Swarm’s Andrea Greene aka the Black American Psycho
A review of Black Twitter’s show of the moment
Swarm is one of the most unhinged shows. Ever. In this 7-episode limited series, the wayward super-fan Dre (Dominique Fishback) embarks on a killing spree in the name of her celebrity obsession, Ni-Jah (Nirine Brown), and her foster sister, Marissa (Chloë Bailey). The show follows Dre as she stalks Ni’jah haters around the country, adopting different personas along the way. Janine Nabers and Donald Glover’s Swarm is a thinly veiled commentary on the Beyhive with many plot points beat-for-beat mirroring infamous rumors about the Beyoncé fandom. But more than that, Swarm presents a new media archetype: the Black American Psycho.
The barrage of senseless violence in Swarm inserts Dre into a gruesome genre. Halfway through the limited series, Dre mops up the blood of her most recent victim while dancing to a Ni’jah song. In style, content, and execution, the scene is reminiscent of the “Hip To Be Square” murder in American Psycho (2000). Except unlike Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman who lures his victims into his pristine apartment, Dre is an outsider, a wanderer who infiltrates the homes of the privileged. Dre is the Black American Psycho.
If White creators need not worry about authentic…
