Is Swarm a new, must-watch series? Find out in our Swarm review if it’s worth checking out on Prime Video!
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Lets get this out of the way immediately: Dominique Fishback deserves multiple awards for Swarm. This isn’t up for debate in any way.
Sadly, the rest of the series is a bit more forgettable.
Fishback plays Dre, a mousy, clumsy woman in her early 20s who lives, eats, and breathes all things Ni’Jah. Who is Ni’Jah? Well, if you conclude she is a stand-in for Beyoncé, that’s on you. It’s not like they pound you over the head with the allegories every 30 seconds or so. Nope. You really have to dig to get to the conclusion.
Yes, I know sarcasm is one of the lowest forms of humor, so sue me.
Dre is obsessive in her love for Ni’Jah, even letting it ruin her life and relationships and eventually leading her down an increasingly dark path of murder and mayhem. Everyone that comes into contact with her is seemingly worse for the experience. No matter how well things may start out for her in a new encounter, eventually, Dre’s love of Ni’Jah will be the downfall of everyone around her.
And therein is part of the issue with the series that also allows Fishback to impress endlessly. While the seven episodes are all about Dre and her adventure, there is a feeling that this is almost more an anthology series than a serialized story. Part of the problem is that it tries to serve both concepts and is worse off for doing so. While there are continuing threads throughout the series, Each episode is also a new scenario for Dre to contend with. It isn’t until very late in the series do you see any of the various threads beginning to come together, and by then it’s almost too late as it goes again into another anthology-style story.
We see many different versions of Dre over the course of the seven episodes, and that allows Fishback to shine as she excels at all of them. But you become numb to the insanity that spins around her because there are seemingly no consequences for so long. And in the end, she maybe gets a happy ending to her story? You just aren’t quite sure.
Swarm is a magnificent showcase for Fishback’s acting, but not much beyond that.
Disclaimer: Amazon provided The Nerdy with all seven episodes of Swarm for the purposes of this review. We watch them in their entirety before beginning this review.
