Swarm is the first fruit of Amazon Prime Video’s production deal with Donald Glover, creator and star of the modern classic Atlanta. If that doesn’t make it a must-watch, or at least a must-try, Glover’s parallel career as the rapper Childish Gambino increases the intrigue: Swarm is about the dark side of music fandom, and if anyone can turn that into art, you would think Glover can.
Dominique Fishback is Dre, whom we first meet in Houston in 2016. She is a nobody, living in a drab apartment with her much more capable and confident sister Marissa (Chloe Bailey), working in a sales job that doesn’t suit her in the local mall and spending all her time thinking and posting online about Ni’Jah, a singer clearly styled to resemble Beyoncé. Clumsy, resentful, walking with a flat-footed shuffle and often nearly mute, Dre is fearful of alcohol, drugs and sex, replacing all those vices with an all-consuming love for her fave singer. She gets a new credit card to buy front-row Ni’Jah tickets she is nowhere near being able to afford, and is devastated when Marissa – who used to be as keen a member of the Swarm, the Ni’jah fan collective, as Dre still is – does not want to accompany her to the gig because she is well into her 20s now and has moved on.
