Critic Reviews

Fishback rarely plays into the laughs the character’s absurd psychosis generates. She’s a frightening, wounded core around which the show’s snarling satire of media madness swirls. Dre’s also a deceptively blank slate for both a condescending Black community and clueless white people to project their misunderstandings onto, often hilariously.

The “Swarm” finale may not satisfy all viewers – it’s somewhat open to interpretation and not concrete – but it is a fitting finale to easily one of the year’s best, most outrageous series.

It’s a spellbinding horror story about our fascination with celebrities and the loneliness and isolation many feel when they are stuck on the outside of a star’s inner circle. ... Expect Fishback to be collecting awards for her take-no-prisoners performance.

Fishback's work channels the same way those characters have revealed the ids of their time period and left an unforgettable mark. Every pop culture movement creates its own killer. "Swarm" is just getting in formation.

A sharp, introspective style — relying on disturbing ambient sounds, changing color gradients and consistent shifts to Dre's first-person perspective — allows for the audience to have a way in. And Fishback's performance, mysterious and unsettling while also tapping into measures of deep pain and sadness, completes the picture.

Glover and Nabers have crafted a production that looks past the fan and shows the heavily-damaged person behind her, but without trying to make her likable or justifiable. I binged the season almost without break, and I'm sure a lot of others are going to do that too.

Seven episodes is maybe one more than we needed, and the finale runs out of steam. Episode 6, “Fallin Through the Cracks,” will certainly have its fans, though its loose construction needed further refinement to better justify such blunt (but effective!) choices. Still, with Fishback a riveting constant, well-deployed gallows humor, and more to the story than meets the eye, the buzz around “Swarm” is worth hearing out.

Donald Glover proves he can do horror too with Swarm, anchored by a dazzling lead performance from Dominique Fishback.

A spectacular showcase for Fishback. ... The only true misstep comes in the back half of the season, which features a big stylistic swing that not only fails, but manages to break the morbid trance the show spends so much time earning. ... That one miscalculation aside, “Swarm” is a trip worth taking.

It’s the tension between the show’s satirical elements and what it tries to achieve outside of them that makes it so engaging.