Death By Lightning has Netflix viewers in a chokehold. It seems like a well-made limited series can still bring in quite an audience. Death By Lightning also has the added bonus of being supported by a shocking historical event. Namely, the assasination of United States President James Garfield. Michael Shannon, Matthew Macfadyen, and Betty Gilpin all star in this dramatic look back at the 20th president. This kind of drama, period piece flare, and acting talent are usually a winning formula in the era of streaming.
Of course, Netflix is no stranger to taking a real life story and adapting it to the screen. (Sometimes, missing the point or editing the story to the point of incredulity.) But, it seems like Death By Lightning hews a bit closer to the text of the book it was based-on. That’s part of what has so many people wrapped-up in the doomed tale of Andrew Garfield. TUDUM caught up with showrunner Mike Makowsky to talk about the series and the ways a shocking story like this still speaks to audiences.
“I found it unspeakably tragic and moving,” Makowsky told TUDUM, “but also weirdly funny in a very dark way. It’s a tone that I tend to chase in the work that I take on, but there is a very deeply ingrained situational absurdity to roughly all of the proceedings that I was just so stunned by. As soon as I finished the book, I knew that I needed to adapt it and that in its best incarnation, it could speak to people in ways that other period shows might not.”
Death By Lightning explained
Candice Millard’s novel Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President provides the rough story for Death By Lightning. Director Matt Ross chronicles how Charles Guiteau (Macfadyen) assassinated James Garfield (Shannon). While pressure mounts from all corners, the president uttered the words “Assassination can be no more guarded against than death by lightning. And it is best not to worry too much about either one.” That incendiary quote provides the backstop for the entire four-episode Netflix series.
Game of Thrones TV show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are executive producers on Death By Lightning. (So, maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised by the fact that this show is doing wild numbers right now?) But, yeah the president’s greatest admirer eventually assassinating him makes for compelling television. You really can’t discount that cast either. Sure, Macfadyen and Shannon are tremendous. But, don’t sleep on Betty Gilpin as the First Lady Crete Garfield and Nick Offerman as Garfield’s Vice President, Chester Arthur.
Makowsky also feels like there’s a lot for modern viewers to think about when revisiting this tale. “The theme of corruption in politics and our bureaucracy feels particularly evergreen these days,” the showrunner mused to Netflix. “The idea of civil service reform and waging a battle to clean up the grift in our government — this is something that Garfield very much stood on the front lines of in his time.”
He added, “In 1881, it feels like America is sort of standing at a crossroads between the past and what the future of this country is going to look like, and it’s up to [people like Garfield] to really define how America, 100 years after its inception, is going to look and what kind of society they’re going to be.”
(featured image: Netflix)
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