Stream It Or Skip It?

Sometimes we like a show because of its writing, and sometimes we like a show because of its cast and their performances. But it’s not that often when lively writing and an excellent cast come together, but that’s what happens in a new Netflix historical miniseries about a mostly-forgotten U.S. president and the man who assassinated him.

Opening Shot: “This is the true story about two men the world forgot. One was the 20th President of the United States. The other shot him.” In 1969, we see people moving items around a warehouse, when a brain in a jar falls out of a box, with the name “Charles Guiteau” on it.

The Gist: We then cut to New York in 1880. Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen) is in front of a tribunal, because he resisted arrest as police tried to chase him down for a petty robbery. He assures the panel that he’s an upstanding citizen, refuting the panel’s assertion that he’s a “drain” on society, despite the fact that part of his recent journeys included time at a “free love” commune.

In Mentor, Ohio, Congressman James A. Garfield (Michael Shannon) tends to his farm, which he seems to spend more time at than he does in Washington, DC. He gets a letter from John Sherman (Alistair Petrie), asking him to come to the Republican convention in Chicago and make a nominating speech for him. He seems reluctant, given the power players in the party, especially those backing former president Ulysses S. Grant (Wayne Brett). But Garfield’s wife Lucretia (Betty Gilpin) encourages him to go.

In the meantime, Guiteau is released into the custody of his sister, Franny Scoville (Paula Malcomson). On the train back to Chicago, he tells her about his plans to start a newspaper called The Daily Theocrat, which “gives voice to the common man.” At the Scoville house, he tells Franny’s husband George (Ben Miles) about his plans, and George is definitely skeptical, given his brother-in-law’s previous flights of fancy. Guiteau becomes desperate when a bank where he seeks a loan physically throws him out over a previous, not-very-peaceful incident.

At the convention, Grant’s supporters, led by Senator Roscoe Conkling (Shea Whigham) and his “enforcer,” Chester A. Arthur (Nick Offerman), think they have the nomination secured, as does Senator James Blaine (Bradley Whitford), who tires of Grant riding on his Civil War record to cover up corruption during his previous administration.

After Garfield makes a fiery speech while putting Sherman’s name in for nomination, one state’s delegate stands up and puts in a vote for the congressman, which Garfield tries to disavow. Through many votes without a majority candidate emerging, Garfield gains support, until he is eventually made the nominee, much to his discontentment. Elsewhere in Chicago, Guiteau’s anger and thievery confirms pretty much everything George thought of him.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Death By Lightning, created by Mike Makowsky and based on the book Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard, has a similar feel to Apple’s recent series Franklin, even though the two shows take place 100 years apart.

Our Take: While the story of how Garfield and Guiteau’s lives intersected and ended in tragedy, with Garfield dying five weeks after Guiteau shot him six months into Garfield’s presidency, is fascinating and definitely underexplored, what makes Death By Lightning stand out is how Makowsky gets into the muck with both Garfield and Guiteau. But what sells the show is its stellar cast.

Politics in 1880 were rough-and-tumble, and the possibility of a drafted candidate like Garfield emerging from a convention were much higher than now. Shannon effectively embodies Garfield’s ability to be simultaneously ambitious and humble; as Sherman tells him, he doesn’t make the speech he made at the convention without “wanting it”, meaning the chance to be president. But his consternation at being nominated is real, and as we see him as president, he’ll likely be able to excel while trying to keep himself grounded as the gentleman Ohio farmer that he’s always seen himself being.

Macfadyen steals the show as Guiteau, though. He perfected playing sincere-but-slimy during his Emmy-winning run on Succession, and he infuses Guiteau with a weaselly earnestness that immediately makes you think he’s up to no good, even as he says good things to his sister about his newspaper idea, or tries to talk to Senator Conkling about supporting his entrepreneurial idea.

Between Shannon and Macfadyen, the show has plenty of dramatic juice. But then you throw in Gilpin, Whitford, Offerman and Whigham and you get a lot of compelling characters to follow. The best example of this is Offerman’s portrayal of Arthur, Garfield’s vice president, who takes over as president after Garfield’s death. We knew he came from the take-no-prisoners New York arm of the Republican party that backed Grant, but we didn’t know that he was almost like a hockey enforcer, given the way he would rather push someone to the ground or knock their teeth out than reason with them. Offerman plays this perfectly; Arthur is thuggish, but of course he’s also a smart political operative, and his performance works on both levels.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: On a train away from Chicago, suddenly possessing cash, Guiteau tells another passenger that he’s in politics. “I’m going to help get a man elected to the presidency.”

Sleeper Star: Gilpin and Malcomson are both excellent as Lucretia Garfield and Franny Scoville, the main women in Garfield’s and Guiteau’s lives.

Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Death By Lightning is a lively drama about a little-explored facet of American history, punctuated by spot-on performances by its excellent cast.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.