Swarm

In a new Amazon series cocreated by Donald Glover, Fishback plays the crazed fan of a Beyoncé-like pop star. Who knew she could be so terrifying?

Anyway, “I like to spend my days in solitude,” she said, filling her down time with weekly guitar lessons, playing piano, writing poetry and reading (currently, the dating advice book “Calling in ‘The One’”). “I really didn’t know who she was or what she physically was going to be like, so I just tried things,” she said. I need you to be searching in the shots.’” That sense that she was fumbling in the dark was by design. “The only thing they really gave me was that she was emotionally stunted,” she added. “She lives in the pocket of any character you write for her.” (A love for television seeded her interest in acting.) The drama training gave her “a taste of something other than what I grew up knowing,” she said, adding: “But I still was able to appreciate and understand my people in a certain way.” “I could rap to you the whole last verse, the real crazy verse,” she said. (It is indeed a work of fiction.) “Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is intentional.” He wanted it to “French New Wave it,” he said — shooting on film, employing long shots and encouraging improvisation — and brought the idea to Nabers, who took on the role of showrunner, writing the pilot and several subsequent episodes. “She felt very sweet, like someone you wanted to take care of, but she wanted to do the opposite, which I completely understand even in my own career,” he added. “Dom is the queen of the journal,” said Shawn Tyrell, a longtime family friend, who lived at Fishback’s home off and on throughout her childhood.

Billie Eilish has shared of teaser of her acting debut in Donald Glover's Prime Video series Swarm. Watch it here.

Swarm, which is set between 2016 and 2018, centers around Dre, who plays an obsessed fan of a fictional Beyoncé-based pop star. During the course of questioning Dre, Eilish finds out she had a vision of red “milk” spilled on the carpet. [Dominique Fishback](https://consequence.net/tag/dominique-fishback/)).

Billie Eilish is now an actor! The singer is set to make her on-screen debut in Donald Glover's new fandom and stan culture-inspired FX series “Swarm.”

[posted to Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp2xJ3brMJ9/) on March 16, we see a blonde Billie opposite Dominique as Dre, asking her what she sees and looking very pleased when Dre admits that she hurt someone. (Fun fact: [Malia Obama is credited as a writer on the series](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/malia-obama-writer-on-donald-glover-series), after discreetly joining the writers room back in March 2022.) "Very good," Billie's character says in a low, haunting voice. [Dominique Fishback](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/dominique-fishback-judas-and-the-black-messiah) as twisted heroine Dre, an obsessive fan of the world's biggest pop star whose fandom takes a dark turn, sending her on an unexpected cross-country journey. Swarm is set between 2016 and 2018 and stars Billie is set to guest star in Donald Glover's new Prime Video series Swarm, which premiered at SXSW in Austin, Texas on March 10.

The Happier Than Ever singer will mark her arrival in acting with a previously unannounced role in the new Amazon Prime Video series. The show is co-created by ...

The website goes on to state that for Glover, casting Eilish, provided an opportunity to play up the “meta commentary about fandoms and followers.” “We were really interested in creating an antihero story,” showrunner Nabers recently told Vanity Fair. The show is co-created by the Childish Gambino star and Janine Nabers.

Dominique Fishback, Chloë Bailey and Damson Idris star in the Prime Video series from Donald Glover.

All I Know So Far and [Kendrick Lamar Live from Paris: The Big Steppers Tour](https://www.billboard.com/culture/product-recommendations/how-to-watch-kendrick-lamar-the-big-steppers-tour-streaming-1235160155/). Prime Video is also available as a solo subscription for $9.99/month after a free trial. Amazon Prime is $14.99 a month (or $139 a year) after the free trial ends. Keep reading for directions on how to stream the series for free on Prime Video. [free 30-day trial](https://www.amazon.com/amazonprime?linkCode=ll2&tag=billboard0ad-20&linkId=face6f097992890368bee4bbb3c9c12d&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl&asc_source=web&asc_campaign=web&asc_refurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Fculture%2Fproduct-recommendations%2Fhow-to-watch-swarm-on-prime-video-for-free-1235288284%2F) to stream Swarm and countless other programs in the mega-library of films, movies and TV shows including tons of other Prime Originals free of charge. Stream The Marvelous Ms. Fishback is also a producer on the series. Donald Glover’s [Prime Video](https://amzn.to/3yKx1XR?asc_source=web&asc_campaign=web&asc_refurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Fculture%2Fproduct-recommendations%2Fhow-to-watch-swarm-on-prime-video-for-free-1235288284%2F) series, about an obsessed fan base that can’t stop buzzing over its Queen Bee, premieres on Friday (March 17). If you’re already have Prime Video, click “I really wanted to stretch myself as an actor,” said the 31-year-old actress. “If I tried to map out Dre, I wouldn’t be able to play an authentic character because she isn’t that. All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors.

