It would be easy to just give “Death by Lightning” a pass simply because it’s a story where the principal character, Pres. James A. Garfield (portrayed by Michael Shannon), is from Northeast Ohio. Mentor to be exact.

That would do a disservice to the fine piece of storytelling based on a book by Lexington author Candice Millard that tells what the story of what was seemingly a fallow period in U.S. history. This incredibly entertaining four-episode series is proof that assumptions should not be made.

Garfield, the nation’s 20th chief executive, served about four months before being disabled by an assassin’s bullet and succumbing to those injuries made monumentally worse by the work of a doctor that would be considered malpractice today.

By any measure, Garfield was a progressive of hi

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