Amazon Prime’s Swarm Unsettling, Memorable

Maeve Woltring Senior Staff Writer

When I first caught wind of the Amazon Prime TV series Swarm, my brain bounced to an implicit word association game — Swarm, anarchy, hierarchy, queen bee, post-apocalyptic societal disarray. In a climate marked by justified paranoia and a media culture frontlined by plausible dystopia like The Last of Us, I was sure Swarm’s title assumed a kind of ecological allusion to the planet’s encroaching demise and society’s digitalized disconnect and hyper-coagulation. I was both partially right and overwhelmingly wrong. Co-directed by Atlanta’s Donald Glover and Janine Nabers, Swarm supplies a psychologically fraught and genre-vexing serial killer series, a disorienting dance between satirical comedy and truly nauseating horror.

I began watching the show with a drive to untangle the mystified impressions I had gleaned from my peers: the show is in many ways about Beyoncé’s fanbase, but also not at all. The show is hard to watch, but impossible not to watch all at once. In the end, I understood the kind of stupefaction Swarm produces wholeheartedly. It’s the kind of show with a drive to trip you up, to dupe you, to challenge your preconceptions, and to dislodge your automatic assumptions.

Swarm opens with an unsettling disclaimer: “This is not a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is intentional.” We open to a close-up shot of the show’s protagonist, Dre, a young Black woman whose obsession with fictional pop singer Ni’jah quickly betrays an acute psychological codependency. Dre lives alone with Melissa, a woman she considers her ‘“sister” and whom she regards with a kind of desperate reverence comparable only to that which she feels towards Ni’jah. At one point early on in the first episode, Melissa wraps her arms around Dre, and Dre begins to kiss a scar on Melissa’s wrist with dolorous fervor, as if the scar were still an open wound. “You’re weird as f**k,” Melissa says to Dre, “but I love your passion.” This evaluation acts like a kind of prophecy for Dre’s increasingly unsettling character arc, her acts of unprecedented violence often ushered by visual or auditory foreshadowing, such as the itch-inducing sound of bees buzzing in dissonant unison. Though Dre is decidedly taciturn, visual cues and auditory flourishes become signifiers of her unraveling psyche. In other words, if you hear bees buzzing, you know death is likely on the horizon.

A mere 25 minutes into the show’s first episode, Melissa, devastated by the news that her toxic boyfriend has cheated on her, commits suicide. Dre, lonely and reserved, leaves home to set off on a blood-soaked odyssey to reconcile her totalizing grief. First, she bludgeons Melissa’s adulterous boyfriend to death. At this initial murder, the audience sees Dre choking on sobs, crawling to the fridge and shoving a mixture of blood and pumpkin pie into her mouth with an indescribable urgency. Dre then embarks on an unpredictable quest to kill people who have publicly dissed Ni’jah on Twitter, with her expressions of remorse gradually diminishing and her serial murder habits slowly calcifying. For example, she always eats a snack after murder.

Food and death become part and parcel with each other, a sinister admixture representative of Dre’s psychological drive to fill the hole left by Melissa’s death.

And then there’s the show’s pointedly flagrant allusions to pop culture. Ni’jah is Beyoncé. Ni’jah’s fanbase, and the titular ‘swarm,’ refers directly to the BeyHive, Beyoncé’s fanbase. Although the show undertakes a bold strategy in the directness of these iconographic stand-ins, such word play and pop cultural critique doesn’t seem to be the main point. Sure, Ni’jah is Beyoncé, but she’s also Melissa; Dre’s fragile reality relies on the warping of people’s identities, and it proves ultimately useless to force significance onto structured categories. Cultural significance takes on a much more pointed meaning in regards to Dre’s interactions with the white gaze. In an episode containing Billie Eilish’s acting debut, Dre encounters a cultish posse of pseudo-spiritual white women, the leader of which is played by Eilish. “I feel so connected to you,” the women insist over and over, even though Dre has barely uttered a word. During this episode in particular, reality and surreality conjoin in a haunting middle reminiscent both of Midsommar and media in the Afro-Surrealist genre, such as Get Out and Atlanta. Although so much of the show takes on a decided slant to reality, these scenes reflect the lived absurdity of the white gaze.