Janine Nabers doesn't have a Twitter account (“I am a little scared of Twitter”) but she says Donald Glover, who “lives on Twitter,” saw a tweet that ...

And this is like seasons and seasons and seasons of stuff. Although “representation” can sometimes feel like an empty buzzword—or worse, become a scapegoat when a project flops—the tweeter and the show they inspired have a point: representation can also mean the freedom to step into unsavory roles without fear of respectability or the stigma of stereotyping. And so many people are just so willing to jump into the conversation in a violent and kind of grotesque way.” “It is supposed to look awkward, and it is supposed to be funny at times.” She would ask Glover and Nabers for more clarity about Dre, and while they directed her to films like The Piano Teacher and Under the Skin, they also kept repeating that Dre was “emotionally stunted.” “But somehow we see in her mannerisms that there’s a lot of thought process happening here.” In the reflection of fandom that Swarm highlights, I can admit that yes, fans can look ridiculous and some of us can take our devotion a bit too far. Dre, on the other hand, doesn’t seem capable of reflecting on whether her devotion to Ni’Jah is a bit much. “And being from Houston, it was my way into the story.” By anchoring their story of an icon-obsessed serial killer in a Black woman from the South, Swarm expands the meaning of representation while holding up a funhouse mirror to fandom and social media. Swarm captures the joy of being in a fandom like the Beyhive, of being in community with other devotees on social media as we live-tweet a new release, even as it pokes fun at us. Janine Nabers doesn’t have a Twitter account (“I am a little scared of Twitter”) but she says Donald Glover, who “lives on Twitter,” saw a tweet that inspired their newest show. “There was a Black woman that he follows on Twitter who he just loves her tweets, and she was like, ‘Why does every Black woman on TV have to be a therapist or a funny best friend or someone looking for love or a teacher?

Atlanta's Donald Glover created this series alongside TV writer and playwright Janine Nabers. Nabers is probably best known for writing and working on the drama ...

The only place you can watch Swarm is on Prime Video. You will need a Prime Video subscription to watch the series as it is not available on Amazon’s free service, Freevee. Unfortunately no, Swarm is not on Netflix and won’t be anytime soon.

A new trailer for the Prime Video series Swarm features singer Billie Eilish in a guest starring role.

[Black-ish](https://collider.com/tag/black-ish/) and playing the titular role in its spin-off, [Grown-ish](https://collider.com/grown-ish-cast-character-guide/). It is currently unknown what role the singer will bring to life during the events of Swarm, but as [her previous work](https://collider.com/praise-this-trailer-chloe-bailey/) has indicated, Bailey's always ready for a challenge. [Beyoncé](https://collider.com/tag/beyonce/), with a fan base known as "The Swarm", which is a clear reference to the singer's fan base, called the "Bey Hive". While Glover is no stranger to dealing with [complex subjects on television](https://collider.com/atlanta-season-4-review-donald-glover-brian-tyree-henry-fx/), Swarm seems to be taking things into a completely different direction from projects perviously developed by the [Solo](https://collider.com/tag/solo-a-star-wars-story/) actor. The exchange appears to be a hypnosis session for the patient, with [the singer](https://collider.com/billie-eilish-live-at-o2-extended-cut-theatrical-release/) snapping her fingers in an attempt to establish a trigger within the mind of the woman. [Billie Eilish](https://collider.com/tag/billie-eilish/)'s music had a hypnotic effect on her audience, wait until you meet her character in the upcoming [Prime Video](https://collider.com/tag/prime-video/) television series, [Swarm](https://collider.com/swarm-tv-show-review/).

Online fandoms and modern day Stan culture are rife for skewering, but "Atlanta" creator Donald Glover bites off more than he can chew with "Swarm," a ...

