Swarm: Donald Glover's new show is a dark meditation on fan culture from a decidedly Black female perspective

By Kadian Pow, Lecturer in Sociology and Black Studies, Birmingham City University

Swarm, a new show from Janine Nabers and Donald Glover, exposes the very real dangers of obsessive fandoms. Each episode begins with a series of title cards that let the audience know that “this is not a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is intentional.”

A horror-comedy, the show depicts a young Black woman, Andrea “Dre” Greene (Dominique Fishback), as a superfan of fictional pop star Ni’Jah (blatantly based on Beyonce) and obsessive member of her online fandom, the Swarm (Beyoncé’s is called the BeyHive). Dre falls deeper into her…

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