Swarm (TV series)

2023 American television miniseries

6 min read

Swarm is an American satirical dark comedy television miniseries created by Janine Nabers and Donald Glover. It follows Dre (Dominique Fishback), a young woman whose obsession with a pop star is part of what takes her down a dark path.

The series debuted on Amazon Prime Video on March 17, 2023. It received positive reviews from critics, and Fishback's performance in the series garnered widespread acclaim, receiving a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards. The series received two additional nominations, including Outstanding Writing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie for Nabers and Glover for the episode "Stung".

Synopsis

The series tells the story of Dre, a young woman deeply obsessed with Ni'Jah, a world-famous popstar whose fanbase is known as "The Swarm". The show is a deep dive into Dre's life, her desire, her fandom, and how elusive Ni'Jah influences her life, which takes her down a dark road.

Cast and characters

Main

Dominique Fishback as Andrea "Dre" Greene, a young woman whose obsession with Ni'Jah, a world-famous popstar, leads her on a dark and murderous path across the United States

Recurring

Chloe Bailey as Marissa "Ris" Jackson, Dre's foster sister

Guest

Damson Idris as Khalid, Marissa's boyfriend
Rory Culkin as Marcus, a man Dre meets at the club and goes home with
Karen Rodriguez as Erica, Marissa's friend and boss
Paris Jackson as Hailey, a stripper who has an abusive boyfriend and who goes by the name Halsey
X Mayo as Cheeks, Dre's boss at the strip club who is also a stripper
Atkins Estimond as Reggie, a man Dre is hunting who tweeted negative things about Marissa and Ni'Jah
Byron Bowers as George, a sound man whom Dre uses to get closer to Ni'Jah
Stephen Glover as Caché, a rapper and Ni'Jah's husband, a pastiche of Jay-Z
Billie Eilish as Eva, a women's empowerment cult leader who takes Dre under her wing
Kate Lyn Sheil as Cricket, a girl who offers Dre a place to stay during Bonnaroo
Victoria Blade as Salem
Leon as Harris, Marissa's father who blames Dre for her death
Rickey Thompson as Kenny, a Houston man phone repair store clerk, who refuses to fix Marissa's phone for Dre
Heather Alicia Simms as Loretta Greene, a detective in the "real world" who has started to piece together that these killings have a common thread, the victims have all insulted a superstar with a vicious fan base on social media
Kiersey Clemons as Rashida, a graduate student with whom Dre falls in love
Cree Summer as Jackie, Rashida's mother
Norm Lewis as Wilbur, Rashida's father
Jayden Braddock as Pedestrian (uncredited)

In addition, Nirine S. Brown acts as Ni'Jah, a pop star whom Dre idolizes. She is a pastiche of Beyoncé. Her music was performed by Kirby.

Episodes

Production

Development

In February 2021, Donald Glover signed an overall deal with Amazon Studios. One of the projects in development included Hive, which would revolve around a figure inspired by Beyoncé, with Janine Nabers acting as co-creator and showrunner. Glover is also credited as creator and executive producer, and directed the first episode.

Writing

Glover compared the series to "post-truth Piano Teacher mixed with The King of Comedy". Glover and Nabers wanted to create an anti-hero story, using Tony Soprano and Don Draper as inspiration.

Malia Obama is among the writers of the series. Nabers said, "We really wanted to give her the opportunity to get her feet wet in TV and see if this is something she wants to continue doing."

Casting

In April 2022, Dominique Fishback was announced as the lead actress of the series, also joining as a producer. Glover contacted Fishback to play the role of the lead's sister. Fishback convinced Glover to give her the lead role. The series also stars Chloe Bailey as Dre's sister, Marissa and Damson Idris as Marissa's boyfriend.

Music

On March 17, 2023, the original soundtrack was released. The extended play included accompanying music from the series performed by Donald Glover and Kirby.

Release

Swarm premiered at the 2023 South by Southwest Film Festival on March 10, 2023. All seven episodes were released on March 17, 2023, on Amazon Prime Video.

Reception

Swarm has received positive reviews from critics, with the performance of Dominique Fishback receiving ubiquitous praise. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Swarm holds an approval rating of 87%, based on 68 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Swarm can be as unpleasant as a hornet sting, but Dominique Fishback's ferocious performance and the creators' bold creative swings add up to a truly subversive take on toxic fandom." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, has assigned the series a score of 66 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

At RogerEbert.com, Nick Allen gave the series 3.5 out of 4 stars, calling it a "blood-splattered pop culture provocation" that "plays out like a funhouse mirror reflection of very real, however bizarre, trending topics of the recent past." He also wrote that Donald Glover's directorial pilot episode was "terrific" and that "the series' satire is all the more heartbreaking and compulsively watchable because of [Dominique] Fishback's dedication to every facet of Dre."

TVLine named Fishback the "Performer of the Week" for the week of March 25, 2023, for her performance in the seventh and final episode "Only God Makes Happy Endings". The site wrote, "Fishback gets a shot at the spotlight and knocks it out of the park, blowing us away with a fascinating portrait of a obsessive fan who gets pushed over the edge and goes off on a deranged killing spree. Fishback was phenomenal throughout the series, but she saved the very best for Swarm's final episode, shape-shifting before our eyes to show us yet another layer to Dre."