Apparently, the joke’s on us! Swarm, the new provocative television series from Atlanta alumni Donald Glover and Janine Nabers, follows the fanatic Dre, who takes the pop star fan role too far.
The trailer, released on the last Friday (Feb. 24) of what the U.S. federal government honors as Black History Month, shows Dre, played by Dominique Fishback (Judas and the Black Messiah), obsessing over a music superstar with a number of abysmal decisions that range from using a credit card to buy high-priced concert tickets to the extreme of killing someone.
The plot sounds intriguingly funny, except for the dig at crazy fandoms appears to target that of a Beyonce Knowles. There’s the clues. In the trailer, a Beyonce-esque pop star first appears in a music video riding on a horse wearing bejeweled body garments, similar to Beyoncé’s promo campaign for her 2022 album Renaissance.
The implication is followed by a cut of Dre’s social media account, titled “The Swarm,” containing several bumblebee emojis, a direct reference to the BeyHive, the self-proclaimed name of Beyoncé’s fan following known for leaving the emojis on the accounts of people with adverse opinions of Beyonce, such as Stephanie Mills and Trick Daddy. By the way, what’s with people coming for Beyonce. It’s giving bully humiliation ritual, and if that’s too conspiratorial, the envy is definitely strong.
That’s not all. We later see the pop star referred to as “The Queen” in the trailer as she dances on stage with an all-girl lineup that matches Beyoncé’s infamous look at the Super Bowl.
Then, there’s a shrine with a photo that resembles the “Break My Soul” singer. What follows is a poster of the pop star’s Running Scared II Tour, a spoof of Beyoncé’s On The Run Tour, and two non-Black women commenting on fan culture, with one saying she prefers the sister and the other mocking the “Swarm” for “stinging” haters.
Viewers are inundated with surface-level perspectives of the extreme fan, and while the trailer remains passive aggressive by not specifically mentioning Beyonce and the BeyHive, it’s clear that there is an agenda for the aforementioned.
The creators had to know exactly what they were doing with the triggering content put together in a matter of a year, but the question is whether the fans will be able to catch on, too. This series unquestionably panders to the whole debate of loving on Beyonce too much. How ironic that the show creators and the distribution platform it’s on are using Beyoncé’s fans for clout, another way of defining publicity and ratings that translate to more money.
To assuage viewers (or confuse them), they even added into the mix Chloe Bailey, a prodigy of Beyoncé’s, which begs the question, is Beyonce in on this, too? Clever marketing if she is in on it. Otherwise, a closer analysis of Glover’s resentment towards Black people and their culture as shown in his art is much deserved.
Watch The ‘Swarm’ Trailer Below:
Glover, who saw his beloved series Atlanta canceled after four inconsistently released seasons, has attempted to stir controversy before by throwing Black icons under the bus — check out the “Tyler Perry episode” of Atlanta. A victim of this cycle of celebrity-shaming himself, he too has been ridiculed and criticized as a Black public figure for his marriage to a “White woman” and being the epitome of what some deem an “awkward Black man” — these are the obviously unfair assessments by The Internet that have surfaced over time.
He once pursued music seriously as his alter ego, Childish Gambino, and reviews of his discography are pretty positive with the exception of fans comparing him to other artists, such as Eminem, Chance the Rapper, Andre 3000, and Drake (all compliments, by the way).
His breakout songs, “This Is America” and “Redbone,” were well received by the Black community. However, the deep messages of these songs flew over the heads of many people of all races, reducing the societally meaningful songs to leisure radio play and “hip” additions to film soundtracks.
Why is all this important? Because context is important. The source is important. Glover, like Beyonce, pursued the accolades of being a music entertainer. While Black women embrace Beyonce, Glover has been on the end of hurtful criticism allegedly from the very same demographic. Can he be held accountable for not knowing better when it comes to the content he creates if this is his experience?
When the Black community comes to the realization of who is crafting the perspectives of Black people in media, Black women specifically, then there will be a more informed understanding on whether to take these harmful depictions disguised as art to heart or to dismiss them as unimportant works.
It sounds harsh until we recognize that there are bigger things to critique and compare, especially if you’re Black in America, and it doesn’t start with dampening the enthusiasm of those who choose to escape the issues of this world by loving on their icons, whether that be Beyonce or Rihanna, Taylor Swift or Madonna.
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Swarm might surprise us all when it premieres in March on Amazon’s Prime Video. Perhaps the series will do its part in reversing the toxic social engineering of major corporations that created social media platforms and caused the issue of homogenous, mob-like fanaticism in the first place. Or maybe the series will highlight the prevalence of mental health issues arising from a capitalistic and pop culture obsessed society.
It better do something important, because mocking Black women fans while drawing negative attention to a superstar that has worked her tail off to reach paramount is simply cringeworthy.
Disclaimer, if Beyonce approves of Swarm, then disregard this article!
