Is the series “Swarm” based on a true story and real events?

Naga has her own killer bees. Beyoncé has her Beyhive.
Photo: Warrick Page/Prime Video

swarm Each episode begins with a bizarre preamble: “This is not a work of fiction,” reads the introductory title card. “Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to actual events, is intentional.” It might seem like an odd way to pitch a seven-part limited series about a fictional Stan named Dre (Dominic Fishback) who goes on a murderous rampage for two years to defend her favorite pop artist, Naija, but any binge swarm, or even just glancing at the trailer, you know that Ni’jah is an avatar of the real-life Queen Bey, and that her die-hard fans, The Killer Bees, represent the Beyhive. “We got close [the similarities to Beyoncé] With a lot of respect,” the program’s creator, Janine Nabers, told Vulture. “The legal stuff we did was very measured, purposeful, and thoughtful. If that happens, you can write about it. When things happen in the world and you’re a public person – legally speaking, we don’t lie. We gave it all: “This is not a work of fiction.” This is the first thing you see when you look at this display. It has been legally cleared because it is not a work of fiction.”

Located in Houston and other American cities and towns throughout the city festival Era – A similar time period to Beyoncé Lemonade Promotions, which ended with a stellar performance at Coachella – the Prime Video show had no choice but to single out the standout moments by virtue of the fact that they’re so stuck in our collective consciousness of pop. “When you do a show about culture, you have to think about the moments during that two-and-a-half year time period that culturally cut through the noise, like black people with music,” Napiers explained. “When you tell us about a period of time within a very distinct point in an artist’s life—real events that happened between 2016 and 2018—you’re reaching for standards that people will be talking about for years to come.”

Cultural events, especially those related to Beyoncé, take on a kind of pop-mania historical significance. she said, referring to Solange’s fight with Jay-Z in an elevator at the Standard Hotel, a seismic event that sprinkled across “Page Six” and eventually became etched into our memories (it has been impersonated). swarm). “It’s about feeling like you were somewhere when our version of the Berlin Wall came down.”