I remember reading that President James Garfield could simultaneously write Latin with one hand while writing Greek with the other, and also that he created his own proof for the Pythagorean theorem. And I could tell you he was assassinated in 1881, only a few months into his presidency, and maybe—maybe—I could tell you a man named Charles Guiteau is the one who did it. And I’m guessing those four things are four more than most other people could tell you about the man. Which is kind of nuts, given he was a U.S. president and the whole story surrounding his election and death turns out to be riveting.
Death by Lightning is a four-part series on Netflix that seeks to fill in this gap in our historical memory, and it’s wildly, massively entertaining, featuring an extraordinary amount of “hey, it’s that guy” actors, all of whom turn in knockout performances while telling the story of this event that may well have altered American history a lot more than we realize. Michael Shannon plays Garfield, who was elected president after not even campaigning for the nomination, and who, as the show tells it, was an incredibly kind, empathetic, grounded man who intended to end corruption in government, and appeared poised to do it. Shannon’s intense magnetism is on full display here, whether he’s speaking in barely a whisper or delivering rousing oratory. Nick Offerman gives us career-best work as Chester A. Arthur, who was essentially just a bruiser for the New York political machine when he was tapped for strategic reasons to be Garfield’s vice president. And Matthew Macfadyen is astonishing as the assassin, Guiteau, who swings hard and fast from adoration of Garfield to outright hatred.
Don’t fear that any of this is dry, not a second of it is, and we find ourselves welcoming all the political sausage-making as gleefully as Chester Arthur greets plates of actual sausages. Death By Lightning is as much fun as you’re going to have watching anything this year.
Death by Lightning is on Netflix.
