The British Actor Studded 'Death by Lightning' Will Strike Netflix in November

It's a truth universally acknowledged that there aren't enough American period dramas. Sure, U.S. audiences enjoy watching historical shows — Downton Abbey was a massive hit here, and the steadily growing success of The Gilded Age is nothing so much as a sign that we should be making more shows like it. But outside of a few rare exceptions (Manhunt, Deadwood, Turn: Washington's Spies), we just... don't. It's a significant part of the reason Netflix's forthcoming limited series, Death by Lightning, feels so exciting. A prestige series with an all-star cast telling the story of one of the most dramatic moments in U.S. presidential history? Yes, we should have more of this, thank you.

The four-part series will arrive this November and aims to dramatize the assassination of James Garfield, the 20th U.S. president who is, unfortunately, more remembered for the manner of his death than for anything related to his life or politics. A Civil War general and former member of Congress, he was shot at a Washington, D.C. railroad station less than four months into his term, on July 2, 1881, by a man named Charles J. Guiteau. Though his wounds were not initially fatal, he suffered from sepsis and infection due to a bullet that remained lodged in his abdomen, and he died two months later in New Jersey on September 19, 1881.

What makes this story even more bizarre, however, is that Guiteau was once one of Garfield's most ardent supporters, who essentially turned stalker after months of attempting to get the administration to give him the diplomatic post he felt he had earned during the campaign. (Spoiler alert: What he did during the campaign was basically pass out some pamphlets, so you can see why Garfield might not have viewed him but so favorably.)