The most fun you’ll have on TV this fall is with the likes of James Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. Seriously.

Are those old-timey names ringing a little bit of a bell? Maybe a sense memory from seventh-grade U.S. history class, where you learned about the 19th-century president who was assassinated who wasn’t Abraham Lincoln? Maybe you remember black-and-white photos of men with big beards and bigger sideburns, and some annoying guy pulling out the bit of trivia at a party that Garfield wasn’t killed by the bullet but by the infection that followed?

This isn’t a test, so if you can’t remember your presidential lore fear not, you’ll still deeply enjoy Netflix’s new historical romp “Death by Lightning” (streaming now, ★★★½ out of four). The four-episode limited series is a surprisingly fun look at the unlikely ascension of Garfield (a straight-talking Michael Shannon) to the presidency and his assassination three months later by delusional political-wannabe Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen, “Succession”).


It’s a shocking and tantalizing tale that you probably didn’t learn enough about in school, but creator Mike Makowksy (“Bad Education”) is happy to adapt the story for the screen from historian Candice Millard’s 2011 book “Destiny of the Republic.” Hollywood writers throw around the phrase “stranger than fiction” far too often, but “Lightning” is the rare series that reveals the absurd and uncanny truth. With an absolute stellar cast − including Nick Offerman, Shea Whigham, Betty Gilpin and Bradley Whitford, in addition to Shannon and MacFadyen − “Lighting” is an all-gas-no-breaks political drama that reminds us that our history is weirder and more important than most of us remember.

“Lightning” begins with James Garfield, an unassuming Republican congressman in the late 1800s when the party was hopelessly divided between a corrupt conservative faction and more idealistic reformers. Garfield gives an inspiring speech at the 1880 Republican National Convention that ends in his surprising nomination for president, much to the displeasure of “stalwart” Sen. Roscoe Conkling (Whigham) and his crony Chester A. Arthur (Offerman, rocking a truly excellent mustache and sideburns). Garfield and his ally James Blaine (Whitford) entice Arthur to be the vice presidential nominee and together they eke a narrow victory for the White House. Next comes the fun of trying to reform the civil service with shady Blaine fighting them at every turn.


By itself, Garfield’s corruption versus reform political drama would be worthy of an episode of “The West Wing,” but the story becomes truly outlandish when Guiteau gets involved. A troubled and impoverished man who has never fit in anywhere in his life, Guiteau becomes obsessed with Garfield after the congressman unexpectedly wins the Republican nomination. Popping in and out of the party’s campaign headquarters with abandon (Secret Service didn’t begin to protect the president until 1901), Guiteau tries to worm his way into Garfield’s circle and somehow profit. And, spoiler alert, eventually the man’s obsession turns violent.

“Lightning” is short, snappy and exuberant, in spite of the serious subject matter (by the final episode, as the president fights for his life, the show takes on an appropriately more somber tone). It is an argument in and of itself that American history is actually worth your time. The series’ self-assuredness is helped by a cast that is a joy to look at in their 19th-century getups before they utter a single word. Once they do, the show is irresistible, especially when Whitford spits vintage insults at Whigham and Offerman totters about drunkenly in a top hat and tails.

Shannon is an amiable and steadfast presence as Garfield, but it is Macfadyen with his tittering and intense take on Guiteau who owns the series. The assassin is a odder, showier character for sure, but Macfadyen brings a controlled kind of madness to the man. The actor and the scripts are careful never to romanticize Guiteau − he is a murderer after all − but instead artfully presents his mania as a foil for Garfield’s stoicism. The two actors are well matched in the brief scenes they share together.


Hollywood loves a historical drama, but there is certainly an unconscious bias towards the frilly dresses and prissy accents of British history, filled with kings and queens and “Bridgerton” marriage markets. But “Lightning,” like last year’s Apple series“Manhunt,” about the search for Lincoln’s assassin, is a superb reminder that we need not look across the pond to find fascinating tales from the past. On the eve of the nation’s 250th birthday, amid our own political chaos and strife, there has never been a better time to look back at how we got here.

And if we can get a celebrated actor or two in some fantastic facial hair in the process, we will all be the better for it.