Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Amazon Studios
By now, you’ve probably heard about the new TV series Swarm that’s about Beyoncé fans but not about Beyoncé fans. Donald Glover and Janine Nabers’ new Prime Video show, out today, follows a troubled young woman (Dominique Fishback), whose obsession with a pop star resembling the “Crazy In Love” singer takes her down a disturbing path.
Such an offhand description of a show would typically sound reductive. But Swarm is so flagrantly conceived around Beyoncé’s cultish fan base (known as the BeyHive), from its title to several other on-the-nose references, that it feels appropriate. At the same time, Swarm’s grabby premise feels partially designed as a decoy. In fact, it’s the tension between the show’s satirical elements and what it tries to achieve outside of them that makes it so engaging.
Throughout the show’s seven episodes, I kept wondering whether I was more impressed by Swarm’s ruthless depiction of stan culture and the novelty of a Black, female antihero than by the actual story at its core. Thankfully, as the series progresses, it reveals itself to be much more than a stylized parody centered around what many might consider obvious internet bait. Instead, it’s a provocative and surprisingly humanistic portrait of the people who get left behind.