"Swarm" and "The Swarm"

Don't you love it when two completely different shows are released almost at the same time, with close to the same title?

Amazon's "Swarm" is the brainchild of Donald Glover and Janine Nabers, and occasionally feels like a spinoff of "Atlanta."  It has the same mix of psychological thriller, dark satire, and existential dread found in some of their more adventurous episodes.  Our protagonist is a troubled young woman named Dre (Dominique Fishback) whose one passion is being a fan of a pop artist named Ni'jah (Nirine S. Brown).  After the death of her sister Marissa (Chloe Bailey), who the online rumor mill suspect may have killed herself over the new Ni'jah album, Dre chooses violence and embraces her terrifying dark side.

Each episode starts with a spin on the famous "Fargo" disclaimer, cautioning viewers that "Swarm" is based on real events, and any similarities to the real people involved are intentional.  Ni'Jah is clearly modeled on an iconic singer with a notoriously fervent fanbase, and many of the events we see in "Swarm" are taken from real life - or at least the rumors of what might have happened in real life.  The show probably works better if you're familiar with the drama in question, though it was fun for me to go back after watching "Swarm," and dig into the real world influences and connections.  

"Swarm" follows Dre through several years and several stages of her life, and feels like an anthology at times.  Even if you assume that Dre is an unreliable narrator, the way things unfold is too outlandish to be taken at face value, so I don't think it really works as a thriller.  However, the commentary is sharp and there are some good laughs to be had.  Also, Dominique Fishback's performance is excellent throughout.  If "Swarm" gets anything right, it's the portrayal of Dre's sad existence as an obsessed superfan, constantly attached to her phone, and using her love of Ni'Jah to compensate for other parts of her life.  The show is tragic, horrific, and sometimes a deeply uncomfortable watch.  And yet, it's so well made that I marathoned the whole thing in two sittings.     

Now, for something completely different.  "The Swarm" is an ambitious German science-fiction series that is mostly English language, featuring an international cast playing scientists from around the world.  The show is about a series of crises involving marine life, including suddenly aggressive whales, plague-spreading crabs, and boat-destroying bivalves.  A pattern emerges, pointing to a possible intelligence in the deep sea that is orchestrating these disasters as attacks on coastal populations.  Like many other science fiction series this year, the changes are hypothesized to have been triggered by climate change.  

What I like about "The Swarm," which will no doubt bore or frustrate other viewers, is that in spite of the wild premise, the show spends the majority of its time foregrounding scientists and their daily struggles.  The bizarre attacks take place in the first ten minutes or last ten minutes of each episode, and the rest of the time is devoted to checking in on various doctors and professors and researchers who are the only ones with any inkling of what might really be going on.  They discuss science, struggle to cut through bureaucratic red tape, and end up in more battles over funding and organizational politics than with any supernatural activity.  This lends a nice sense of realism to the events of the first few episodes, until everything goes off the rails into supernatural chaos for the finale. It's nice to see this kind of procedural mystery, where all the characters are fairly ordinary people, cast with lots of actors I didn't recognize, with the exception of Cecile de France and Sharon Duncan-Brewster.

  

The disaster sequences are very well executed and look very expensive, which should draw in some genre fans.  However, I suspect that the show will move too slowly for most viewers.  We learn plenty about the personal lives of characters like biologist Dr. Sigur Johanson (Alexander Karim), who is struggling with whether or not to consult for a mining company, and a First Nations cetologist named Leon Anawak (Joshua Odick) with a rough past, but none of their stories really impact the larger plot and aren't very compelling in and of themselves.  I appreciate the more cerebral approach to the material, but it often feels like it's working at odds with the wild premise, and the talented ensemble seems to ever have enough screen time to really make a lasting impression.  "The Swarm" is an interesting series, but ultimately a dysfunctional one, and I doubt we'll see it continue past its first season.    

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