Finding Balance Between Humor and Drama: Interview with Netflix’s ‘Unstable’ Co-Creator, Writer, and Co-Star John Owen Lowe

Ellis Dragon is a universally admired, eccentric, narcissist-adjacent biotech entrepreneur working to make the world a better place. He's also in emotional free-fall. His son Jackson Dragon is… none of those things. Can Jackson save Ellis and his company and salvage their estranged relationship while also doing what may actually be impossible: escaping the shadow of his larger-than-life father?

Get ready to break any plans you've had to binge your way through Netflix's latest TV series comedy Unstable. The show was created by the father-son duo, Rob Lowe and John Owen Lowe, alongside television veteran Victor Fresco. The show delicately balances the woes of grief, insecurities, and relationships from romantic to familial. But at the end of the day, the show is about how a father and son juggle all of the above and how their differences bring them together. 

John Owen Lowe recently spoke with Script about the genesis of the show, his personal approach, balancing comedy and drama, his writing routine, and more. Plus, he gives practical advice to those wanting to break into the industry as TV writers.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Sadie Dean: Knowing that the series is loosely based on your social media videos with your dad, when did the light go off for the two of you to create the show and bring Victor Fresco on board?

John Owen Lowe: Like you said, I had established this rapport with my dad that was entertaining to people, even though it was not a bit where I gave him a hard time because his ego requires humbling. [laughs] And then sort of laterally to that while that was going on, I was working with my dad on [9-1-1] Lone Star, and I would complain to my manager and to my agent on a weekly basis that I was going insane working in that level of proximity to him. I think the way I described it was like the least cool version of Jaden Smith or I guess I was ahead of the nepo baby discourse there.

But yes, essentially, they would laugh at my misery, and they found it highly amusing. And we kicked around this notion of like, ‘Hey, maybe you should write up a treatment about a son who wants to escape being in his father's shadow but can't escape that sort of gravitational pull.’ And that's how Unstable’s earliest form was born.

And then we needed guidance at the hands of somebody who could take that idea and make it an actual show and make the trains run on time. And that's how we found Victor Fresco who is the best - he's been so helpful.

Sadie: How did you find when to bring levity to a dramatic situation and vice versa, bringing drama to a very comedic situation, which there is a lot of in the show?

John: That's a great question. I think that for me, the way I live my life is to inject comedy or humor or levity into almost any situation. I feel like it’s a coping mechanism I learned from a young age and I credit whatever traumas I experienced with the sense of humor that I have now. [laughs] So I think that it came sort of like secondhand nature to just want to joke about these rather serious or even dark things in the show. The beginning of the show finds a father and a son who have recently lost a mother and a wife. So, I think humor is necessary in moments like that, truly. It's just a matter of to what degree and then getting serious about the funny stuff and the little stuff is also important. You have to have balance and I think that's one thing I'm really proud of with Unstable - I think we did find a good balance.

Sadie: Was there a North star set in place when you broke that first season in your writers’ room?

John: Yeah, we had an idea of sort of point A to point B, where we wanted to land at the end of the first season with Jackson and Ellis and their relationship. But we really built everything around that - that was always the North star and continues to be as we think about the show, is how can we tell interesting and/or funny, unique, emotional, whatever stories through the lens of this ridiculously insane borderline narcissistic, childlike man that is Ellis, and his somewhat ignorant, but well-meaning, son, Jackson?

Sadie: What kind of stories or characters are you drawn to?

John: I like this question. I am drawn to characters that are flawed but are trying their best is like my favorite type of character. I think, at least for me, I'm so used to seeing a character that is either one dimensional in the sense that you can predict their every move - they're the hero or the lead and they're always going to come out on top even during the down moments. I think there's been a new wave of it on TV recently with shows like Barry and Succession, these inherently deeply flawed, very human real characters that are trying. I love that - that's my jam.

Sadie: Do you have a writing process or writing routine?

John: As lame as it sounds, it's just a lot of coffee and tea when I've decided that I've had too much coffee, and I'm feeling sick. My process is this; sit down, convince myself I'm ready to write, then stand up, go make a cup of coffee, drink that full cup of coffee, sit back down, have not eaten yet - feel sick - get up, get more coffee, sit back down, write a sentence, go get some tea. Sit back down. It's been probably two and a half hours at this point and then I get to start writing. [laughs] It takes a long time for me - my brain is like the engine of an old car that you have to finesse and try to get it to start going and then finally when it's on it's like, ‘Oh my God, I hope it doesn't die within the next 30 minutes.’

Sadie: General advice for those who want to break into TV as a writer.

John: Sure, I would say two pieces of advice. A writer I respect told me this - write a page a day, no matter what you're doing. No matter what's going on in your life, write a page a day. It'll keep the muscles strong, and you'll never know what that page will be.

And the other one more specifically for wanting to get into the television space is don't be afraid to take jobs that aren't necessarily the one's you're looking for in that moment. So, for me, I've been a writers' room PA, I've been an on set PA, I've gotten coffees, I've gotten lunches, I've shadowed, I've been an intern, I've been an assistant to a director; I've really tried to just experience as many corners of the television world as possible and along the way I've just kind of stumbled forward and failed upwards and gotten to do some of the stuff I've never dreamt of doing.

Sadie: Do you feel like it has helped you be a better communicator on this show?

John: 100% it's given me the perspective I needed to understand how valuable every single person is to the process from all the way to the left to all the way to the right. Everybody is making the show work. And I'm so grateful for everybody on Unstable. 

Unstable is now streaming on Netflix.