LOW-KEY, VIOLENT and unsettling, Prime Video’s “Swarm” looks at the darkest sides of social media and super fandom. Co-created by Donald Glover of “Atlanta” fame, “Swarm” moves the scene to Houston, where Dre (Dominique Fishback) maintains an obsessive and immature fixation on a pop superstar apparently modeled on Beyonce.
Dre devotes her waking hours on a social media app dedicated to adolescent fans of the star, who believe that her lyrics express their innermost thoughts, dreams and fears. Dre is first seen opening a credit card account just so she can buy $1,800 tickets to her idol’s concert.
She’s kept afloat by her sister, Marissa (Chloe Bailey), who grows increasingly impatient with Dre’s childishness and irresponsibility. Marissa’s boyfriend (Damson Idris) takes up an increasing amount of her time. That doesn’t stop him from making creepy advances on Dre and obsessing about her virginity.
Dre works, sporadically, at a kiosk for beauty products in a shopping center, where she’s at the low end of the pecking order of minimum-wage clerks. Not unlike “Atlanta,” this series makes the most of the unadorned architecture of shopping malls and cheap apartments. Its characters exhibit a similar familiarity with invisibility and unending disappointment.
It would be unfair to say much more about the series’ scary pilot except to say that it ends with a psychotic break for Dre and actions that send her on the run, ill-equipped to live by her wits as she cannot distinguish delusional and increasingly devotional fandom from reality.
• Hulu streams the original movie “Boston Strangler,” a true-life murder mystery, period newsroom drama and profile of two women (Keira Knightley, “The Imitation Game” and Carrie Coon, “Fargo,” “The Gilded Age”) who defied the male condescension of their era (the mid-1960s), their paper and the city of Boston to cast light on the police force’s bungled handing of a serial killer targeting young women. Produced by Ridley Scott.
• A young father and professional influencer becomes obsessed with family skeletons after discovering a disturbing truth about his father in the original Netflix movie “Noise.”
Netflix also streams the animated fantasy film “The Magician’s Elephant,” based on a book by Kate DiCamillo.
• Set in Madrid, the new Netflix series “Sky High” follows a young widow who discovers she has no choice but to follow in her dead husband’s criminal footsteps.
• Disney+ streams “Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming With Dave Letterman.” The former talk show host accompanies the U2 members to Dublin, where they visit old haunts and describe the songwriting process and inspirations behind some of their biggest hits.
• Apple TV+ launches the eight-episode anthology series “Extrapolations,” following people in the not-so-distant future making choices based on radically changing climate conditions.
Other highlights
• First-round play of the 2023 NCAA men’s basketball tournament includes Providence and Kentucky (7 p.m., CBS) and Montana State and Kansas State (9:30 p.m.).
• A troubled couple visits a quaint town over the holidays in the 2022 romance “We Wish You a Married Christmas” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G). You know St. Patrick’s Day has lost its appeal when even Hallmark ignores it.
• Dwayne Johnson stars in the 2022 DC comics adaptation “Black Adam” (7:50 p.m., HBO).
• Christine Baranski hosts “The Hours,” based in part on Virginia Woolf’s novel “Mrs. Dalloway” on “Great Performances at the Met” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings).
• The couple-counseling series “Put a Ring On It” (9 p.m., OWN, TV-PG) continues its fourth season.
• A playboy (Rock Hudson) and a career girl (Doris Day) spend time flirting on the telephone in the 1959 romantic comedy “Pillow Talk” (10 p.m., TCM, TV-G).
Cult choice
Warwick Davis stars in the 1993 horror film “Leprechaun” (8 p.m. and 10 p.m., Syfy, TV-14), featuring a pre-”Friends” Jennifer Aniston and the tagline: “The Luck of the Irish Just Ran Out!” Part of a 24-hour marathon of “Leprechaun” movies.
Series notes
Might-have-beens on “Lopez vs. Lopez” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) ... “WWE Friday Night SmackDown” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) ... Reinventing the ice cream cone on “Shark Tank” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) ... A party becomes the setting for a quarrel on “Grand Crew” (8:30 p.m., NBC, TV-14) ... “Dateline” (9 p.m., NBC) ... “20/20” (9 p.m., ABC, r).
Late night
Kenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell and Padma Lakshmi on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) ... Paul Rudd and Zoe Brecher visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC, r) ... Chloe Grace Moretz, Glen Powell and Renee Rapp appear on “The Late Late Show With James Corden” (1:35 a.m., CBS, r).
His circumstances sounded straight out of "Moby-Dick," but Rick Rodriguez wasn't kidding. In his first text messages from the life raft, he said he was in serious trouble.
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon, in a significant shift, said Tuesday that it will send M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine by the fall, after facing scrutiny for initially saying it could take a year or two to procure the powerful weapons and get them to the battlefield.
The escalating criminal jeopardy confronting Donald Trump has restored him to his political comfort zone, according to advisers and allies: counterattacking, with prominent Republicans largely behind him.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) made his sharpest criticism yet of former president Donald Trump, indirectly rebuking the leadership style of his possible rival for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination and styling himself as a "winner."
It might have been a toothbrush that enabled two inmates to escape from a Virginia jail this week, but their quick recapture may have stemmed from a need to sink their teeth into something filling, according to an official account.
Kate L. developed cravings for everything bagels last year while pregnant with her first child. On Sept. 20, she picked one up and ate it on the way to a check up with her OBGYN.
TikTok's reputation in Washington as a danger to the American public has been building for years, buoyed by lawmakers who have fixated on the foreign-owned app in response to concerns about the rise of China and the harmful effects of social media on children.
Last month, when more than 200,000 students who had been victims of misconduct by their colleges began getting the news that their federal student loans were canceled, Amanda Luciano felt a sense of satisfaction - and a pang of despair.