Since its release on Amazon Prime on March 17, the show has garnered many different channels of media attention. As tends to be the unfortunate case, articles fixating on a graphic sex scene in the show’s first episode abound. An article from Collider declares, “Thanks to ‘Swarm,’ we have a new Slasher icon.” A Vulture piece addresses the novelty of a Black woman portrayed through cinema’s age-old madwoman trope, ultimately claiming the show fails to fissure typified representations of “femininity, disability, and power.” The New York Times similarly claims that the show, though textured by Glover’s distinctive aesthetics, ultimately fails to flesh out Dre’s character beyond the titillating. It seems, however, that there is one thing everyone can agree on: Dominique Fishback provides a gorgeous and haunting performance as Dre, and the show, shot fully on film save for a single mockumentary episode, is aesthetically striking. Ultimately, I found Swarm to be not only a singular and memorable viewing experience, but worthwhile especially due to the huge range of discussions it may start among viewers.

“Water Poem in Four Seasons”

Noah Kawaguchi, OC ’22

I.

Twenty-minute drive

And I’m at a sandy beach

But the strange water

Coldly laps at my ankles And asks me how I got here

II.

Trip to Lake Erie

My little ocean that could Pollution, dead fish

Everything is frozen now

I’m the only one melting III.

No ocean in sight

Seven-hour drive, due east Straight toward the coastline I see when the sun comes up That the map was upside down

IV.

The ocean outside Wells up in the fuzzy air

Could I fill the lake

With two decades of water Bottled somewhere far from here?

Noah Kawaguchi graduated in 2022 with a Jazz Studies major and an East Asian Studies minor. “Water Poem in Four Seasons,” written in 2022, is inspired by Kawaguchi’s experiences growing up Asian American here in Lorain County. Beginning with the Japanese tanka form of 31 syllables spread across five lines following a 5/7/5/7/7 pattern, he repeats it four times, once for each season.

Calypso Subverts Classic Mythology with Emotional Immersion

Yasu Shinozaki Arts & Culture Editor

“No man is an island,” states the oft-quoted John Donne poem. But in Calypso, a play written and directed by College fourth-year Jordan Muschler, the entire world of titular nymph, played by College third year Graciela Fernandez, is relegated to the island of Ogygia, where she has lived for centuries with only the occasional visits of the god Hermes, played by College first year Finley Taylor, to keep her company. This changes on a stormy night, when a man named Odysseus washes ashore. Unlike The Odyssey, Calypso focuses on the nymph’s perspective rather than that of Odysseus, played by Ned Bannon. “The original myth was interesting to me because Calypso’s circumstances were so fascinating, and yet she is not given much of her own agency,” Muschler told the Review. “I thought expanding on why she was alone on the island while fleshing out her character could make for a good play, especially since it gave me a chance to tackle loneliness and love in a unique way, with a character I felt a lot of empathy for.”

Calypso gives us an intimate and intense look into her world. The bulk of the play consists of her long conversations with the play’s other two characters, Hermes and Odysseus, that bring out her struggles with loneliness and her desire to connect with others. Additionally, the production includes several live performances of music in which Calypso plays guitar and sings, her lyrics and melancholy voice conveying joy and hurt that dialogue cannot express.

The Kander Theater provides an intimate venue that allows the stellar three-person cast to convey emotional subtlety and intensity and draw us deep into the inner lives of the characters. While the plot is relatively sim- ple, Calypso’s relationships with Hermes and Odysseus are full of complexity. Hermes comes across superficially as a smug, arrogant god, but events in the play reveal emotional vulnerability. This character’s hidden depth shows the strength of the dialogue and its ability to demonstrate intricate character traits. Odysseus is more nuanced and conflicted than he is depicted in The Odyssey. In Calypso, his internal strife is more often shown than stated, demonstrating the strength of the writing and acting.

