Swarm
Episodes 1-4:
Swarm kicks off impressively with immersive characters and carefully crafted storytelling. It delicately intertwines visual elements and rich dialogue, communicating a twisted tale of mental imbalance and stan culture (now that’s a weird sentence). However, I found after the second episode, the series falters.
It appears that Janine Nabers and Donald Glover were aiming for some of that Atlanta-esque, vignette structure, but it doesn’t seem to translate as well here, as Swarm is much more linear. Unfortunately, the series ends up feeling a tad formulaic by the third episode, as we wonder how the blood will splatter this time ‘round.
That’s not to say it isn’t entertaining. Swarm is still a cut above a lot of shows right now, with engaging scenes and characters in every episode. I just can’t help but feel that this may have been better as a feature film, where it wouldn’t come off as a season long anthology episode of Atlanta season 3.
Episodes 5-7:
Finally finished the series and I really feel like this show toes the line between overhated and overrated. On one hand I get how this can be surface level, leaning towards pretentiousness. On the other, this is a very brutal, hilarious post-modern character study in the vein of King of Comedy and Perfect Blue.
Where Swarm truly shines is the characterisation. There isn’t a single boring character in this show. We see their truths, their flaws, and contradictions, making for subtle, morally complex situations. Narratively (for the most part) this is very well written with the thematic content seeming underdone in a few places (the ending was a cop out).
If this was two episodes shorter, with some tightening on the fandom commentary, I’d say it could have been a masterpiece. Although in saying that, there’s a lot to dissect here. I think I’d like to come back to this in a few months and watch it at a much slower pace.
All in all, this is was very entertaining and worth a watch for anyone looking for a post-Atlanta fix. Does for pop music what Scream did for slasher films.