‘Death by Lightning’ Review: Michael Shannon and Matthew Macfadyen Illuminate a Forgotten Chapter of American Power

Entertainment NewsReviewsNetflixSeriesNew ReleasesNew SeriesThe Cinema GroupStreamingTVOpinionDramaHistoryTrailers

Nov 6

Matthew Macfadyen as Charles Guiteau in episode 102 of Death by Lightning. **Cr. Larry Horricks/Netflix © 2025**

Matthew Macfadyen is electric and Michael Shannon commands quiet authority in Netflix’s sharp, eerily relevant portrait of a nation at war with itself.

Every few years a historical drama sneaks up and feels less like a museum piece than a mirror. Death by Lightning, Netflix’s four-episode limited series from creator Mike Makowsky, belongs squarely in that category. Ostensibly about the 1881 assassination of President James Garfield, it ends up dissecting something much larger — the collision between public service and self-delusion, the hunger for recognition that curdles into fanaticism, and the perpetual rot beneath America’s political theater.

It’s a series that shouldn’t feel this current, yet somehow does. With wars of ideology raging on cable news and conspiracy replacing conversation, Makowsky re-imagines the Garfield era not as ancient history but as the prologue to today’s endless campaign. The result is a gripping, occasionally playful, always unnerving portrait of power — anchored by two extraordinary performances from Matthew Macfadyen and Michael Shannon.

Michael Shannon as James Garfield in episode 101 of Death by Lightning. Cr. Larry Horricks/Netflix © 2025

For most people, James Garfield is a trivia answer — a name wedged between Grant and Arthur, overshadowed by the comic cat who stole his surname. Death by Lightning corrects that injustice. Shannon plays Garfield with a dignity so quiet it borders on tragic. He’s a man dragged toward greatness rather than chasing it — an academic and war hero whose moral compass can’t survive the magnetism of party politics.

Shannon’s Garfield is weary from the start, his decency framed as both strength and flaw. You feel the tension in every stooped posture and furrowed brow — a man who believes in democracy but mistrusts the machinery keeping it alive. When he tells his wife Lucretia (Betty Gilpin) that public life demands compromise, you see the dread in his eyes; he knows compromise will cost him more than power ever could. Shannon plays those internal calculations with precision: the idealist forced to confront the absurd bargain of leadership.

(L to R) Michael Shannon as James Garfield, Betty Gilpin as Crete Garfield in episode 103 of Death By Lightning. **Cr. Larry Horricks/Netflix © 2024**

Opposite him, Macfadyen’s Charles J. Guiteau is a masterpiece of manic control. Guiteau, the delusional drifter who decides God has anointed him to save the nation, could have been a caricature — but Macfadyen renders him heartbreakingly human. His Guiteau is both buffoon and prophet, a man fueled by rejection and convinced that destiny owes him a headline. The brilliance of Macfadyen’s performance lies in how recognizably modern his madness feels. Swap the 19th-century frock coat for a message board avatar, and Guiteau could be any self-styled patriot radicalized by his own echo chamber.

Makowsky’s scripts (adapted from Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic) and Matt Ross’s direction find a remarkable balance between political intrigue and psychological study. The early episodes unfold like an ensemble drama about the invisible gears of Washington: senators scheming in smoke-filled rooms, journalists chasing whispers, cabinet men trading favors with the casual corruption of habit.

Nick Offerman as Chester A. Arthur in episode 102 of Death By Lightning. **Cr. Larry Horricks/Netflix © 2024**

Nick Offerman’s Chester A. Arthur is the show’s stealth weapon. Initially a cynical cog in the New York machine, he’s introduced as a man perfectly comfortable in moral shade — until events force him into the light. Offerman, bearded and bourbon-tongued, plays Arthur with wry melancholy, transforming what could’ve been comic relief into something near-Shakespearean. His journey from political operator to accidental reformer lands as the series’ emotional grace note.

Gilpin brings nuance and fire to Lucretia Garfield, one of those historical wives too often reduced to patience. Her exchanges with Shannon crackle with intellectual equality; their marriage feels like a partnership rather than an ornament. Supporting turns from Bradley Whitford, Shea Whigham, and Betty Gilpin help fill out a cabinet of contradictions — men both noble and opportunistic, embodying the uneasy DNA of American governance.