It also feels like it makes its point early and then struggles to follow it up, but at least with Fishback in the driver's seat, the ride is never dull. An incident with her sister Marissa (singer Chloe Bailey, whose connections to Beyoncé run deep) sends her on the lam, and "Swarm" follows her to a different town, in a different scenario, in every episode. "Swarm," which is co-created by Janine Nabers (HBO's "Watchmen"), makes its own sport out of comparing Ni'jah to Beyoncé, from the name given to her fanbase (the Swarm, akin to Bey's Hive) right down to the font of her rapper husband's album art and its characters' casual lemonade consumption.

While that show deals with some grown-up topics, Episode 1 of Swarm, “Stung,” sees Bailey's character Marissa in more mature and adult scenarios alongside her ...

“I’m really honored to be a part of this,” Bailey says. “I was able to show a piece of myself that the world isn’t used to seeing from me.” Glover tapped Bailey for the music angle of the show, inviting her to come to the studio, where he asked to listen to 30 demos and songs she had produced herself. I was like, ‘I got to get it out in that.’ I just didn’t think it would make it on the project. It felt so haunting and it felt like the scorned woman, kind of murder thing,” she says. “As Marissa was trying to rip away from her sister because she knew how toxic the codependency was, she was just transferring it to Khalid, Damson’s character,” Bailey says. Bailey was also able to use the music on the show as an outlet for her own feelings. “We were so shaken up to the point where afterward—and I’m feeling emotional talking about it—after the scene was done, we were in a darkish room just crying for 40 minutes,” Bailey says. One of the songs that she was working on with Metro Boomin for her album didn’t end up as part of the final tracklist but is featured at the end of Episode 1. So to find and connect to her sister again, that’s what she was holding on to and grasping. It’s about Dre and what she uses as her vice and her outlet to justify this journey she’s going on to fight for her sister,” Bailey says. “That’s why I feel all of the anger that she felt, not only toward Khalid but to all of the people online talking mess about her sister,” Bailey says.

'Happier Than Ever' singer appears in fourth episode of Glover's thriller about an obsessed fan.

The titular “swarm” of the show’s title is said to take inspiration from the “Beyhive”, the name of Beyoncé’s fans. “What colour was the milk?” the singer asks back, to which Dre replies: “It was red.” In the clip, Dre tells the character played by Eilish: “I see milk spilled on the carpet.”

Co-creator Janine Nabers and star Dominique Fishback sing the pop star's praises for her excellent turn as a mystery woman who's not what she seems.

To subvert that with this, and with Billie, was great.” “We were looking to cast the episode and she suggested Billie, and I said, ‘Does she act?’ And she said, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, ‘What has she been in?’ And she said, ‘Nothing.’ But what’s so incredible about this process is that you have a lot of people that work on the show that are multi-hyphenate and people who have so many different passions. It’s about the idea of a cult-like mentality of someone that can be your savior, and you see that reflected in music. “When you look at the time of the show’s story, and the fact that there’s a true-crime element of every episode, that element of Episode Four is NXIVM,” explains Nabers. “I’m gonna snap my fingers, and when I do, I want you to say your name,” Eva tells Dre. “This show, in terms of women and violence, is so empowering for me, because you see it from such a masculine standpoint usually in the history of film and TV. “She’s so respectful of the craft. This ultraviolent fever dream of a series, from the [Atlanta](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-recaps/atlanta-series-finale-recap-1234626445/) team of [Donald Glover](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/donald-glover/) and Janine Nabers, tells the tale of a tormented young Black woman, Dre ( [Dominique Fishback](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/dominique-fishback/), outstanding), who idolizes Ni’Jah, the world’s biggest pop star — or at least the one with the most militant fanbase, who call themselves the Swarm and drown out any and all online detractors with bee emojis. “They existed in New York — in Albany — and that was the period in our lives when they were preying on women. [Damson Idris](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/damson-idris-interview-snowfall-season-6-tragic-end-fx-dating-lori-harvey-1234683193/)), Dre snaps, embarking on a cross-country killing spree that sees her dispatch anyone who besmirches Ni’Jah’s good name with extreme prejudice. It’s April 2018, and Dre is desperate to see her pop idol at Bonnaroo. (The women also have initials carved into their shoulders, just like those in NXIVM’s sex-cult sorority DOS.)

The horror-thriller series, which Glover created with Janine Nabers, about a mega-fan's violent devotion to a Beyoncé-like pop star, succeeds neither as ...

