At the end of the year, when I look back on the hundreds of films and series I watched throughout 2023. I will remember the new series Swarm. Why? Because I will not have seen anything else like it, and that’s how you make a best-of list; it’s about the things that were different from all the other stuff.
Actress Dominique Fishback will go by more than one name during the show, but we will call her Dre. She has a warm relationship with her sister, but seems an unremarkable person in most ways other than being an obsessed fan with a singer called Ni’Jah (Nirine S. Brown)
So extreme is her devotion to Ni’ Jah, that she harshly judges (and believe me, that ain’t the half of it) and finds herself doing horrifically violent things to those you have wronged her, her sister, or Ni’ Jah.
Near the end of the first episode Dre kills a dude, point blank, with a dumbbell – late she’ll kill someone with a tire iron. Keep this girl away from blunt objects and Ni’ Jah haters at all costs.
Although Dre remains somewhat enigmatic – she is a fascinating character to try to figure out. A celibate (ish) non-drinker on the one hand – a stone cold killer on the other hand. She enjoys it, she tells us, but like Dexter – most victims deserve what’s coming to them.
There are many plot twists that I will not spoil here. Suffice to say that the series grabbed me by the collar, made me pay attention and made me care about what would happen next. Show runner Donald Glover has already proven he knows how to make good television, with Swarm he proves that his success is no fluke.
Swarm streams on Amazon Prime Video | 7 Episodes | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars
