Swarm

Available on Amazon Prime

This dark satire of extreme fandom or ‘stan culture’ has mostly drawn attention due to the similarities between the fictional pop star at its centre and Beyoncé, though such parallels are never confirmed as being intentional by showrunners Janine Nabers and Donald Glover.

Despite the tightness of their lips, the intention of Nabers and Glover are pretty clear from the offset of Swarm, which follows Dominique Fishback’s disturbed mega-fan and her gradual descent into madness and murder. Fishback certainly makes for a convincing lead, though the back story and, by extension, motivations of her character are frustratingly never adequately expressed.

This is problematic because Swarm has a propensity for leaning into horror convention (several episodes end with Fishback offing a perceived adversary in grisly fashion) but only ever truly gets under the skin of its central topic in standalone episodes, such as Ibra Ake’s ‘Running Scared’ (which features a promising acting debut from Billie Eilish) and Stephen Glover’s true-crime parody ‘Fallin’ Through the Cracks’.

Sadly, this means that Swarm never makes for a truly rounded viewing experience and instead only occasionally flirts with the notion of being wedded to deeper, more meaningful ideas. Nonetheless, it is an intense and atmospheric watch for the most part that is powered by an impressive lead performance and effortlessly cool original soundtrack.