Aaliyah Jones
Staff Writer
*SPOILER ALERT*
Donald Glover, also known as Childish Gambino, has stepped back into his realm of creativity with his new Amazon Prime series “Swarm”.
“Swarm”, which some sources call a psychological thriller and others a comedy horror, made its debut on the Amazon streaming service on March 17.
The show has taken the masses by storm with the drastically new online series which has changed how people view the ordinary horror thriller.
According to IMDb, the series was written and created by Janine Nabers and Donald Glover. Producers include Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Adamma Ebo, and Ibra Ake.
The storyline is centered around Andrea or Dre (Dominique Fishback), a socially awkward girl from Houston, Texas.
Dre has a troubled past and a love for only two things— her best friend, her sister, and an R&B singer many believe to be a version of Beyoncé.
When her best friend committed suicide after having a major argument with her boyfriend, something within Dre snaps and sends her on a murderous rampage with one thing on her mind— taking out anyone against her favorite singer.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, the show is currently sitting at 85 percent on the Tomatometer and an average audience score of 72 percent ,“Swarm” has made a very good impression on its viewers despite some oddities that might have caused some to avoid viewing or finishing the first season in its entirety.
Some scenes include full-frontal nudity, graphic death scenes including blood, substance abuse, and other sexual content. I don’t think anyone would be prepared to watch what was creatively conjured in all seven episodes in one sitting.
There are so many things shown in just the first three episodes that would cause the average person to completely rethink what is normal in a young person’s life, the oddities are also what makes this show so unique. It’s following the guidelines that nothing is normal and therefore there is no limit.
At first glance, it looks like a show about a girl who is secretly and romantically in love with her best friend and depends on her for survival.
It later transforms into a story detailing the mental deterioration and reformation of a crazed fan into a completely self-sufficient murderer with a noticeable ability to adapt and reconfigure who she is to meet her goal by any means necessary.
The show is also only as strong as the actors who are cast in these roles.
Fishback did an excellent job in displaying the mental breaks, yet extreme intelligence of Dre throughout the series. She was able to shift between identities while keeping the original character’s cues consistent.
Even in the seventh and final episode, though Fishback originally played Dre as an overtly feminine woman who even plays into men’s desires at many points of the series, she transitioned into a very masculine lesbian version of her character to get close to her final victim of the season, Rashida.
The transformation of her character even broke the previous rules set for the identities that Dre would take on to ensure that she would actually be able to get close to Rashida.
The real Dre does not smoke or drink, but does Carmen?
Going back to the opening scene starring Chloe Bailey, who plays Marissa Jackson, Dre’s best friend, and Damson Idris who plays Khalid, Marissa’s boyfriend, where the pairing was engaging in intimacy with each other and Dre watched in the hall before walking away.
You can see where the slightly obsessive traits in Dre start to surface but get pushed down.
I think Bailey’s performance of the character was phenomenal and note-worthy.
The only drawback that I can truly note is the absence of transitional stories between the new identities and places Dre tends to end up in.
Otherwise, I think the writers did a great job of showing how trauma manifests itself in different ways in different people based on what their triggers are.
It was also a very great move on the behalf of the casting team to choose Billie Eilish to play Eva, a life coach/cult leader, and Rickey Thompson as Kenny, a sales associate in a cellphone store. The characters’ personalities fit both their natural auras and perceived personalities which only enriched their performances.
Truly, the supporting characters throughout the series carried it that small way to the finish line of excellence that the main characters couldn’t reach on their own.
