Acting Up: ‘Death by Lightning’: Michael Shannon & Matthew Macfadyen Electrify in Netflix’s Forgotten-History Thriller

The Snapshot: The true story of James Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, and the man who assassinated him, Charles Guiteau, in 1881.

(All four episodes of Death by Lightning are streaming on Netflix)

The Performance: In the opening moments of Netflix’s new historical limited series Death by Lightning, a chyron declares that the two men who are featured in the coming story have essentially been forgotten, and that’s mostly true. James Garfield was only president for a few months and didn’t really accomplish anything in his short time running the country, but he was still one of only 45 men to be President of the United States. So mostly forgotten, sure, but not completely.

But Charles Guiteau? The man who killed him? Not so much. His name is not known by anyone who doesn’t have a master’s degree in American History. 

Key Insights

• Death by Lightning succeeds by pairing historical fidelity with standout performances that humanize both a forgotten president and his delusional assassin.
• Michael Shannon and Matthew Macfadyen deliver nuanced, unexpected portrayals that elevate the drama, bringing depth and empathy to figures often reduced to footnotes.
• The series highlights how great actors can redefine historical perception, transforming overlooked events into emotionally resonant, prestige storytelling.

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There’s a certain amount of creative license that can be taken with the telling of this story, though writer Mike Makowsky, working from the nonfiction book by Candice Millard, keeps things pretty true to life. The fact is, the real details are enough to tell a compelling story without having to fudge too much. 

It also helps to have two brilliant actors like Michael Shannon, as Garfield, and Matthew Macfadyen, as Guiteau, carrying the action. 

Shannon is not exactly known for being a romantic lead, and yet there is something eminently romantic about his portrayal of Garfield, a good and decent man who improbably rose from being a backbench congressman to the presidency. Garfield was a farmer and a loving husband and father who gave impassioned speech at the 1880 Republican National Convention in support of his friend, John Sherman.

But when none of the candidates for the Republican nomination had enough votes, fans of Garfield’s speech decided he was the man for the job. A few months later, the rest of the country agreed. Shannon plays Garfield with a quiet grace that makes you long for a time when both of those qualities lived inside the man running the country.

Macfadyen won a couple Emmys playing a meek and scheming businessman on Succession, but just as Shannon shows us a side we’re not used to seeing, so does his costar. Guiteau was an emotionally troubled man, and Macfadyen could have played him as a barking loon. Instead, his Guiteau is a deluded man who believes he is destined for greatness and continues to find ways to insinuate himself into the presence of powerful men.

Things were different 140 years ago, sure, but Guiteau had a gift for being in the right place at the right time, even if he was ill equipped to handle the situations when they arose. Macfadyen’s Guiteau is manic with the notion that he could be successful in ways he has no business imagining, but there is such a commitment to the bit that the audience stays with him, even though we know, based on the opening chyron, that there is tragedy ahead.

Shannon and Macfadyen have only a few scenes together, the last of them being in the final episode, when Guiteau gains an audience with the new president after weeks of trying. Each time, there is an undercurrent of energy between the two of them, because you’re watching two fantastic actors at the top of their game.

That last scene, where Guiteau pleads for something from a man he thinks he knows, and Garfield offers an act of kindness to a man he doesn’t even remember meeting before, is downright electric. The show is worth watching, but even if it wasn’t, that one scene would make it so.

The Careers: Michael Shannon earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work in 2008’s Revolutionary Road, a role that many considered his breakthrough. This is only funny because he’d appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows for 15 years before that, aside from all the stage work he had done that had earned him a reputation as an actor’s actor.

He had a small but memorable role in Groundhog Day, and then showed up in such disparate but respectable work as Jesus’ Son, Cecil B. Demented, Tigerland, Pearl Harbor, Vanilla Sky, 8 Mile, The Woodsman, Bug, World Trade Center, and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead before he turned so many heads in Revolutionary Road. Then there’s the theater, working at legendary theaters like the Gate, SoHo Playhouse, and of course Steppenwolf. 

Since then, he’s been Superman’s enemy General Zod in Zack Snyder’s DCEU, a demented FBI agent in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, an Emmy nominee for his work as George Jones in the limited series George & Tammy, and earned a second Supporting Actor nod for 2016’s Nocturnal Animals, among dozens of other roles, all of which have helped him retain his reputation as an actor’s actor. 

As noted above, Matthew Macfadyen really made his mark in the US with his turn as Tom Wambsgans in the HBO sensation Succession, which won him a pair of Emmys. For more than 20 years prior to that breakthrough here, he was a stalwart of the British film and television industry. He showed up in a 1998 adaptation of Wuthering Heights, and then had a bunch of smaller roles in a series of shows and movies, until he broke out in the 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice.

His turn as Mr. Darcy is still considered, alongside Colin Firth’s version, as the sexiest and most thrilling in recent memory. He did longer runs in TV shows like the 2008 version of Little Dorrit, the 2010 adaptation of Ken Follett’s the Pillars of the Earth, as well as runs in Mi-5, Ripper Street, and Howard’s End, and he was Athos in Paul W.S. Anderson’s version of The Three Musketeers.

Really it’s Succession that sent his career into the stratosphere, and now here he is co-headlining a prestigious Netflix limited series. It is clearly far from the last time we’ll see something like that happen. 

Key Takeaways

• Even lesser-known moments in history can captivate when grounded in strong writing, authenticity, and layered performances.
• Casting against expectation — Shannon as a compassionate leader and Macfadyen as a deluded zealot — creates compelling character contrast and tension.
• Prestige limited series thrive when they balance factual storytelling with emotional truth, letting performances drive audience connection.

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