That’s a meaningful difference between her and the archetypal white male serial killer, but “Swarm” seems unwilling to grapple with the dubious milestone of Black female sociopathy it presents, tiptoeing instead around the social conditions that contributed to Dre’s unstable childhood, as well as the expectations that help her elude capture. Dre’s gradual descent into tragic villainy is lurching and yet not without poignancy; few scenes this year gutted me like the sequence in which she has to look away from one of her final victims, sacrificing her own potential happiness in obeisant service to a higher power. And in these initial chapters the supporting characters are more sharply drawn: a group of Tennessee strippers whose sororal overtures to Dre, the new girl at the club, backfire; a formerly obese man (Byron Bowers) who invites Dre into his home and is quickly undone by the combination of sex and junk food that she offers. But even her marvellously versatile performance can’t make up for the wan character development and the tonal wobbliness that sink the series. As a drifter, Dre tries on a range of gender expressions, from sparkly stripper gear to a rather butch (or transmasculine) guise. The season builds toward a morbid, tongue-in-cheek provocation: What if the female empowerment and self-actualization that Ni’Jah’s anthems champion were channelled into a calling in mass murder? But Marissa is ready to grow up; she’d rather spend her birthday with her boyfriend, Khalid (Damson Idris), than with Dre at a Ni’Jah concert, even if Dre opened up a new credit card to get them premium tickets. A more absurdist version of the character would’ve been right at home in Glover’s “Atlanta,” for which Nabers also wrote; that show’s final season featured a serial killer who targets the participants of a social-media dance challenge set to Soulja Boy’s 2007 hit “Crank That.” But this darker, meaner series, on Prime Video, succeeds neither as satire nor as psychological study. The series opens in the dingy Houston apartment that the fantasy-prone Dre shares with her former foster sister and sole friend, Marissa (Chloe Bailey), a mall clerk and aspiring makeup artist who supports her financially. Every last inch of her gleams: her hair, her eyes, her teeth, the beads and paillettes that shimmer with each hip thrust or arm swing, but, most of all, her skin. Yet the object of fascination in “Swarm,” Donald Glover and Janine Nabers’s new horror-thriller series, isn’t this unmistakable Beyoncé stand-in. And, as with any queen, her domestic orbit is common knowledge: the rapper husband with the capitalist hustle and the wandering eye, their twins, the gifted but hopelessly overshadowed younger sister.

The irony is showrunners Donald Glover and Janine Nabers made the plot out of whole cloth, at least as far as my limited Google skills could determine. But they ...

While Dre’s inability to deviate from her goal is thematically relevant, it does a bit of a disservice to the plot. It would be easy for Dre to be completely unlikeable, but Fishback’s amazing performance keeps the character somewhat sympathetic. Marissa wants to join the real world, but Dre wants to stay in the fantasy world of online fandom. To achieve it, she’ll ignore the needs and wants of those around her. But while Dre is still slavishly devoted to her idol, with most of her social interactions on Twitter, Marissa is relegating her fandom to the backburner. However, the core of Fishback’s performance lies in Dre’s self-centeredness. The fallout leads to the firing of both sisters. As a result, she can only view them in relation to their love or hatred of the performer. In the first episode, Dre is a shy, somewhat childish young woman, unprepared for adult life. The result is a creepy thriller that manages to stay grounded in reality even when it slips into the surreal. The ‘based on a true story’ schtick is a common trope in media, but rarely is it presented so bluntly. Every episode of Amazon’s Swarm begins with a title card that reads, “This is not a work of fiction.

In the new psycho-thriller from Donald Glover, an obsessive fan goes berserk. Is the era of social media to blame?

The most convincing aspect of the series is Fishback. The jewel of the series is its commitment to sharp turns—just when you think it will veer right, it puts the car in reverse and runs over a pile of bodies. Death is “beautiful,” Dre reasons, because “it’s equal, it happens to everybody.” According to Nabers, a former writer on Atlanta, the cerebral architecture of the show originates from niche thrillers like The Piano Teacher (2001) and Elephant (2003), where the wedding of loss, rage, love, and obsession are framed with razor intimacy. So she uses that hurt to hurt others, embarking on a cross-crounty trip where she kills anyone who speaks negatively of Ni’jah. It is a portrait of superfandom in kamikaze form. (A disclaimer before each episode cautions: “This is not a work of fiction. With the exception of season 3—the most ambitious season or the worst, depending on who you ask—it never left the boundaries of the city, its hidden treasures and trapdoors. It’s got keys in the ignition and a tank full of gas, slinking from Texas to California to Tennessee and back. As we find out, she is a honeycomb of sticky traumas. That it happens to be inspired by the BeyHive—perhaps the internet’s most notorious legion of superfan—do with that what you will. Everything is in service of Ni’jah, the Beyoncé-level pop star she can’t live without. For Dre (Dominique Fishback), the answer is a no-brainer.

