Death by Lightning

Fantastic, inspiring. I learned so much! These four episodes were just the right length for this moving piece of history. Don't miss it!

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

"Death by Lightning" is one of the best historical dramas released in recent memory that arranges its vivid political portraits into a rip-roaring yarn that’s scalding and endearing, riotous and mournful, a plea for America’s better angels to surface and a eulogy for a country that never lived up to its ideals.

President James Garfield (Michael Shannon) is depicted as a model of fairness, honesty and decency in the vein of his predecessor, Abraham Lincoln. The parallels between the two are striking. Garfield, like Lincoln, is faced with uniting warring factions in his party and dealing with corruption. It’s a David versus Goliath fight and the odds do not favor Garfield. Add another dramatic layer driven by the obsessive character of Charles Gideau (Matthew Macfayden in a career performance) and Death By Lightning stands out as a not-be-missed biopic and procedural.

A reconstrução de época convence, bem como a composição dos personagens e as atuações (salvo um típico maniqueísmo aqui e ali por parte dos vilões, típico de uma construção pra deixar mastigado ao público). O problema reside na falta de aprofundamento no que importa, que é a questão histórica, política, com poucos elementos interessantes. Se fosse para ser algo superficial, um filme bastaria. Além disso, empobrece a verborragia por fazer do retratado um santo, tudo explicado pedagogicamente, mas com pouca materialidade.