re: 'Death by Lightning' - new Netflix Miniseries

I'm about halfway thru and this is so good! I knew Garfield was assassinated, but had no idea at all about his nomination or about how strong and entrenched the spoils system really was until watching this. It makes everything going on currently seem pretty normal compared to much of our political history. There's so little about this time in our history that's actually taught or at least was taught when I went to school. It's an interesting story and makes me wonder what his presidency would have been like.

The sex scenes were gratuitous and unnecessary. That's Netflix following the attention getting formula. Throw in a sex scene whenever there's a lull, or a need to grab attention. It's a cheap trick.
The rest of the show is phenomenal. I'd say it should be shown in every American History class when covering that period., but , you know, they'd need to make an educational edit.

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The sex scenes were gratuitous and unnecessary. That's Netflix following the attention getting formula. Throw in a sex scene whenever there's a lull, or a need to grab attention. It's a cheap trick.

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But did anyone of y'all know there was a weird Oneida religious, free love cult back then? It's a significant part of the story and after reading more about it, it was a wealthy cult as well. Eventually, after disbanding, the leftover financial part became the actual Oneida Silver Company. Most of what they showed actually had historical value.

This whole limited series is a lot of "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Crazy religious cult, crazy politics, corruption, etc.

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Looked up some more info on Guiteau after watching the series. Sounds like his trial and execution were absolutely wild

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This is true, but I’m glad they didn’t feature it. This was Garfield’s story imo.

They showed the gallows scene which I think was enough to portray how out of touch and weird he was at the end.


I actually thought the scene with Crete visiting him at the jail was a powerful moment, even though it was almost certainly fictional.

Conveying the idea that perpetrators of political violence will be forgotten by history and if remembered at all it will be as pathetic and ridiculed cowards is a valuable message.

That scene along with the shame and disgust displayed to him by his sister were a perfect end to Get-out’s story imo.

There's tiddies in episode 3.

Through episode 2 so far. It's a pretty interesting show.

for the TD history experts, how accurately does this show depict the way things were during that time?

Finally finished the series. It's a really interesting show.

Guiteau was a con man and a loon.

Arthur's about face was pretty incredible. The bully in the beginning ends up passing civil rights laws?

Surprised Conkling wasn't the one who ended up getting shot.

The doctor's arrogance pretty much cost Garfield his life. And all he could say was "I think we made a mistake"?

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Just as I highly doubt that random black doctor showed up immediately after Garfield was shot, treated him for a bit, then warned Dr, Bliss of the dangers of the sepsis that eventually killed him.

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Imagine not knowing that was one of the most historically accurate parts of the show.

Yikes.

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Arthur's about face was pretty incredible. The bully in the beginning ends up passing civil rights laws

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I read a bit on Arthur after watching this show, and his about-face was true. I thought it was very interesting and personally want to learn more about it.

Also, when I think of Arthur I keep coming back to this:

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So basically the Oneida group was some glorified swingers club?

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I read a few articles because it was so crazy. Sort of, but not exactly. They had a lot of rules. They shared all work, food, and love. They had a massive mansion in Oneida, NY and believed they were learning Perfectionism. They had strict birth control procedures in place and only allowed children to be planned. They often had older women (past menopause) with younger men (less self control) and older men (more self control) with younger women to prevent pregnancies. They practiced Mutual Criticism which is the scene where they called him "Charlie Get Out" and everything was supposed to be with consent. After the main leader died, the ones left eventually formed Oneida Community, Ltd and started making silverware. This article even credits this community with some of the crazy thinking in California. It's just bizarre.

Oneida Community