Billie Eilish has made a surprise acting debut in an episode of Donald Glover's new thriller series, "Swarm," which landed on Prime Video on Friday.

We gravitate toward people who are juggling multiple hats.” The show, which explores the dark side of stan culture, features a star-studded cast including singer Chloe Bailey, “Snowfall” star Damson Idris and actor Rickey Thompson. Their exchange gets disturbing when Eilish asks “What color was the milk?” and Dre replies: “It was red.”

Full list of cast and characters in Donald Glover and Janine Nabers' Prime Video horror series, Swarm, which stars Dominique Fishback and Chloe Bailey.

For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to [The Radio Times Podcast](https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/podcasts/). She has starred in [Grown-ish](https://www.radiotimes.com/programme/b-64y1s7/grownish/) and 2022 psychological drama [Jane](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-s82ach/jane/). [Casualty](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/soaps/casualty-dylan-keogh-storyline-exclusive-newsupdate/), Doctors and Miranda. The model, actress and singer is the second child of Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe. She’s a fellow dancer at the club she works at, is in an abusive relationship but manages to stay (a bit too) cheery for Dre. Brought into Eva’s home, she is offered a place to stay and free tickets but soon, Eva’s mysterious life starts posing a threat to Dre’s dreams of seeing Ni’Jah. Brown is best known for her recurring role as Lynn in Her similarities to Beyoncé are “intentional”, as per the opening credits of each episode, and she boasts millions of monthly listeners, sold out tours and has The Swarm, her dedicated group of loyal fans. Her other TV credits include The Hate U Give, [The Deuce](https://www.radiotimes.com/programme/b-gdkzki/the-deuce/), Modern Love and Show Me A Hero. [The Little Mermaid](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/little-mermaid-release-date-cast/) actress, Halle Bailey. Who is Khalid? Namely, she’s balancing a job, a fledgling career as a make-up artist and a boyfriend but is battling her own inner demons too.

The Atlanta creator is clearly targeting Knowles obsessives in this menacing series about the dark side of music fandom. But its point is obvious and its ...

Dre is a slightly patronising cartoon of a lonely outcast, her naivety and awkwardness constantly pushed to the max as she glowers stroppily at everyone. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events, is intentional.” In an episode falteringly styled as a true-crime documentary, following the only cop in the US who has identified Dre as the likely culprit for a string of murders, Swarm goes archly meta, with Ni’Jah defictionalised and replaced by the real Beyoncé, her name bleeped out when characters say it but easily lip-readable. She works in a strip club, bonding uneasily with her fellow dancers and initially frightening off punters with her clunking gait and insistence on dancing to sad Ni’Jah ballads. 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. [Watchmen](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/oct/21/watchmen-review-the-perfect-superhero-story-for-our-tattered-times-hbo-alan-moore) and [Atlanta](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/jun/29/donald-glover-atlanta-season-three-review-this-peerless-shows-impact-will-live-forever) – sets up a mood of flickering menace. 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.

The producers of "Swarm," a new Amazon series co-created by Donald Glover and Janine Nabers, have issued a "Do not spoil" list that precludes detailing much ...

And the gist of it, ultimately, is the corrosive effects of engaging in blind hero worship, basically turning one’s life over to somebody that you don’t even know. “Swarm,” too, is almost defiantly weird, in a mish-mash of styles and themes that draws from biting satire, understated comedy and most pointedly of all, horror, in a way that recalls some of Jordan Peele’s post-“Get Out” films. But there is a lot to be said about the limited series’ provocative view of fan culture, and how such loyalty can turn into obsession.

Donald Glover has released a new EP tied to the fictional world of his new horror series about an obsessive pop fan, 'Swarm.'

