The Stranger-Than-Fiction True Story Behind Netflix’s New Star-Studded Historical Miniseries
Netflix's Death by Lightning dramatizes the assassination of U.S. President James Garfield, drawing from astonishing real events. Before “parasocial relationships” became a common term, Charles Guiteau—a failed lawyer, aspiring preacher, and self-proclaimed political influencer—believed he was solely responsible for Garfield’s rise to the presidency.
When the White House ignored his handwritten letters demanding the ambassadorship to Paris, Guiteau’s obsession spiraled. During the summer of 1881, at a train station in Washington, D.C., he shot Garfield in the back, convinced he was saving the Republican Party and perhaps the nation.
“When the White House didn’t return his calls handwritten letters demanding an ambassadorship to Paris, Guiteau took his fandom to its logical, horrifying extreme.”
If this sounds like the plot of a binge-worthy prestige miniseries about obsession, ego, and possibly an untreated illness, that’s intentional. Death by Lightning revives this surreal story of delusion and democracy derailed, transforming the country’s strangest presidential assassination into a darkly comedic character study.
The show’s executive producers, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (creators of Game of Thrones), along with Mike Makowsky of Bad Education, delve into how one man’s twisted craving for recognition and a government position collided with a political system already decaying from within.
“Netflix’s Death by Lightning resurrects this real-life fever dream of delusion and democracy gone off the rails, turning the country’s strangest presidential assassination into a bizarre, darkly funny character study.”
Executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have teamed up with Mike Makowsky to explore this unique nexus of personal obsession and political corruption.
Author’s summary: This miniseries explores how Charles Guiteau’s delusion and the frailty of the 19th-century political system culminated in one of America’s most bizarre presidential assassinations.
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