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Al Gore’s Internet has no group more enigmatic than pop music’s Stan. Whether they’re using their collective power for good (like when a K-Pop stan drowned a Donald Trump rally in 2020) or pure evil (the Swifties scripted their presence on social (like when they harassed the young stars of the Netflix show in one joke). Not.
herd, on Prime Video this Friday, is perhaps (hopefully) more of a Tarantino-esque nightmare we imagine to be popstan’s daily life than what usually happens in reality. Janine Nabers and Donald Glover The series, co-produced by Dre, follows a young black woman named Dre (Dominique Fishback). Dre (Dominique Fishback) becomes obsessed with a Beyoncé-esque superstar named Ni’Jah, leading her down a shocking and disturbing path. The fewer details viewers know going into the series, the better, because there are plenty of disorienting and oddly pleasant surprises. will satisfy the fans of
It’s no surprise that the pitch for the highly twisted yet truthful TV show came from Glover’s brain. Probably since the 2010 mixtape. dead endGlover’s larger-than-life rap persona Childish Gambino has spurred an online cult of its own. herd To Nabers, who executive produced and wrote the last two seasons of his FX series AtlantaAnd given that Nabers is from Houston, it seems almost a coincidence that the show is heavily influenced by Beyoncé’s ardent fanbase called BeyHive.
Nabers doesn’t (yet) have a profile as low profile as someone like Glover, but over the past decade many TV enthusiasts have already fallen in love with her work.
After establishing himself as a formidable playwright in multiple theater companies, the Juilliard graduate began his television career as a story editor, co-producer, and writer on Bravo’s now-cancelled but beloved scripted series. I was. Girlfriend Divorce GuideShe also worked on the surprise hit Lifetime series unrealistic And one season of AMC Dietland. In addition to Atlantathe HBO miniseries watchmen, Winner of several Emmy Awards, this work is arguably the most notable producing credit on her resume. herdbut just might beat it.
Nabers says she wrote herd with the same intent as Glover when he created his strange world Atlanta: Create feelings. After bingeing the series, we can confirm that Nabers has achieved ten times that of him. His first half-hour episode violently evokes shock, fear, embarrassment, anxiety, and pity. It’s a clever approach for a series that easily gets into nasty didactic territory. herd He refrains from prosecuting the fangirl protagonist and Stan culture as a whole.
Nabers recently told The Daily Beast’s Obsessed: herdof The amazing cultural references, the show’s cinematic influence, the liberation of portraying black women as antiheroines.
herd It feels like a very unique project. Are there any plays or TV shows you’ve worked on that you felt were ready for this show?
As a playwright, I think I was always writing very subversive stories with black women at the helm.So I think it definitely gave him some sort of clue to the storytelling that I’m doing and he’s just working on Atlanta The aesthetic that Donald has set from the beginning, his desire for people to feel when they see something and shift it tonally into this world, Atlanta In tone and the meaning it has.but [we were] I really still maintain ideas and aesthetics like, “What is the feeling you want people to feel when they see this?”
When Glover pitched you this show, did you immediately think of Beyoncé and her Stan Army as analog?
I mean, we talked about a lot of stun armies. There are many of them. And I think Donald is someone who has his own kind of “herd”, a musician in the world who has seen a lot. Feelings of a group of people who protect the star by means. So we ran with that and the feeling it gives you.
How important is Beyoncé as an overarching cultural reference for the story you wanted to tell on this show?
I think people are projecting who they like on this image of the person. Seeing the iconic silhouettes of the people of the world—the black women who represent something in music—can fill the void of who it is to themselves and this story. I think emulating the idea of an icon and being able to build a story around it is exactly what we were trying to do.
What can you tell us about the film and television influences of this show?
We only talked about the movies that inspired this. And I shot it all on film. So it’s been a lot of moviegoers talking about movies we love and weird characters we don’t quite understand, but we follow anyway. Many of them were native films, many were foreign films. We watched some anime movies. we watched a documentary. We were inspired by so many things. I think I have a long list of things I told writers to go see. And in the first few days in the writers’ room, we were talking about all these weird movies and documentaries, the weird songs we were hearing, so that was a lot of food for thought.
Have you ever used the social media underground known as Stan Twitter or StanTok?
I did a lot of research. But there were eight writers in the room, including Donald and myself.And what’s interesting about what you’ve been working on? Atlanta For two years, half the time we were in that room was watching YouTube, trading memes with each other, and interacting on Twitter and Instagram. And this show was very similar. We were always online, always in group chats, discussing the trends of the day. You have your ears and eyes open to all. And especially when it’s social, especially when dealing with something with musical or cultural elements, it’s all kind of food for thought.
Much of the show relies on Dominic Fishback’s stellar performance. How much of a Dre character did you have in mind when you wrote the script, and how much of a character did Fishback bring?
she is wonderful And I think she really did a lot for this role. And she brought Dre to life in a way that exceeded all of our expectations. You write the script, and like all the scripts I’ve written, you see this character live in a way that at times he barely speaks. How do you allow yourself to live through a woman’s face? And I think Dominic really nailed it. And we’re all looking forward to watching all these episodes with her.
At another time, seeing a black woman play this violent anti-heroine feels like ruffled some feathers. Nevermind, there are enough images of black women that these transcendental characters can exist.
When people talk about diversity and storytelling, it’s very important that people understand that “black” isn’t just viewed as diversity. Black storytelling has many different stories. And I think that’s really great for me. I think that’s what I want people to take. I want people to understand that they can tell their own version of Quentin Tarantino’s story through the lens of a black woman. It’s not always reserved for white men to be antiheroes. can do it too. And because black women can do so many things, maybe we can go beyond that and do it in a little more meaningful way. I think there is a possibility that you will be able to play a role that you never dreamed of.
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