Muschler’s directing skills are evident in the way he builds mood and atmosphere. The set is simple; a circle of sand, illuminated by marbled light like the reflection of the water that changes to reflect the weather, with a stone arch surrounded in greenery as a backdrop. The dreamy lighting transports us to the idyllic yet miniscule paradise where Calypso is trapped, while sparse musical accompaniment and occasional sounds of waves and rain bring out the silence of her lonely domain. The pacing of the production gives a sense of altered time, reflective of Calypso’s curse of immortality. The scenes are long and move slowly, though they do not drag. Years pass im- perceptibly yet believably during the play’s 95 minutes. Rather than including breaks in the narrative, time slips by as the characters are talking, dancing, and singing. The timelessness is also expressed in the section of the rock backdrop covered with chalk dashes that Calypso adds for every day she has remained in Ogygia. The dashes continue to accumulate throughout the play until Calypso wipes them away in a fit of frustration. Muschler’s ability to compress and extend time so artfully speaks to his control of the medium.

Those familiar with The Odyssey will not expect a happy ending to Calypso. However, the production ends on a hopeful rather than despairing note. Calypso’s troubles do not go away, but her spirit of perseverance is not damaged. At one point, Calypso sings a song telling the story of a Greek myth but leaves out the last verse which tells of the hero’s tragic end. Perhaps Muschler’s innovative change to the Greek myth is his omission of a triumphant or tragic ending. Like many stories, Calypso’s meaning is not found in victory or tragic death, but in human persistence amidst the onslaught of time, trials, and tribulations.

Charlotte Pavlic

Diane Ramos has been the City of Oberlinʼs communications manager since 2021. Recently, she worked with Firelands Association for the Visual Arts and Oberlin High School students to make the Black History Month portrait contest possible. In addition to her work for the City, Ramos is a practicing artist who was the FAVA artist-in-residence in 2019. Her work incorporates a variety of media, including photography, painting, and crochet.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You grew up in Lorain, and now you’re working here in Oberlin. Do you think the communities that you’ve lived and worked in have influenced your work in government and art?

Yeah, definitely in one way or another. We kind of all just build off our experiences. I feel like it’s getting better now, but when I was growing up, art really wasnʼt something that was readily accessible or encouraged. I remember, when I was in high school, actually being discouraged from taking art classes. Now, in this position, I have the opportunity to go a different direction and guide things more — like with the last project we did with the Black History Month banners. Projects that engage local students and the young people by giving them access to art and opportunities are only beneficial for a community. So Iʼm glad that I could bring that side of things to the City of Oberlin, because there are things that I didnʼt have growing up that I wish I had.

Diane Ramos

Communication Manager for the City of Oberlin

Why do you think art is so important to a community?

I think that art is important because it can be so many things to so many different people. For me, I talk about the conceptual side of things and working through these ideas or problems that affect my life. But also, it could be something like, “This is beautiful and it brings me joy.” It can mean so much to so many different people, and I donʼt know of anything else that does that. I think that the ability to create art is beneficial for everyone. I think to be able to bring those opportunities to the community is golden. You have an opportunity to hone skills, or look at things in a different way, or use it as therapy, like I do. It’s a way of getting out what you canʼt get out otherwise, and I think doing that through creative means is very unique.

What kind of role do you think art does or should play in the Oberlin community?

Everything. Art is everything, right? If I wasn’t an art major, I couldn’t do the majority of the things that I’m doing in my job. Itʼs that ability to not only create, but also think in a creative manner to come up with new solutions to problems.

Working in a small government, it’s different every day. New problems arise, and you have to have the ability to think critically and think creatively to better the lives that you serve. I think thatʼs something that I learned as an art major. I want to bring that to any community I serve, wherever I land.