[Atlanta](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-recaps/atlanta-series-finale-recap-1234626445/) and [Watchmen](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/watchmen-hbo-review-897290/), who also serves as showrunner of the new series. Smith](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/donald-glover-phoebe-bridge-waller-amazon-mr-and-mrs-smith-series-1128116/) also in the pipeline. Brown in the show, but the songs were primarily written and performed by the singer-songwriter [Kirby](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/kirby-boyz-ii-men-song-review-1151191/). The core cast boasts Damson Idris and Chlöe Bailey, while the various guest stars include Paris Jackson, Rickey Thompson, Rory Culkin, and — [in her acting debut — Billie Eilish](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/swarm-billie-eilish-acting-debut-cult-leader-nxivm-donald-glover-dominique-fishback-prime-video-1234698659/). The show is centered around a young woman named Dre (played by [Dominique Fishback](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/dominique-fishback/)) whose obsession with Ni’jah takes an unsurprisingly dark turn. [Swarm](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/swarm/) EP is “credited” to Ni’jah, the fictional pop star portrayed by Nirine S.

Swarm stars Dominique Fishback as Andrea Green (who goes by Dre), a young woman obsessed with superstar Ni'Jah (Nirine S. Brown). Her fandom is known as The ...

However, Dre herself is not based on a real serial killer. Not much of it is fabricated.” “So it’s really not a work of fiction. At the start of each episode, there’s a disclaimer that reads: “This is not a work of fiction. Her fandom is known as The Swarm, but Dre isn’t just any fan – think of her as a Gen Z Annie Wilkes. Is Swarm based on a true story?

The show also features Paris Jackson, Chloe Bailey, Damson Idris, Rickey Thompson, Rory Culkin, Kiersey Clemons and Byron Bowers. All seven episodes of the show ...

“I really wanted to stretch myself as an actor,” said the 31-year-old actress. “What color was the milk?,” Eilish’s character asks with a sweetly sinister look on her face. milk spilled on the carpet,” Dre says.

In a new series on Amazon Prime Video, Donald Glover shifts from comedy with touches of horror to horror with grace notes of comedy.

Fishback, best known for playing a levelheaded prostitute turned porn star in the HBO series “The Deuce,” keeps our sympathies with Dre throughout the show’s ups and downs. In the early episodes, she gives Dre a timid, recessive quality, acting out of the corners of her eyes, but she also suggests a stubborn resolve that turns into confidence once Dre starts killing people. (An additional motif of the show is the stream of people, usually white, who for their own reasons reach out to Dre offering a pretense of understanding or protection.) Another goes the full bottle-episode route, presenting an installment of a mock true-crime series, which can be taken as commentary on the way media culture exploits disturbed people’s distress but also serves to stitch up loose ends and lurch the plot ahead before the season finale. Glover created “Swarm” with Janine Nabers, who was a writer and co-executive producer on “Atlanta”; other “Atlanta” alums, including Glover’s brother, the writer Stephen Glover, have moved to the new show as well. In the show’s best moments, the premise serves as an attention-grabbing, plot-propelling armature for a story that promises, for a while at least, to be more interesting than that. That “Swarm” is only intermittently successful doesn’t make it any easier to look away from the screen.

If you've finished streaming Swarm, Donald Glover and Janine Nabers' Amazon horror comedy about a young woman's murderous obsession with a pop star who is ...

