Here’s what you need to know about ‘Swarm,’ this season’s buzziest new television series

A young woman, with a fanatic obsession with a pop singer, sets out on a murderous rampage across America to be closer to her idol.

That twisted storyline, which is the basic plot of the horror-thriller series “Swarm,” must be pure fiction, right? Nope.

“We did research for months to basically find events within a 21/2 year period that we could put our main character into,” co-creator Janine Nabers said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, noting that the series is set in the 2010s. “So it’s really not a work of fiction. We’ve taken real internet rumours, real murders and combined them in the narrative of our main character, Dre. Not much of it is fabricated.”

The show’s inspired genesis, pulled together by Nabers and co-creator Donald Glover (known for his work on the comedy-drama series “Atlanta”), is just one of the factors that have made “Swarm” one of the buzziest new television series of the season.

American actor Dominique Fishback has also earned rave reviews as Dre, the compulsively obsessed superfan at the centre of the story. The main character is part of a fan base called “The Swarm,” which critics and fans of the show have said is depicted as oddly similar to Beyoncé’s fan base known as the “Bey Hive.”

While Fishback’s starring performance has been lauded, it has perhaps been overshadowed by that of real-life pop star Billie Eilish in her highly anticipated screen debut. (That Eilish, who herself has an army of a fan base, is part of this project is yet another way the show blurs the lines between fiction and reality.) She features in one episode of the seven-episode series and plays Eva, a cult leader who takes Dre under her care.

Like other aspects of this show about toxic fan culture, Eilish’s character is also drawn from a true crime origin.

“There is a cult that existed in the world that was very prominent during that time,” said Nabers of Eilish’s character, in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. “And that is the kind of true-crime element to that episode.”

Eva’s characteristics were reportedly inspired by NXIVM, a personality and sex cult founded by convicted sex offender Keith Raniere.

Besides Eilish, there are other surprising — and well known — names attached to the project.

Paris Jackson, daughter to the late Michael Jackson, also features in the show, playing a stripper named Hailey who has an abusive boyfriend.

And behind the scenes, one of the show’s co-writers is a familiar face from early 2010s American presidential politics.

Malia Obama, the eldest child of former U.S. president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, helped pen “Girl, Bye,” the fifth episode. Nabers said the episode, which she also co-wrote, is one of the “wildest” in the series.

“Some of her pitches were wild as hell, and they were just so good and so fun,” Nabers said of 24-year-old Malia, speaking with ET. “She’s an incredible writer. She brought a lot to the table … She’s really, really dedicated to her craft.”

The episode, set in 2018, also has some not-so-subtle jabs aimed at Malia’s father’s successor in the White House.

“Swarm,” which premiered March 10 at SXSW, is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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