What do you see as major obstacles to the accessibility of arts in Oberlin?

Just generally speaking, the perception of art as not being valuable is a problem everywhere. But I think in Oberlin, maybe itʼs more of not knowing how to take advantage of it. We have so much here. And outside of Oberlin, people think of Oberlin as this great arts community, but itʼs not so much shining here as I feel it should be. We have an amazing museum here. We have Oberlin College. We have these galleries downtown and all of these incredible resources. They’re just not as promoted as they should be. They’re not as accessible as they should be. I think thatʼs been an obstacle, and you need someone or some organization to champion those types of efforts. Iʼm trying — Iʼm doing the best I can. I think that thereʼs more work to be done, but I think having that recognition that there is so much here — thereʼs so much potential for our community to shine as an arts hub, and Iʼm working to do that.

You mentioned you worked on the Black History Month portrait contest. Will we be seeing more projects like that bringing art to the community?

We’re hoping to! One of the things that we’re building on this year and hoping to do is the Black History project. I think everybody involved in it was like, “Yes, we need to do this every year,” so thatʼs going to continue.

One of the other things that we are putting together now is we are partnering with Firelands Association for the Visual Arts to grant funding for mural projects in the downtown business district. Thatʼs one of the things that weʼve heard, that

Crossword

thereʼs interest in these visual arts elements downtown. Moneyʼs always an issue, so thatʼs the resource we are able to provide. Since we’re the government, we donʼt necessarily want to be in the business of selecting art downtown, so we’re fortunate to have an organization like FAVA right in our community that has those resources and can put together selection panels and work with artists and art in mind. It’s a pilot program this year, so we will have that evaluation at the end of the year, and hopefully we can keep that going and see that expand.

I’ll give you one other thing that we’re working on this year, though I donʼt have a lot of details yet because we’re still in

ACROSS

1. “Pay It No Mind” Johnson

5. The Goddess of Pop

7. She says a little prayer for you!

8. Militant Indigenous civil rights group, founded in 1968

9. Sketch show that premiered in 1975, for short

12. Texting service, for short

15. Eric of the Monty Python group, or another word for lazy

16. Famously shaggy

18. Like “The Star Spangled Banner” or “We Will Rock You”

19. She rings like a bell through the night

21. East Coast gas station chain, founded in 1964

22. The magic number

25. Agnetha, Björn, Benny, and Anni

27. Pistachio pudding salad, or Nixon scandal

29. “Queen of Funk” surname

30. LeVar Burton television debut

32. Genre that rose to popularity in the ’70s

33. Either/___

34. Garfunkel’s frenemy

35. Band that combined opera with rock, a controversial move at the time the idea-building process. We are looking to establish a yearly Art in the Park event, like an Art Fair. We’re still building what the event is going to look like — we definitely want it to be very arts-driven, but also very Oberlin, so we want to work with all the galleries downtown. We want to work with Oberlin College and the Art department there and the Conservatory. We want to bring in the high school art students as well. We want it to be this very Oberlin community, arts-driven, annual event to happen downtown later this year. I think thatʼs one of those attempts to really let all the wonderful arts resources and organizations here shine.

DOWN

1. Cookbook from an Ithaca-based cooperative restaurant

2. Chlamydia, e.g.

3. First major airline to employ a female pilot in 1973, abbr.

4. Addams’ cousin

5. Bickle’s vehicles of choice

6. Landmark abortion rights case __ v. Wade

8. World heavyweight boxing champion

10. What 5-across did four days after her divorce

11. Minnesotan who appeared as a guest on an episode of New Girl

13. R&B music style named for Detroit-based record company

14. “River Collective Statement” published in 1977

17. ʼ70s slang for a certain green herb:

20. Shorts named for their temperature

23. Detest

24. Helter Skelter “family”

25. Home of DEVO

26. Filled bun:

28. “____ calling!”

31. Wrongdoing, to the religious

Answers to last week’s crossword