And [this](https://time.com/6260421/tennessee-limiting-drag-shows-status-of-anti-drag-bills-u-s/), it almost goes without saying, is a [pretty](https://time.com/6262140/west-virginia-transgender-care-ban/) [horrendous](https://time.com/6258586/utah-transgender-bill-essay/) [moment](https://time.com/6261992/a-recent-move-by-the-white-house-gives-the-lgbtq-community-reason-to-worry/) to resurrect it. And her repressed desire for women is alluded to in early episodes; she caresses Marissa’s skin and grows uneasy around a lesbian couple in the wellness cult. They are already part of a fiction within the world where Loretta’s documentary is reality, which is in turn a fiction within the real world where you, I, and all other viewers of Swarm exist. [Billie Eilish](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095808/billie-eilish-pioneer/)’s white-woman wellness cult, an equally unhinged mirror image of Dre and the rest of the Swarm’s Ni’jah obsession. Would there really be enough time after Rashida comes home at the end of a workday for Tony to surprise her with the tickets, kill her after she rejects them, snooze for a bit, burn the body, drive to the Ni’jah concert, murder a scalper, and enter the venue just in time to catch her idol’s performance? As a different ideal of Black womanhood, Loretta is the matronly, earthbound version of Ni’jah, who is of course a stand-in for a real woman named Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter who really is worshiped as a goddess. (It’s probably worth noting that “Fallin’” shares a co-writer, Karen Joseph Adcock, with Atlanta’s great season 4 mockumentary, “The Goof Who Sat by the Door.”) This suggests that the other episodes of Swarm are supposed to exist as fiction in a world where Loretta and the documentary are nonfiction, rather than as a straightforward account of events unfolding in “real life.” This is crucial to understand, going into a truly wild finale. So of course she winds up dead on her beloved Anthropologie couch, after refusing to accompany Tony to a Ni’jah show on the night of their anniversary and blowing up at him for spending rent money on such pricey tickets. In a sense, each imagines its own alternate ending to Dre’s murder spree—one apparently grounded in the facts of a true-crime case and the other the ultimate fantasy-come-true for a fan who makes Where Dre is cold, lonely, violent, and brittle, Loretta—a widow who’s shown, early in the doc, feeding a home-cooked breakfast to her two children—comes off as warm, community-minded, nurturing, resilient. [Donald Glover](https://time.com/4465184/donald-glover-atlanta-childish-gambino/) and Janine Nabers’ Amazon horror comedy about a young woman’s murderous obsession with a pop star who is clearly meant to mirror [Beyoncé](https://time.com/5793791/beyonce-100-women-of-the-year/), allow me to welcome you to the land of Huh?! Brown throughout the show, in which she’s usually observed from afar, now has the face of Dre’s best friend and adoptive sister Marissa ( [Chloe Bailey](https://time.com/5851399/chloe-x-halle-time-100-talks-protests/)), who kills herself in the premiere.

In Amazon Prime Video's horror comedy (all seven episodes now streaming), "Judas and the Black Messiah" breakout Dominique Fishback plays Dre, a crazed fan of a ...

Glover echoed praise for Obama in an interview with [Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/01/donald-glover-show-swarm-first-look). Asked at SXSW whether Beyoncé has seen the show, Nabers answered, "Of course," but declined to elaborate further. "Swarm" in no way tries to hide its Beyoncé influences, with fictional pop star Ni'Jah recreating almost exact images from Queen B's "Renaissance" and "Everything is Love" eras. [Dominique Fishback](https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2017/10/18/5-new-faces-fall-tv-breakout-stars/771451001/) plays Dre, a crazed fan of a Beyoncé-like pop star named Ni'Jah (Nirine S. ["The Little Mermaid" star Halle Bailey](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2023/03/06/halle-bailey-emotiona-reaction-little-mermaid-doll-reveal/11415374002/). "I feel like she's just somebody who's going to have really good things coming soon." You may spot a notable name among the show's creative team: Malia Obama, daughter of Barack and Michelle Obama. Singer/model Paris Jackson is daughter of the late Michael Jackson and portrays a stripper who befriends Dre. She also brought out Glover, who goes by stage name Childish Gambino, to perform at her concert in Inglewood, California, last December. Brown) [who takes her obsession to murderous extremes](https://www.amazon.com/Swarm-Season-1/dp/B0B8NLVH1L). The show is inspired in part by an urban legend that circulated online following the release of Beyoncé's 2016 album "Lemonade," which hints at husband Jay-Z's alleged infidelity. Here's everything you need to know about the series, which co-stars Billie Eilish and is co-written by Malia Obama:

Swarm stars Dominique Fishback as Andrea Green (who goes by Dre), a young woman obsessed with superstar Ni'Jah (Nirine S. Brown). Her fandom is known as The ...

Who does Billie Eilish play in Swarm? Nabers added: “She got here in and their chemistry was actually great. She got here in with concepts, wanting to speak about it, being recreation to rehearse,” Fishback told Both Fishback and Nabers commended Eilish for her performance and work ethic. Eva is directly inspired by Keith Raniere, the imprisoned co-founder of NXIVM, a notorious cult-like self-help corporation. Her fandom is known as The Swarm, but Dre isn’t just any fan – think of her as a Gen Z Annie Wilkes.

Her Houstonian character Dre is willing to max out credit cards for concert tickets, just as much as she's ready to murder online trolls to defend the ...

