So, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before with a series or movie. I’m going to review the Swarm series, and then, I’m going to delve deeper into the good stuff. That way, I can keep my thoughts separate and not mesh the two together.
I want to start with Billie Ellish. Any time I see Dominique Fishback, she is a different person, and I don’t see her, if that makes sense. She’s a chameleon, and I am excited to see where she goes on the future depth wise. But back to Billie. If Billie walked past me in the mall, I would have no clue who she was, but in this series? Baby!! She was everything! I wanted to see so much more of her and was extremely made when Dre ran over her in her car. I Googled Ellish as I was watching this and was wondering if she had taken any acting classes or went to an acting school. She did not. She was homeschooled! The therapy session between her and Dre WAS TOP NOTCH! What I really want to know is who knew she could do this? Did she ask to do this? Did she audition for the role? I need the complete backstory. Also, nominate her for an Emmy, PLEASE!
I’m going to tell you right now– I did not enjoy the placement of the last two episodes. When I finished the series, I said I didn’t like the way it ended, but after a day of thinking and arguing with friends about the death at the beginning, I came to the conclusion that it was the fact that the mock-umentary was the episode before the last one. I didn’t like this for two reasons. One, it took me out of the series completely. It was such a sharp juxtaposition to the main show (yes, I know it was supposed to do that but still) that it threw me off. Then, according to the showrunner, the mock-umentary is supposed to be the nonfiction in this fictional world we’re watching. So, technically, the mock-umentary told us the actual end. With that being said, the ending of the last episode confused me and left me like, “Dassit? What just happened?” If you swap the episodes, it makes more sense to me. You get to finish this Lifetime experience and then give us the real. That’s how I would have done it, but nobody asked me.
I’m not going to even lie to you all. When Reggie was choking her in episode two, I was like, “Take her out!” I was annoyed with this motivation by the second episode! She’s done her job, y’all. But and however, I later digested the series and got a better understanding of the motivation behind the killings, which I will discuss later, so I wasn’t so upset after I thought about it.
I’m a fan of Atlanta, so this series made me feel right at home. For those who haven’t consumed much Donald and Stephen Glover content, then this could be a bit much for you or you if you love shows like American Horror Story, you’ll be ok.
Each and every episode made me physically hit the next button. Didn’t even wait for the countdown. I needed to know what happened. Also, my favorite part of this series is when Mr. Jackson was shooting at Dre out of his upstairs window and “Caint Use My Phone” by Erykah Badu started to play, I lost it! When you talk about perfect sound editing and a perfect playlist, THIS IS WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT! Thank yall for that.
Bring it in. What did you think? Initial thoughts. Did you like the way it ended? Did you want more? Did you get enough of who Dre was and her motivations from this show or nah?
BLACK WATCH 