If the name James A. Garfield doesn’t ring a bell, that’s not because he was a bad or inconsequential President. It’s almost certainly because the 20th President of our United States was gunned down in 1881 by a mentally-ill grifter named Charles Guiteau, mere months into his presidency, denying him the opportunity to be great. Garfield tragically died before he had a chance to deliver on his campaign promises to squash the corrupt “spoils system,” affirm and protect civil rights, and establish a far more perfect union than he had inherited.
Yes, we can here you yawning already, but rest assured that Netflix‘s Death By Lightning, a four-part period drama about the events leading up to President Garfield (Michael Shannon)’s election and eventual assassination by Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen), is a riveting political drama that feels more West Wing meets Succession than somber school lesson.
“I think when people first hear about James Garfield — I think that if they know who he is at all — they probably expect a dusty old period piece with not a lot of, let’s say, modern day corollaries,” Death By Lightning showrunner Mike Makowsky told DECIDER.
“I was blown away by both him as a human being and a potentially generational leader who who we were tragically robbed of,” Makowsky added, before acknowledging his show is also about Garfield’s “perverse counterpart,” his assassin, Charles Guiteau.
“Guiteau was a man who was so out of step with his society and felt things very, very acutely in a world, in a time period, in a country that really wasn’t equipped to or just didn’t know how to deal with him, really.” Makowsky said. “And he just sort of falls through the cracks of society in a way that, unfortunately, I think we’ve seen bear out in today’s landscape as well.”
Inspired by Candice Millard’s award-winning book Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, Death By Lightning takes us back to the 1880 Republican National Convention. Republicans had spent the years immediately following the Civil War enjoying the glory that came from being the “Party of Lincoln.” However, by this time, the party was split into two warring factions: the Stalwarts, which enjoyed the “pay for play” spoils system that awarded key posts to cronies, and the “Half-Breeds,” who wanted to reform the government based on merit.
Heading into the 1880 RNC, extremely powerful and extremely corrupt New York Senator Roscoe Conkling (Shea Whigham) wanted to push former President Ulysses S. Grant back into the White House to advance the Stalwarts’s cause. The Half-Breeds, on the other hand, were split amongst themselves between backing Maine’s James Blaine (Bradley Whitford) or Ohio’s John Sherman (Alistair Petrie).
Civil War hero, Ohio state Representative, and noted orator James A. Garfield was only supposed to give a compelling speech nominating his friend Sherman. Instead, after a Conclave-esque series of thirty-six rounds of convention votes, Garfield emerged as the party’s consensus candidate for President. His rise past the party’s bigwigs was even more inspiring when you considered the idealistic Garfield was committed to civil reform, racial equality, and elevating the common man (as evidenced by his then-newfangled plan to use the government’s resources to start funding public schools).
Makowsky confessed to DECIDER that he didn’t know much about our 20th President or his progressive politics until he randomly picked up Millard’s book from a Barnes & Noble “Buy Two, Get One Free” sale table.
“I needed a third book,” he said, before revealing he read Destiny of the Republic in one intense sitting. “I felt like I needed to every three pages go on Wikipedia to make sure that this historian in Kansas hadn’t made up all of this shit about James Garfield, because it seemed way too crazy to be true.”
One of those revelations that makes it to Death By Lightning is the very modern marriage Garfield shared with wife Lucretia (Betty Gilpin). As one of the first First Ladies to ever have graduated from college, “Crete,” as she’s known, plays a pivotal role as one of her husband’s sagest and most outspoken advisors. “She and her husband met at a local university where she occupied a leadership role on campus and he was the custodian mopping floors to pay his tuition,” Makowsky said.
“One of my my biggest hopes for a full-fledged Garfield presidency — that we were robbed of — was the role that I think Lucretia was trending toward being able to execute within this administration, which felt unprecedented at the time,” Makowsky said. “A remarkable, remarkable woman who I think would have really moved the conversation around a First Lady’s responsibilities forward.”
Death By Lightning viewers will get their strongest whiffs of The West Wing‘s influence on the series whenever Bradley Whitford is onscreen as Garfield’s closest political ally, James A. Blaine. Makowsky even admitted that he envisioned Blaine talking in the iconic “West Wing walk and talk” style as he wrote the show.
“I imagined that, in our best case scenario, we would get a Bradley Whitford-type who could fire off, very organically and pithily, these political barbs,” he said. “Bradley was the first person we asked and he, being a massive political junkie, would never deny himself another opportunity to traverse the halls of the West Wing. Which is a joke that I think he would also make.”
Whether it’s Crete’s feminism, Garfield’s anti-racist positions, or even the sordid sex scandals that we see bring certain characters down, Death By Lightning feels fresh and current in a way that most 19th century dramas might not. Including the darker aspects of our contemporary politics.
“It felt so immediate to this current era in which we live. Not just Garfield as an individual, but also his political moment. The time, the era that he lived in, the battles that he waged,” Makowksy said. “And, conversely, perversely, Guiteau’s struggles that impelled him to pick up a gun and shoot the president.”
Just as James A. Garfield — a man who had risen out of poverty thanks to hard work, scholarship, and service — found himself vaulted to the highest position in the land, Charles Guiteau was floundering. The mentally-unwell man had a history of crafting delusions of grandeur about his own intelligence, talent, and standing. He soon developed a parasocial obsession with Garfield that would curdle when Garfield and his allies eventually rebuffed him.
Guiteau’s twisted response to this perceived betrayal? To shoot Garfield in an act of political violence designed to instantly make Guiteau a hero.
“In no way does the show seek to be an endorsement or glorification of political violence in any way, shape, or form,” Makowsky said. “But I think it’s important for us as a society to really pull back a layer and understand some of these driving factors that compel certain mentally-ill people to commit heinous acts of violence, specifically in the political arena.”
“I don’t think that the show implores us to sympathize with Guiteau’s actions in any way, shape, or form, but I do think that we can recognize the the alienation, the disillusionment, the rejection,” he said.
Indeed, Death By Lightning portrays Guiteau’s actions as nothing short of absolutely heinous. Ironically, Garfield wasn’t directly killed by his bullet wounds, but rather by the poor treatment he received from the doctors in charge of his recovery. The medical instruments used on Garfield weren’t properly disinfected, leading to a slow, painful death from sepsis.
Death By Lightning is riveting, fascinating television full of incandescent performances and complex questions about the nastiness of politics. The entire star-studded cast, led by Oscar-nominee Michael Shannon and two-time Emmy-winner Matthew Macfadyen, delivers incredible performances that should secure them a full year of awards show appearances.
“Unfortunately, there are of a lot of really, really dark parallels to this current era,” Makowsky said. “I think, to the extent that we are able to kind of have these tough conversations and look at some of the driving factors that impels these horrific and corrosive and catastrophic decisions, you know, it can only have a societal benefit.”
Death By Lightning is now streaming on Netflix.
