Netflix’s ‘Death by Lightning’ presents a story of assassination and a great historical could-have-been
History has a way of forgetting, or at least overlooking. Everyone knows John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Far fewer are familiar with the story of Charles Guiteau, the man who, for drastically different reasons, shot James Garfield less than four months after his inauguration in 1881.
It’s a sordid, engrossing tale, told in great detail and with narrative verve in Candice Millard’s 2011 book “Destiny of the Republic.” And now it’s a Netflix series, “Death by Lightning.” (History repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce, then as limited series.)
“Death by Lightning” presents one of history’s great could-have-beens. What if Garfield, played by Michael Shannon, hadn’t drawn the obsessive ardor of Guiteau, played by Matthew Macfadyen? What if Garfield’s progressive policies — he wanted to give Reconstruction some real teeth, and combat the corruption of the New York political machine — had been allowed to take root? What if the doctors who tended to Garfield hadn’t used unsanitary methods that likely killed the president just as surely as the bullets from Guiteau’s gun?
Created by Mike Makowsky, the series is loaded with lively secondary characters, including Chester Arthur (Nick Offerman, in full-on Nick Offerman mode), Garfield’s drunken, colorfully inept vice president who sabotages his boss at the service of underhanded New York Senator Roscoe Conkling (Shea Whigham). Between these characters and others, “Death by Lightning” is also a feast of facial hair. Ain’t no beard like a 19th-century beard.
But the real draw is the parallel story lines of Garfield and Guiteau. Both came from very little. Garfield rose to become a great man who accepted the Republican presidential nomination reluctantly and sought to use the position for societal good. Guiteau was a shabby, delusional thief, a liar and grifter who wanted to be great, and glommed onto the Garfield campaign as his life’s purpose. He grew vengeful when the president didn’t reciprocate his admiration. He was a stalker before that word was in style.
“Death by Lightning” manages to make all of this both deadly serious and weirdly irreverent. And it does so in a mere four episodes, a minor miracle in these days of the bloated 10-hour “limited” series. Streamers and showrunners, take note. Less can be more. And strong storytelling can hit with the quickness of a lightning bolt.
Chris Vognar can be reached at chris.vognar@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram at @chrisvognar and on Bluesky at chrisvognar.bsky.social.