[The King of Comedy](/reviews/the-king-of-comedy-1983)"), Patrick Bateman (" [American Psycho](/reviews/american-psycho-2000)"), and Arthur Fleck (" [Joker](/reviews/joker-movie-review-2019)"). [Night Comes On](/reviews/night-comes-on-2018)" to " [Judas and the Black Messiah](/reviews/judas-and-the-black-messiah-film-review)." [Dominique Fishback ](/cast-and-crew/dominique-fishback)as Dre [Chloe Bailey ](/cast-and-crew/chloe-bailey)as Marissa [Nirine S. ), [Ibra Ake](/cast-and-crew/ibra-ake), and [Stephen Glover](/cast-and-crew/stephen-glover), establish a sound idea of this grounded but bizarre tone, complemented by a rich soundscape. Much of the show will become about Dre navigating different living spaces, passing through the country like Henry in " [Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer](/reviews/henry-portrait-of-a-serial-killer-1990)." And the show's irascible course of events becomes all the wilder when "Swarm" riffs on the

Andrea "Dre" Green (Dominique Fishback) examining a Ni'Jah poster in Photo: Warrick Page | Prime Video. Swarm, the latest TV project from Atlanta creator ...

“Subverting a narrative, subverting a character, thinking outside the box, adding a surrealistic element to a story is always more powerful and elevated in my opinion. “We start with the saying ‘this is not a work of fiction,’ which is true,” Nabers says. “As a Black woman approaching any story, I think America has projected an idea of Blackness onto storytelling so there’s a formula people are used to watching,” she says. And it’s a label that Nabers embraces with this show. In terms of episode one “Stung,” Though set in a heightened fictional world that only occasionally resembles our own, each episode of Swarm begins with a curious statement that promises veracity.

Billie Eilish appears in Episode 4 of 'Swarm', Donald Glover and Janine Nabers thriller for Amazon Prime Video.

The more time Dre spends with Cricket and the rest of the women, the more she realizes that this isn’t just a nice group of friends. She plays the role with enough sincerity and intensity that you immediately enter Dre’s headspace enough to wonder if this woman is just a nice ally? [Donald Glover ](https://decider.com/tag/donald-glover)and [Janine Nabers](https://decider.com/tag/janine-nabers), Swarm follows one young women who becomes unhealthily obsessed with a pop star by the name of Ni’Jah (Nirine S. If you’ve seen even a minute of this series, you know it isn’t long before that nice offer descends into a dark and darkly funny nightmare. After noticing a police officer harassing Dre, Cricket scares him off and insists that Dre come stay with her and her friends. [Swarm](https://decider.com/show/swarm/) is one of those shows that defies expectations at every turn.

'Swarm' showrunner Janine Nabers and star Dominique Fishback break down Prime Video's horror/comedy about a murderous fan, premiering Friday.

I think I got what I came for and we can lay that to rest. Nabers: You look at all of the things she’s done to get to where she is, and it’s a devastating moment because you don’t know the reality of it. Fishback: I feel really proud of Dre, of the humor that I got to exhibit with this role. It begins with Chloe and it ends with Ni’Jah. Can you talk about the decision to do it that way? Dominique Fishback: Ni’Jah represents somebody who happens to have the language and ability to express it in a way that Dre felt heard. So I think that “bloodlust” was just the desire to feel something. They leave together in her waiting limo and Ni’Jah envelops Dre in a warm embrace. Like this series is [billed as being] “not a work of fiction”: You’re watching actors re-create events that happened [within] a 2 1/2 year period. And then meeting Marissa, to find somebody that equally loves this person as much as she did, it just solidified that relationship. ‘We never set out to tell the history of the Cheeto,’ Longoria said. Janine Nabers: Ni’Jah represents a sense of purpose, a sense of acceptance.

Billie Eilish surprises fans with her acting debut in Donald Glovers thriller series “Swarm” on Amazon Prime Video. Eilish's performance in the series was ...

The views expressed here are that of the respective authors/ entities and do not represent the views of Economic Times (ET). Eilish has since won several [Grammy Awards](/topic/grammy-awards), including the prestigious Album of the Year award for "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" Nabers added that the team was drawn to multi-talented individuals, who are passionate about various things, making Eilish an ideal addition to the cast. [Eilish](/topic/eilish)has made a surprise acting debut in Donald Glover's latest thriller series, " [Swarm](/topic/swarm)," which premiered on [Amazon Prime Video](/topic/amazon-prime-video)on Friday. Nabers revealed that they were searching for someone to play the part and Cuba suggested Eilish. [Ocean Eyes](/topic/ocean-eyes)," in 2016.