9 shows I'm watching in March

My thoughts on Swarm, the rest of Daisy Jones, and TLOU's finale.

9. [SCREENERS] Swarm (Prime Video)
My score: 45/100

Swarm is Donald Glover’s horror-comedy limited series and his follow-up to Atlanta, with all seven episodes being released this Friday. I was given the full season to watch a few weeks ago and I was quite curious to see what Glover and Janine Nabers (producer from the last two seasons of Atlanta) were cooking up for Dominique Fishback, who I think is a consistently phenomenal actor since I first saw her on HBO’s The Deuce.

Here, she stars as Dre, a stan who worships at the altar of superstar singer Ni’jah as part of “the swarm.” Sound familiar? The show is very on-the-nose about its parallels to Beyoncé, going as far as to match the show’s timeline to her major career milestones—from a surprise visual album drop, to the elevator incident, and so on. We follow Dre, the working-class protagonist given little humanity and intimacy throughout the season (Dominique at times embodies the character with an alien-like quality) as we explore her violent obsession with anyone who badmouths Beyoncé—sorry, I mean, Ni’jah.

I can’t reveal many details because so much about the show is embargoed, including guest stars and later episode structure, but I will say that overall, the show’s cultural critiques feel thinly sketched out. Despite poking the bear (the echo chamber of toxic fandoms) and touching on how artists capitalize on their fans via ridiculously expensive tour tickets and carefully curated PR-driven narratives about their celebrity personas, I didn’t emerge from the series feeling I had new insight into the current state of contemporary celebrity culture. It feels clear that Dominique is a stand-out performer, and the show is nicely shot and produced, but I was left feeling it should have been more audacious—and specific—for a series tackling the Queen B. I might even join the class action lawsuit the Beyhive will probably end up filing early next week.

Is it gay? It is, but in a potentially problematic way IMO.

8. 1923 (Paramount+)
My score: 60/100

Helen Mirren doing a weird Irish accent! Harrison Ford riding around on a horse! Sheridan spending $30 million per episode! 1923, the second spin-off from Middle America’s favourite mega-hit Yellowstone, might have bit off more than it could chew.