Man, I didn’t think Donald Glover would be back with a new series so fast after Atlanta ended, but here he is with Janine Nabers co-creating Swarm, a new series on Prime Video. The show is openly a horror satire about Beyoncé’s fanbase, the Beyhive. Here Dominque Fishback plays Dre, a young woman who is obsessed with the show’s version of Bey, an artist Ni’jah.
Things take a turn after she has an argument with her sister Marissa, played by Chloe Bailey, that leads to Dre going on a quest to permanently deal with people online who bad talk Ni’jah, who, to Dre, is the greatest artist of all time. Fishback, who, in my opinion, has been excellent in everything she has been in since debuting in the HBO series Show Me A Hero, takes her star further up as this completely weird, quirky, disturbing, and tragically empathetic Dre. She is able to capture how essentially this artist is her everything, her faith, religion, and reason for being, and how that connects with her relationship with her sister Marissa.
In each of these seven episodes, you’ll follow this person who tries to connect with people, but her fandom severs any ties she might make, and that is usually where the show will yoink the rug right from under you. The show can take some exciting turns, especially in the back half of the season, that will make you re-contextualize entirely everything you’ve seen and will see through the end. Take note to pay attention to the special guest performers in this series; it has some very meta connection to who is playing what characters in how it relates to the world in the show and the real world. That even connects to Bailey, who is signed to Beyoncé and seen as one of Bey’s protégé along with her sister Halle. It’s a show that will benefit from multiple viewings to really catch everything, along with marveling at Dominique’s performance. I can’t talk enough about how good this show is, but beware, this show does have kills in it and gore, so if you can’t handle violence, it might not be for you.
