of a change agent.”
Jackson wants to be a serious musician and believes his character needs to evolve further in order to identify and hold onto the qualities he likes about himself. He needs to do the work to turn into a better version of himself. “Jackson needs to learn how to better navigate the world and his emotions.”
“We see that when he tries to date, he wants to take some of his father’s advice, which is to get out into the world, take more chances, and bigger swings.” Not what you want to hear as a twenty-seven year old, but valid nonetheless.
Both Ellis and Jackson have stark flaws. Both display vulnerabilities which invites audience compassion. “You root for Jackson because you want him to find his way because doesn’t feel he has all the answers. Ellis is carrying a lot of pain. But he still loves his son and wants what’s best for him.”
Unstable touches on some questions about parenting – specifically who is parenting who. Both Jackson and Ellis love each other and neither wants to see the other fail. Jackson seeks validation and acceptance as does Ellis, who likely wasn’t there for him during his formative years.
Breaking Story
Planning an entire season began with discussing the primary relationships. Then Fresco discusses the other characters with his writers and “what kind of stories you want to tell that can enlighten us as to what those main relationships are.”
A relationship story can be planned with what’s immediately happening such as Ellis being in danger of being expelled from his company, how he addresses it, and what he wants to accomplish by the end of the season.
Fresco also discussed how much life do they want outside the Dragon company. An eight-episode season allows very little opportunity for excessive external scenes like Jackson going out on a date.
Luna (Rachel Marsh) & Ruby (Emma Ferreira). Photo by Unstable. (L to R) Rachel Marsh as Luna, Emma Ferreira as Ruby. Photo by John P. Fleenor/ Netflix
There was also discussion of incorporating other characters such as Anna Bennet (Sian Clifford), Dragon’s whip-smart CFO who seems to be the only person who can keep Ellis in check, into the mix.
Luna Castillo (Rachel Marsh), the nebbish but peculiar biotech engineer and Ruby Rosario (Emma Ferreira), Luna’s super fun colleague and Lesley (Fred Armistan), Ellis’ therapist who needs as much help as he offers, add to the motley crew of characters in the show.
Unstable bounces at a frenetic clip thanks to director Marc Buckland. This is occasionally offset with some quieter, contemplative moments. “I feel like there are funny lines, but they’re not ‘joke jokes,'” air quotes Fresco. “So to me, the comedy works best generally when it’s paced up. If it’s a scene that people are connecting in a different, more emotional way, then we don’t pace as much.”
Victor Fresco became very serious when we asked him what makes a story funny. After an extended pause he responded in earnest. “People’s real neuroses and anxieties. You can always mine those for comedy. There’s inherent craziness and humor in how neurotic, anxious and unsettled we all are. Comedy allows those emotions be shown and be free.“
