I succumbed to the fact that Donald Glover has a new show, and it has an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, it wasn’t worth the “buzz.”
SWARM is a challenging viewing experience but rewards audiences with an Emmy-worthy performance from Dominique Fishback as Dre. It deals with celebrity obsession and is told through the eyes of an extremely unstable antagonist. And that right there is why this show is so difficult to view. Instead of having Dre as a sympathetic protagonist, she’s an anti-charismatic playing the “big bad” and accomplishing things that even Walter White in BREAKING BAD wouldn’t do.
Once you get over the fact that the show’s incredibly dark, it does leave you on the edge of your seat… at times. Every episode ends on a cliffhanger, which had me hit “next episode” over three days as I rapidly devoured the seven-episode series. Yet, for all the uncertainty about where this show is going, it sadly doesn’t stick the landing. Instead, it’s a clunky final two episodes that needed more.
Audiences don’t need to rush to be a part of this “hive,” but they may want to “comb” through SWARM for Fishback’s performance, which is as sweet as “honey.”
All seven episodes are available on Amazon Video.