Mathew Macfadyen as Charles Guiteau in episode 102 of Death By Lightning. Cr. Larry Horricks/Netflix © 2024

The show’s genius lies in its framing of assassination not as aberration but inevitability — the logical endpoint of a culture that rewards noise over substance. “Before there were influencers,” Makowsky seems to argue, “there were zealots with pamphlets.” Guiteau’s self-mythologizing mania mirrors the populist performance politics of our own era. When he declares himself chosen, when he mistakes visibility for virtue, it feels uncomfortably close to home.

Shannon and Macfadyen orbit each other like planets doomed to collide. Their scenes share a strange intimacy; even when they’re apart, the show cross-cuts their trajectories like twin sermons on faith and ego. Garfield’s belief in collective progress meets Guiteau’s conviction that individual destiny trumps all — two American religions that can’t coexist.

Makowsky and Ross shoot their duel in saturated tones and soft candlelight, the old Republic rendered both beautiful and claustrophobic. The camera lingers on letters, telegraphs, handshakes — the analog mechanisms of persuasion — reminding us that democracy has always been built on fragile human connection. The production design’s attention to detail rivals The Crown, while Jerskin Fendrix’s score flutters between hymn and horror, matching the tonal whiplash of a country inventing itself in real time.

Michael Shannon as James Garfield in episode 101 of Death By Lightning. **Cr. Larry Horricks/Netflix © 2024**

If there’s a weakness, it’s structural. The final hour rushes through Garfield’s slow decline — the months of medical malpractice that turned survival into martyrdom. Those scenes, though brief, contain some of Shannon’s most haunting work: his voice rasping between consciousness and confession, the noble ideals of democracy fading with his pulse. You wish the series had lingered there, because that death is the hinge between eras — the moment America learned that good intentions alone can’t save it.

POPULAR ON THE CINEMA GROUP

Still, the compression doesn’t break the spell. Death by Lightning remains one of Netflix’s most accomplished dramas in years, and its brevity may even sharpen its sting. By the time the credits roll, you realize the show has been less about one president’s end than about a country’s beginning — the birth of celebrity politics, the myth of meritocracy, the loneliness of leadership.

Matthew Macfadyen as Charles Guiteau in episode 104 of Death by Lightning. Cr. Larry Horricks/Netflix © 2025

Makowsky’s decision to cast Macfadyen, still riding the Succession high, feels inspired: both Tom Wambsgans and Charles Guiteau are men who mistake access for importance, who think proximity to power equals purpose. And Shannon, so often volcanic on screen, plays Garfield with studied quiet — a performance of resistance, as if stillness itself were rebellion.

What makes Death by Lightning so resonant isn’t just its craftsmanship, but its timing. In an election year defined by paranoia, disinformation, and political theater, a miniseries about an obscure 19th-century president shouldn’t feel this urgent — yet it does. It’s a reminder that history’s loops are shorter than we think, and that every era has its Guiteaus — men certain they alone can “save” the republic.

By the end, the title feels almost prophetic. Assassination, Garfield once mused, “can no more be guarded against than death by lightning.” The line gives the series its name and its thesis: democracy’s greatest threats rarely come from the shadows. They come from believers.

Death by Lightning is more than a history lesson. It’s a fable about faith, ego, and the dangerous seduction of meaning — and it might be the most quietly devastating political drama since John Adams.

Rating: ★★★★½

That’s a Wrap

|

Death By Lightning

|

That’s a Wrap | Death By Lightning |

“A haunting political fable wrapped in period drama — Death by Lightning reanimates the ghosts of Washington’s past to reveal how little has changed.”

— Joanthan P. Moustakas

CEREDITS

Airdate: Thursday, November 6 | Netflix

Cast: Michael Shannon, Matthew Macfadyen, Nick Offerman, Betty Gilpin, Bradley Whitford, Shea Whigham

Creator: Mike Makowsky

Out Now: Streaming on Netflix | All Episodes

Rating: TV-MA