Tamal Kundu
Netflix’s ‘Unstable’ tells the story of Ellis Dragon (Rob Lowe), an extremely successful, somewhat narcissistic, widely admired, and eccentric biotech mogul, who loses his wife, Katie, in an accident two months before the start of the series. As the board members of his company grow restless because of Ellis’ odd behavior and decide to fire him, Anna Bennet (Sian Clifford), the CFO of the company and the closest thing to a friend that Ellis has in his life, comes up with the plan of bringing Ellis’ son Jackson (John Owen Lowe) to Los Angeles from New York.
Founded and run by Ellis, Dragon biotechnology company is at the forefront of innovation in ‘Unstable.’ In the first season, Ellis and his team try to find a way to turn the greenhouse carbon in the atmosphere into concrete. If you are wondering whether Dragon is a real company, we got you covered.
Dragon is Not Based on a Real Company
No, Dragon is not a real biotechnology company, or there is no Dragon biotech company owned and run by Ellis Dragon. However, dragons are one of the most popular mythological animals in the world, so it stands to reason there will be businesses named after dragons.
There is a Dragon Biotech Solutions B.V. that seeks to “hire for the biotechnology drug discovery, development, and manufacturing space.” A Vietnamese company called Golden Dragon Biotechnology Company Limited provides “agricultural expertise on biosafety farming solutions.”
As a show, ‘Unstable’ was created by Rob Lowe and John Owen Lowe, and Victor Fresco serves as the showrunner. The show’s origin lies in how John trolled his father on social media. “The genesis of the show was he [John) had started trolling me on the internet, on my Instagram account, and on my Twitter account,” Rob explained in an interview with Tribute.ca. “Just murdering me. And I love a good joke, even at my own expense. And it caught on. People wrote about it; articles were written. I couldn’t do an interview with anybody without them wanting to know about John Owen trolling me.”
‘The West Wing’ actor continued, “And so we started thinking, is there a show there. People like the dynamic. What can we do with it? And that was the impetus that finally led to come up with ‘Unstable.’ And it’s been a dream to go on this journey with him.”
In the same interview, Rob revealed while creating ‘Unstable,’ he had Fox’s ‘The Grinder’ in mind. ‘The Grinder’ is a single-camera legal comedy series that aired from 2015 to 2016 and stars Rob as Dean Sanderson Jr., an actor who portrayed attorney Mitch Grinder in the eponymous show within the show. John also appears in the series, portraying a supporting character.
“It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done,” Rob said about ‘The Grinder.’ Clearly, he holds that show in high regard. Its failure and eventual cancelation taught him a valuable lesson and prompted him to choose a streaming service over traditional networks for ‘Unstable.’ “The similarities are I learned that every comedian has certain thing that they do better than others. You name them; they got their lane that they kill in. And what I learned with ‘The Grinder’ that for me, I need to play a character, not a romantic lead… but when I could play a character, a real character — larger than life, brilliant, exuberant, and stupid — that’s my wheelhouse.”
Like the company he established in ‘Unstable,’ Ellis Dragon is fictional, though he seems to be modeled after certain modern uber-wealthy people with a savior complex. Elon Musk is even mentioned in the show and seemed to be viewed by Ellis as his competitor.
Read More: Is Unstable Based on a True Story?
