Swarm - Amazon Prime grindhouse-em-up

[ZOK]

This is a fantastic show (well, I’ve watched two episodes and they were both fantastic) about a bad girl doing bad things. 
 

 

The trailer is pretty spoilerific, I stopped watching after one minute but that’s really all you need to know if you will like it or not. Fab sound, fab cast - if you like Too Old to Die Young you will probably like this too, although it fairly races along by comparison. 

[Fierce Poodle]

That looks ace. Weird that there’s another show called ‘The Swarm’ on the front page at the moment. What are the odds?

[El Geet]

I put the first one on out of curiosity and found it quite uncomfortable, gritty viewing but oddly compelling. It feels very current if that makes sense. I saw Donald Glover credited as Creator. Kind of figures. He’s pretty talented 

 

I was left wondering a bit about how they’re portraying the main character. In particular as I caught the start of the second episode and she’s being played for laughs it seemed. Not sure that feels right…

[ZOK]

It’s supposed to be funny as well as grimy, but I don’t think they’re playing her for laughs. She is supposed to be fun though.

[ZOK]

There are so many hilarious details in this…when you get to the third ep look out for the ‘skunk in a dress’ painting, I think it’s one of my favourite things ever!

[ZOK]

Also I’ve just twigged that Dominique Fishback who is the star of this also played Darlene in The Deuce - she was excellent in that, and is excellent in this too.

[Silent Runner]

Finished this tonight and though it was really excellent except for a fairly weak last episode. I loved how slightly off-kilter the whole thing was, it reminded me a lot of Atlanta in that way. The Beyonce details were great and the full-meta swerve in episode 6 worked really well. 

 

Definitely the best thing I've watched on Prime. 

[schmojo]

I'm about 4 episodes in, and it's very interesting. Has that unsettling, off-kilter parallel universe vibe that Atlanta has, unsurprisingly. I don't know how much hands-on work Glover does outside of the show's setup and the episode(s) he directs, but he's got form for trusting non-actors to deliver. I thought Eilish was ok, but surrounded by much more capable actors.

 

I do wonder if the Beyhive would go after Glover for it - it pulls very few punches in who it's depicting.

 

When you've got names on a hot streak attached to tons of projects, like Glover, Waititi or Peel (I'd say it's a coincidence that they're all POC, but it's not. Studios clearly see them as golden geese.), I wonder just how much input they have. Is it a couple of conceptual pages to outline the concept and then directing an episode?

 

It's probably significantly more, but hard to get my head around how productive some people are.

 

Also, I'd be interested to hear the reason for the aspect ratio. Just to mess with the sense of time and place?

[ZOK]

On 24/03/2023 at 22:49, Silent Runner said:

it was really excellent except for a fairly weak last episode

Really? I loved the last episode! I thought the previous one was the weaker, but I loved that as well really.

 

What a fantastic show though, such great sound design throughout and some of the song choices blew me away.  Can’t believe I’ve never heard this before, closing track on episode 5:

 

 

 

[ZOK]

On 25/03/2023 at 08:38, schmojo said:

Also, I'd be interested to hear the reason for the aspect ratio. Just to mess with the sense of time and place?

I thought this was just to suit the grimy vibe, Eighties video nasty style.

[JohnC]

There's certainly truth in it

 

[Silent Runner]

23 hours ago, ZOK said:

Really? I loved the last episode! I thought the previous one was the weaker, but I loved that as well really.

 

Yeah, i know one of the main parts of the show is you're never really sure what's 'real' and what's not. But I thought ep 7 pushed that a bit far. I did read the Reddit thread and there was a theory there that made me re-asses it.

 

Spoiler

What they suggested was that the sequence where Ni'jah is leading Dre to her car is all in Dres mind. And what's really happening is she is being arrested by the cop from episode 6. Because at the end of ep 6 the cop says something like 'I'm going to find the right Ni'jah concert and arrest her'. And the way Ni'Jah is bringing her to the car is the same arrested-person you'd see in various cop-shows. 

 

[ZOK]

Yes, I had assumed 

Spoiler

the show bit was Dre’s dream, but I missed the bit about the cop saying she’d find her at a show. I’m sure there’s a bit in that last ep where she is in a shop or something and the cop walks past her in the background having a conversation with someone, which would fit!

 

[schmojo]

6 hours ago, Silent Runner said:

Yeah, i know one of the main parts of the show is you're never really sure what's 'real' and what's not. But I thought ep 7 pushed that a bit far. I did read the Reddit thread and there was a theory there that made me re-asses it.

 

  Hide contents

What they suggested was that the sequence where Ni'jah is leading Dre to her car is all in Dres mind. And what's really happening is she is being arrested by the cop from episode 6. Because at the end of ep 6 the cop says something like 'I'm going to find the right Ni'jah concert and arrest her'. And the way Ni'Jah is bringing her to the car is the same arrested-person you'd see in various cop-shows. 

 

 

That's totally how I read the ending. It's even

Spoiler

given away in the title of the episode, iirc

.

[Minion]

Oooh this is very good.

[Monkeyboy]

I thought this was great. The weakest episode was probably the penultimate one.

 

I've never seen Glover's other show, Atlanta. Worth a watch?

[Minion]

8 hours ago, Monkeyboy said:

Atlanta. Worth a watch?

 

errr Yeah!!!!!