okay but fake Beyoncé kinda eats

I watched the new Amazon Prime thriller Swarm twice and chile...

If you haven’t seen the madness on the bird app yet, Swarm—a thriller series about an obsessive fan going to extreme lengths over their favorite artist Ni’Jah, was created by Donald Glover and Janine Nabers. A lot of people had early critiques of the show due to Donald Glover’s previous work surrounding Black women. (Like that one episode in Atlanta where a dark-skinned Black woman went on an angry and aggressive rant towards a white woman during a party. Deadass, what the fuck was that?)

Sadly, I did feed into the critiques and initially didn’t want to admit how good this show was. But watching the whole season a second time had me singing praises, with a few disappointments.

First, what I didn’t like.

This series is so offensively based off of Beyoncé’s fanbase. Which I’m damn proud to be part of. Dre was right. How many Grammys does your favorite artist have? Damn right she’s Queen Bee, competing with no one dead or alive. But it feels like the point of this show is to put a mirror in front of stans and deranged fan bases. See how crazy ya’ll fucking look, act and sound? But I feel like we could’ve gotten the point without Beyoncé’s likeness. To me, doing so places some of the responsibility solely on her and the BeyHive. So many artists, political figures, hell even FUNERAL directors have crazy fans. I think Beyoncé’s likeness was a gag, but well played. It got me to watch.

There were also a couple plot holes that I still am unsure about. In the first episode, how did Marissa get that scar? What is Dre’s sexual orientation? How did Marissa get back home if Khalid left her stranded? Whose cars and cards was Dre using? Why did she kill Halsey? So many questions I wanted to see. But mainly, I really wanted to know Dre’s back story from her perspective. We only know her from second hand experiences and I wish the audience had a chance to know her before she became a crazed killer. This TikTok user explained it really well.

Secondly, the performances from the cast were PHENOMENAL!

Dominique girl…you ate that! Dominique Fishback is the actress that portrays the main character, Dre. And I can’t wait for award season because this was the first project I’ve seen her in and I can’t wait to see more. The way she twitched her lips, and eyes—changed her tone and psychotic panting and laughing after a kill. And did anyone notice her walk? She has this weird limp. I wonder if that was part of Dre’s character. Damson Idris gave PURE fuck nigga in this. Even pulling out that Texas slang! Chlöe Bailey was fabulous of course. Leon’s lines about the devil being there at your highest and lowest moments? What a powerful delivery! I also really enjoyed episode six with both the detective played by Heather Simms and the case worker played by Bonita Elery. That episode was amazing. But Miss Billie Eilish as Eva? I would join her damn cult. Her performance was incredible. I was so impressed by the scene where Eva sorta hypnotizes Dre and gives us a glimpse of Dre’s raw vulnerability and past. I don’t really listen to her music, but with this series I can definitely see her separately as an artist and actress. And she’s fucking stunning.

Lastly, that song…is stuck in my head.

Songwriter and voice behind Ni’Jah, Beyoncé’s knockoff for the series was created by Kirby with Michael Uzowuru, who produced and did the score. She said she couldn’t make Ni’Jah to sound like Beyoncé to avoid overkill and I’m so glad she didn’t because the sound track is so good! This show has literally created it’s own, stand alone artist that I will be streaming. The upbeat tempos and unofficial slow ballads that Dre danced to in the club…shit I get the hype. The song “Something Like That” plays throughout the show and it’s been on loop.

I would 9/10 recommend. And how many Dre Halloween costumes will we see this year?