TV

Swarm

Who's Your Favorite Artist?

Photo: Quantrell D. Colbert/Prime Video

“In Swarm, the sound of buzzing bees is a portent of violence. As the limited series follows Dre (Dominique Fishback) on a killing spree in honor of her dead best friend Marissa and their favorite artist, pop star Ni’Jah, an insect drone enters the sound mix, cueing Dre’s internal shift into simmering frenzy. But the aural anxiety of Swarm also signals Dre’s desire to be seen and heard, to connect with someone as she once did with Marissa. As Swarm moves Dre around the country, it pokes and prods at what obsession and loyalty do to an individual, positioning those guiding forces as distorted reflections of the same desire for closeness.” — Roxana Hadadi, “Swarm’s Most Dangerous Devotion”

  1. Episode 7 Only God Makes Happy Endings
    Swarm Finale Recap: Everything Is Love Swarm doesn’t provide any definitive answers, but it opens up the floodgates to an already polarized conversation.
  2. Episodes 5 and 6 Girl, Bye / Fallin’ Through the Cracks
    Swarm Recap: The Making of a Murderer As this story nears its end, Ni’Jah almost feels like a Wizard of Oz–type figure, which means the real story lies with Dre, Swarm’s Dorothy.
  3. Episodes 3 and 4 Taste/Running Scared
    Swarm Recap: Forbidden Fruit Dre’s righteous murder spree brings her face-to-face with Ni’Jah and Billie Eilish.
  4. Episodes 1 and 2 Stung/Honey
    Swarm Series-Premiere Recap: Killer Bey Donald Glover and Janine Nabers’s horror-comedy follows fandom down a violent rabbit hole.

More on Swarm

  1. close read
    Let’s Talk About the Black Madwoman in SwarmThe show is at once frustrating and fascinating in how it fails to disrupt the conventions of a potent pop-culture archetype.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  2. chat room
    Swarm’s Heather Simms Thinks Detective Greene Is Still Looking for Dre“Loretta comes with a level of empathy and integrity that you would want if a murder or some horrible crime happened to you.”
    By Martine Thompson
  3. who’s your favorite artist?
    Donald Glover Hoped Swarm Would Make You Uncomfortable“I am not interested in putting an audience on a slow methadone drip of content. I’m more interested in trying to give someone pause.”
    By Madeline Leung Coleman
  4. bey hive meet killer bees
    Overanalyzing Every Beyoncé Reference in SwarmX is to Beyoncé as Y is to Ni’Jah.
    By Zoe Guy
  5. dinner party
    The Noise Around Swarm Is DeafeningThe first episode’s sex scene opened an entire can of discourse worms. We’re still trying to sort them out.
    By Tirhakah Love
  6. cheat sheet
    Who’s Your Favorite Artist?A guide to music’s biggest stans and what they stand for.
    By Jennifer Zhan
  7. close read
    The Uncomfortable Dissonance of Swarm’s Faux DocumentaryDespite a standout central performance, the penultimate episode rings hollow in a show heretofore luxuriating in ambiguity.
    By Nicholas Quah
  8. queen bee
    Which Hymenopteran Toxic-Femininity Cult Is Right for You?A hive only has one queen.
    By Bethy Squires
  9. who’s your favorite artist?
    Swarm’s Buzziest Fan Theory Changes the Whole ShowA Festival of unanswered questions.
    By Bethy Squires
  10. hive mind
    Swarm Is Not a Work of FictionCreator Janine Nabers says the Beyoncé references were intentional — and cleared legally.
    By Zoe Guy
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