The series tells the story of Dre, a young woman who is deeply obsessed with Ni'Jah, a world-famous popstar whose fanbase is known as "The Swarm," who begin to influence her life. The show is a deep dive into Dre's life, her desire, her fandom, and how it takes her to a dark, unexpected turn.[7][2]
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
Leon as Harris, Marissa's father who blames Dre for her death
Rickey Thompson as Kenny, a man who works at a phone repair store in Houston, 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
Teleplay by: Janine Nabers Story by: Janine Nabers & Donald Glover
March17,2023(2023-03-17)
In 2016, withdrawn Andrea "Dre" Greene lives with her foster sister Marissa in Houston. While Marissa's interest in pop star Ni'Jah has waned with age, Dre is as obsessed with her as ever. After an incident at their job, Marissa decides to spend the night with Khalid and reveals her plans to eventually move in with him. Dre tries to stop her by telling her of Khalid's behavior and attempts at infidelity, which enrages Marissa and storms out. When Ni'Jah releases a surprise album, an empowered Dre goes to a club and loses her virginity. She wakes up to find that Marissa has committed suicide following a heated argument with Khalid, having accused him of cheating, and Ni'Jah's fans on Twitter claim she did it over the new album. Dre goes to Khalid's house, and despite his clear display of remorse, impulsively kills him in a psychotic rage.
2
"Honey"
Adamma Ebo
Jamal Olori
March17,2023(2023-03-17)
Now 2017, Dre works as a stripper in Fayetteville, Tennessee, trying to find Reggie Wilkins, one of the people who tweeted about Marissa and Ni'Jah. A stripper with an abusive boyfriend latches onto Dre, who kills the boyfriend after witnessing them arguing. The stripper discovers her moving the body and decides to help, but Dre kills her after burying him. A group of strippers ask Dre for a ride to a house call. She gets a flat tire on the way back, but Wilkins, a tow truck driver, runs into them and offers to fix the car at his house. Dre goes back into the house when he finishes and attacks him. He gets the upper hand and starts to strangle her, only for the strippers to come looking for her and kill him. She drives off, leaving them with the body.
3
"Taste"
Adamma Ebo
Janine Nabers & Kara Brown
March17,2023(2023-03-17)
Four months later, Dre is tracking down and killing people who insult Ni'Jah on Twitter. She travels to Los Angeles and stalks her next target, only to notice a man working at the release party of Ni'Jah's husband's new album. She follows him home and seduces him, getting him to take her to the party and locking him in a freezer. She infiltrates the party and approaches Ni'Jah, but, overwhelmed, bites her and flees.
Another four months later, Dre is driving to Bonnaroo to see Ni'Jah when she is tailed by a police officer, only to be rescued by a girl at a gas station. The girl leads her to a "female empowerment" group of white women led by Eva, who takes a liking to Dre. She discovers that her bloody car has been cleaned and her phone is missing. Through a series of intense "counseling" sessions with Eva, she reveals her background with Marissa and that she enjoyed committing the murders. She panics during a ritual and tries to leave, but Eva attempts to manipulate and blackmail her into staying. Dre retrieves her phone and runs Eva over, driving away and killing a group member who clung to the top of her car. She makes it to Bonnaroo but finds that it is already over.
5
"Girl, Bye"
Ibra Ake
Teleplay by: Janine Nabers & Malia Ann Story by: Janine Nabers & Ibra Ake
March17,2023(2023-03-17)
A month later, Marissa's phone number is deactivated by her father Harris, leading Dre back to Houston. She runs into her and Marissa's former boss and fabricates a story about working as Ni'Jah's mother's makeup artist. She breaks into Harris's house and steals his pistol, which she uses to coerce his wife into turning the number back on. Harris, blaming Dre for Marissa's suicide, tries to shoot her with a shotgun. She flees into Marissa's old room and freezes when she sees her old shrine for Ni'Jah, before narrowly escaping out the window.
6
"Fallin' Through the Cracks"
Stephen Glover
Karen Joseph Adcock & Stephen Glover
March17,2023(2023-03-17)
The true crime documentary Falling Through the Cracks follows Memphis detective Loretta Greene as she investigates Dre's murders. She establishes a connection between the victims and their dislike of an immensely popular and influential artist implied to be Beyoncé, tracing it back to Khalid. She finds Dre through Marissa's Instagram page and visits Marissa's mother Patricia in Houston, who tells Greene that Dre stabbed one of Marissa's friends when they were younger, the incident that got her kicked out of the family. Dre's caseworker refuses to disclose her background to Greene, and accuses the filmmaker of wanting to ignore his own flaws by digging for Dre's. Greene eventually learns that Dre has been arrested for invading the stage during a Beyoncé concert in Atlanta, and sets out to talk to her. Interview footage of Donald Glover is shown where he claims he is working on a show about Dre. This, along with each character being played by a different actor, suggests that Swarm is a recreation of events implied to have happened in the real world.
7
"Only God Makes Happy Endings"
Adamma Ebo
Janine Nabers
March17,2023(2023-03-17)
In Atlanta, June 2018, Dre, having ditched her phone and posing as a sexually ambiguous lesbian named Toni, goes home with a graduate student named Rashida. As the police find her car, she starts a relationship with Rashida despite her strong dislike of Ni'Jah. She eventually meets Rashida's parents and moves in with her. Dre gets Ni'Jah tickets for their anniversary, leading to an argument that escalates when she strangles Rashida to death. She burns the body, but accidentally leaves the tickets in Rashida's pocket. She kills a scalper for his ticket and runs onstage, but Ni'Jah, whom Dre envisions as Marissa, stops her security detail from restraining Dre and lets her speak to the crowd. She tells the fans that she loves them and leaves with Ni'Jah, tearfully resting her head on her shoulder as they get in her car.
Production
Development
In February 2021, Donald Glover signed an overall deal with Amazon Studios.[9] 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.[10] Glover is also credited as creator and executive producer, and directed the first episode.[7]
Malia Obama is among the writers of the series.[11] 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."[12]
Casting
In April 2022, Dominique Fishback was announced as the lead actress of the series, also joining as a producer.[13] Glover contacted Fishback to play the role of the lead's sister. Fishback convinced Glover to give her the lead role.[7] The series also stars Chloe Bailey as Dre's sister, Marissa and Damson Idris as Marissa's boyfriend.[8]
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.[14][15]
No.
Title
Writer(s)
Producer(s)
Length
1.
"Something Like That" (performed by Ni'jah and Kirby)
Dominique Fishback received widespread acclaim for her role in the television series.
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."[17]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".[18]
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."[19]
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."[20]
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