MOVIE NEWS – Everyone knows the grumpy, Monday-hating orange cat Garfield, but far fewer people realize that his name is also tied to a U.S. president whose life ended in tragedy. Netflix’s new limited series Death by Lightning revisits the assassination of James A. Garfield in a tight, under four-hour package that is easy to split over two evenings.

Have you ever stopped to think about why the world’s most cynical comic strip cat is called Garfield? I had not, at least not until a Monday evening when I sat down to watch a Netflix miniseries about an American president assassinated some 150 years ago, and the subject came up in conversation with a friend. That is when we started wondering whether there might be a link between the lasagna-loving orange feline and James A. Garfield. There is a connection, not directly, but indirectly.

According to the entry on Jim Davis in the Encyclopedia Britannica, the surly orange cat was named after James Garfield Davis, a man who seemed stern and grouchy on the outside but was actually gentle and kind, and who inspired the cartoonist when he began drawing the strip that would make him famous worldwide. James Garfield Davis was born in late 1880, right before the presidential election that James A. Garfield would go on to win. In other words, the artist’s grandfather was literally named after the 20th president of the United States.

When I first heard this story, I assumed the name choice had something to do with the president’s assassination, but it turns out the baptism came in the middle of the election frenzy, long before the shooting. Historians still debate the exact reasons, but the historical link itself is solid. It also serves as the perfect excuse to recommend Death by Lightning, a miniseries of just under four hours that is ideal to watch over a weekend. The show charts Garfield’s remarkable political rise, from entering the 1880 Republican National Convention with modest expectations to becoming the party’s surprise nominee and, eventually, president of the United States.

The Second Shortest-Serving President In U.S. History

Garfield’s time in office, portrayed with intensity by Michael Shannon, was marked by deep divisions and infighting within his own party, and it did not even last a full year, making him the second shortest-serving president in U.S. history. After only four months, he was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, played by Matthew Macfadyen, who claimed he was motivated by a political debt the president supposedly owed him. Without giving too much away, the series makes it clear that Garfield’s death cannot be reduced to this simple explanation. Death by Lightning weaves the stories of both men together, taking us back to a lesser-known chapter of American history, and honestly, it left me wishing there had been a few more episodes.

Death by Lightning is produced by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, the duo best known as the main creative forces behind HBO’s Game of Thrones. Critics have embraced the series with enthusiasm, and it currently holds a near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. Reviewers highlight the cast and the way the show foregrounds the human drama at the core of a historical event that, in many ways, feels strangely relevant today. Viewers seem pleased as well, with an average rating of 7.7 out of 10 on IMDb, even if the audience numbers outside the United States remain disappointingly low.

As for Garfield, the grouchy orange cat himself, he recently returned in a new animated movie, with Chris Pratt voicing the character in the original version. That film is available on services such as Movistar Plus+. If I can offer a bit of advice, though, you may have more fun revisiting his animated adventures from the 1980s. The more recent live-action and animated movies have struggled to capture the charm and sharp, sarcastic humor that turned Garfield into such an enduring icon in the first place.

Source: 3djuegos