The story of a man who was President of the United States for a short, turbulent term, and the man who shot, and eventually killed, him. 

So set back during the late 1800’s, the American government, specifically the Republican party, is erupting in side-taking fights over who should be their chosen candidate to put forward as the next President of the United States. Ulysses S. Grant is still the main party choice, even after already serving two terms as President, though his terms were plagued with scandals and the man himself is known much more for his military prowess than any kind of political savvy. The party itself sits at a veritable stranglehold from one Roscoe Conkling (Shea Whigham), who effectively owns the ports of New York, from whence much of the United States trade goods comes, and his recently-widowed drunken flunky Chester A. Arthur (Nick Offerman). And Conkling is backing Grant, thank you very much. 

The other half of the party wants to back someone of their choosing, but sadly the man is older and frail and frankly, not a great public speaker. Infighting is coming perilously close to fisticuffs practically every night, and no-one can figure out what to do. Finally, with patriotism firing his heart and the best of intentions in his fist, the Senator known as the Man from Ohio, James Garfield (Michael Shannon), takes the lectern and delivers a rousing speech meant to inspire his fellow Senators. Which it does – into voting for Garfield himself as their new candidate. Damn it. 

Meanwhile, Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfayden) is portrayed as a walking contradiction of a man. Oh, how he wants to be useful, to contribute in some lasting, meaningful way, to the men of the world he so admires, which for the most part turns out to be politicians. Which might tell you something about his character right there. Guiteau bristles at the idea that he’s useless, can be brushed aside, ignored, or much worse, ridiculed, especially by the men he considers his peers. Guiteau touts his potential to everyone he meets, including his own beleaguered sister Franny Scoville (Paula Malcolmson) and her long-suffering husband, blissfully unaware that, to quote an excellent movie, potential is what people see when what’s in front of them isn’t good enough. He makes fleeting connections with Garfield’s wife Crete (Betty Gilpin), with the would-be Vice President Chester Arthur, with the beleaguered politician James Blaine (Bradley Whitford), and tries to use each one to get close to the President and be appointed to some promised post where he can finally be of use, and earn the gratitude of these men of power. 

Guiteau needs a focus, a cause, a real man to give all of his over-eager doting attentions to, and even as Garfield reels from being ambushed by his fellow Senators into the party choice, whether he likes it or not, Guiteau has found his new obsession. He dreams of a foreign posting that will make him plenty of money, as Guiteau is deserving of and accustomed to a certain fairly expensive lifestyle, a far cry from his time on the Oneida Community farms, where the women collectively refused to sleep with him and the farmwork the men engaged in was beneath him. Guiteau keeps talking about his newspaper that he plans on putting out at some point soon, he swears, but never quite manifested because the money Guiteau steals from mostly his sister just disappears into what he thinks are proper French wines, and prostitutes. And a man who isn’t willing to put in the work, no matter what the job is, is no real man at all, as far as Garfields concerned. 

And speaking of the Man from Ohio, Garfield is still rather blindsided from the unexpected vote that catapults him into the Republican candidate spot for President of the United States, as are his long-suffering wife and children. After serving his country faithfully in the war, all Garfield wants to do is live a peaceful existence, where he serves his country as a politician with a solid family platform, helping to usher in good moral changes to the government for all men. In fact, that mindset becomes one of the few solid, if surprising, backbones of Garfield’s brief campaign for the Presidency. He insists, as a man of the people, that the people of this great nation can visit him at his homestead in Ohio to air their grievances, and even hosts there the black men who served their country in the war, who are still struggling to obtain their right to vote, that every other (white) man of America has freely given to him. Due to this, Frederick Douglass (Vondie Curtis-Hall) himself, and by extension pretty much the entire contested negro vote, throws their only semi-conditional vote behind Garfield based solely on his word to help black voters. That’s how strong a speaker Garfield is, and it demonstrates Garfield is also a man of strong moral and ethical principles, applied to all men regardless of skin color or even station in life. Garfield even listens and often acts on the strong advice of his wife Crete, and the surprisingly liberal thoughts of his eldest daughter Mollie (Laura Marcus). 

Sadly, of course, few men who wanted Grant in the spot are happy when Garfield wins not only the nomination seat, but then, the freaking Presidency of the United States. Even appointing the slovenly widower Chester Arthur as Vice President as a kind of sop to the other side doesn’t really help, as Arthur is still in Conkling’s pocket. And then Garfield, with help from an almost gleeful James Blaine, manages to hamstring Conkling and the New York port authority, putting Arthur in a giant quandary. 

The show showcases so many missed opportunities. Guiteau could have actually been a valuable contribution to Garfield, if only he could’ve gotten out of his own way, and out of his own head too. The show also pretty clearly stakes its position that Garfield could have been saved from an agonizing and slow death over weeks, if only white doctors listened to their colored counterparts and adopted newer – to them – sanitization procedures. Garfield himself even speaks sadly of such in an exhausted late-night confession to one of his many true admirers, how they’re some time into his Presidential term and he’s passed no bills nor made any sort of lasting contribution to the country, other than effectively hamstringing a political opponent. In fact, towards the end when Garfield starts getting whispers of assassination threats, he reminds his men of how he hasn’t done anything to warrant such actions yet, and that getting assassinated is about as likely as getting struck by lightning. 

A hysterical historical moment made all the more dramatic because it’s got at least a basis in real actual history, Death by Lightning offers powerhouse performances from all the actors but especially the two main characters, and reminds us that United States politics and the fallible men in power have always, in both the present and in history, been more than a bit unhinged. 

Death by Lightning awaits your viewing, and voting, pleasure, on Netflix now! 

Reviewed by Alicia Glass