Is Donald Glover’s New Series Based on a True Story?
The question of whether life imitates art or vice versa has been debated by storytellers since the beginning of time. Telling stories and creating characters and adventures are inherently human, and different media outlets allow for various types of storytelling. Over the past few decades, storytelling has evolved tremendously, with streaming services taking over the world. As a result, people are diving into their favorite tales on an almost daily basis.
One such tale is the Prime Video horror series, Swarm, created by Donald Glover and Jeanine Nabers. The show tackles the current obsession that has become the norm on social media, especially regarding pop music artists. With special appearances from Billie Eilish, the series is praised for its horror elements. Here are the elements of Swarm that are based on real life and are entirely fiction.
Swarm is a seven-episode limited series available to binge-watch on Prime Video. It tells the story of Dre, a huge fan of the pop artist Ni’Jah. The singer’s fan base is called Swarm, and Dre is a proud member. While it seems like just another slightly obsessed fan, it quickly turns dark as Dre channels her negative emotions violently on people who talk badly about her beloved music icon. The series is not based on a true story, but it is based on behavior deemed normal that is highly unhealthy to everyone involved.
While Swarm was not based on a real-life serial killer or case, there is no shortage of new series that tell real-case stories. HBO Max has one of the best catalogs regarding their original detective/criminal miniseries. In 2022, The Staircase, with a killer cast that includes Toni Collette and Colin Firth, was released, talking about the actual case of writer Michael Peterson and his deceased wife. The series was Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. More recently, Love & Death was released about the murder involving Candy Montgomery. The miniseries also has a great cast, starring Elizabeth Olsen, Jesse Plemons, and Lily Rabe as the lead characters of this passionate murder.
For those who want to watch stories based on serial killers on their screen, many options are available on almost every streaming platform. A critically acclaimed production that came from the mind of the brilliant director David Fincher is the Netflix show called Mindhunter. In Mindhunter, they explain how two FBI agents started to profile serial killers in the late seventies, their methods evolved with time, but they are still used today. Famous ones such as Charles Manson and Ed Kemper are portrayed on the show and were used by the actual FBI agents to be able to catalog different types of serial killers.
In conclusion, storytelling has come a long way and has evolved tremendously over the past few decades. With streaming services taking over the world, people are diving into their favorite tales on an almost daily basis. Swarm and other series based on real-life cases provide a glimpse into the darker side of human behavior. While these shows are not based on true stories, they shed light on unhealthy behavior that has become all too common in our society.
Does life imitate art, or is it the other way around? That’s a question storytellers have been asking since the beginning of the craft. Telling stories and creating characters and adventures are inherently human. Different media outlets allow different types of storytelling, which has evolved tremendously over the past few decades. With streaming services taking over the world, there has probably never been a time when people dived at such a high rate into their favorite tales on an almost daily basis. In some of these narratives, the viewer connects with it because they can recognize an element from their real lives shown on TV, including social behavior.
Donald Glover and Jeanine Nabers created the Prime Video horror series embedded in social criticism Swarm. The show tackles the current obsession that has become the norm on social media, especially regarding pop music artists, with even special appearances from one of the most prominent singer-songwriters of recent years, Billie Eilish. The series is praised for its horror elements. This was surprising since Glover is known mainly for comedic projects and his music career, making him known firsthand for the behavior he criticizes.
Here are the elements of Swarm that are based on real life and are entirely fiction.
What Is Swarm About?
There has never been an easier time to know what people you know are doing daily. This is especially true regarding celebrities or someone with some level of fame. From their social media posts to pictures paparazzi or other fans take of them — it’s a matter of knowing where to look to get the information you want. Because of this constant exposure to a person’s life, it can feel like there’s some real relationship between a fan and an artist — even if they never met.
With music artists, it appears this phenomenon is even more significant, as the lyrics to their songs can be relatable to many people, almost feeling like they know the person who’s listening. This has created an obsessive culture that only seems to be increasing with time, and that’s precisely what the Prime Video series tackles, with a lot of bloody twists.
Swarm is a seven-episode limited series available to binge-watch on Prime Video. It tells the story of Dre (Dominique Fishback) is a huge fan of the pop artist. Ni’Jah (Nirine S. Brown). The singer’s fan base is called Swarm, and Dre is a proud member. While it seems like just another slightly obsessed fan, it quickly turns dark as Dre channels her negative emotions violently on people who talk badly about her beloved music icon. There’s no shortage of gore in this tale.
Is Swarm Based on a True Story?
Because the show tackles such a unique and modern problem, and true crime has become one of the most popular subgenres in movies and television shows, many wondered if this was a series based on real-life occurrences or even an unknown serial killer. Especially because, before every episode, a title card appears that says, “This is not a work of fiction.” Thankfully, while extreme fans have become more intense in the past years, the series didn’t base the main character on a real serial killer.
However, as many fans pointed out, there are similarities between Beyoncé and Ni’Jah, including the fan base name. Beyoncé’s is called Bey Hive, which is very similar to Swarm, and is not a coincidence. Back in 2016, when Beyoncé’s Lemonade album came out, there was an online rumor that a girl committed suicide (which turned out to be false) after hearing the album and confirming that Jay-Z cheated on Beyoncé. Co-creator Janine Nabers explained to Shondaland“It was a little bit of the catalyst to this show, and that’s when I researched all the crazy stories that we’ve heard online or that have existed in the real world revolving around this particular musician, and how could we bring those issues to life and make them our own.”
The clever twist of the show was that it takes all the aggression found online and translates it into real life. People are increasingly getting into ugly arguments about celebrities they are obsessed with while also getting affected by what happens in their personal lives. There’s also an extremely toxic space on the internet, where suicide rumors and death threats are only a small part of it. So, while the show is not based on a real-life person, it is based on behavior deemed normal that is highly unhealthy to everyone involved and is, unfortunately, common.
Series Based on Real Cases
While Swarm was not based on a real-life serial killer or case, there is no shortage of new series that tell real-case stories. Max has one of the best catalogs regarding their original detective/criminal miniseries. In 2022, The Staircase, with a killer cast that includes Toni Collette and Colin Firth, was released, talking about the actual case of writer Michael Peterson and his deceased wife. The series was Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. More recently, Love & Death was released about the murder involving Candy Montgomery. The miniseries also has a great cast, starring Elizabeth Olsen, Jesse Plemons, and Lily Rabe as the lead characters of this passionate murder.
For those who want to watch stories based on serial killers on their screen, many options are available on almost every streaming platform. A critically acclaimed production that came from the mind of the brilliant director David Fincher is the Netflix show called Mindhunter. In mindhunter, they explain how two FBI agents started to profile serial killers in the late seventies, their methods evolved with time, but they are still used today. Famous ones such as Charles Manson and Ed Kemper are portrayed on the show and were used by the actual FBI agents to be able to catalog different types of serial killers.
