Swarm2023

A sharp, introspective style — relying on disturbing ambient sounds, changing color gradients and consistent shifts to Dre's first-person perspective — allows for the audience to have a way in. And Fishback's performance, mysterious and unsettling while also tapping into measures of deep pain and sadness, completes the picture.

Overhyped and underwritten, Swarm follows a moron (Dre) as she stumbles her way through the commission of several murders. It claims to be a satire, though it is unclear what it is attempting to satirize. It would appear to want to be a dark comedy, but it is rarely that funny. Perhaps it will find its stride in its second season. Though, hopefully, it will simply be put out to pasture before then. By which I mean, it will be taken for a ride to the glue factory.

It’s the tension between the show’s satirical elements and what it tries to achieve outside of them that makes it so engaging.