Netflix's latest critically acclaimed period drama, Death by Lightning, has found itself at the centre of a brewing storm over historical authenticity. While the series about President James Garfield's 1881 assassination has earned rave reviews, viewers are levelling accusations of a glaring, 'woke' rewrite of history.
The Scene That Sparked Outrage
The controversy ignited almost immediately after the show's debut on Thursday. Eagle-eyed viewers were quick to call out a specific establishing shot set in Gilded Age-era Chicago. The scene depicts an Asian woman, two black men, a black woman, and an amputee casually strolling together. YouTuber Craig Richard Skistimas took to social media platform X to dissect the scene, calling it a Hollywood invention.
Skistimas presented demographic research, stating that Chicago's population in 1880 was approximately 503,000. Of this, black citizens comprised only about 1.3 percent, equating to roughly 6,500 people. He further noted that individuals of Asian descent made up a minuscule 0.03 percent of the city's population at the time.
A Statistical Impossibility?
After running the numbers, Skistimas declared the odds of this specific group appearing together in a random crowd were astronomically low. 'About 0.00016 percent, or roughly 1 in 640,000,' he initially calculated. Upon a closer look, he corrected himself, noting it was actually two Black men and one Black woman, making the group even more statistically unlikely.
'With that correction, the odds of this exact group... randomly walking together in 1880 Chicago? About 1 in 2.4 million,' he stated, concluding that 'Netflix didn't just bend history - they straight-up violated statistics.' His posts have since amassed millions of views.
He also highlighted another perceived oversight, pointing out that the Chinese extra was dressed as an upper-class socialite. Skistimas argued this would have been 'impossible' given the tiny number of Chinese women in Chicago and the social norms of the era, stating they would not have been 'strolling downtown arm-in-arm with anyone outside Chinatown.'
Clashing with a 'True Story' Promise
The criticism was further amplified by the show's own opening disclaimer, which tells viewers 'This is a true story.' Skistimas and others argue that inserting a 'statistically impossible, 2024-style 'diverse' crowd' into 1880 Chicago constitutes rewriting history, not taking artistic licence.
'I don't care if a Black man and a Chinese woman walk together on screen - that's not the issue,' Skistimas wrote. 'What's ridiculous is how blatantly tokenized it is. This shot isn't part of the story, it's just tossed in to check boxes.'
Interestingly, he conceded that the rest of the star-studded series, which features Michael Shannon as Garfield and Matthew Macfadyen as his assassin Charles Guiteau, largely 'sticks closely to historical accuracy,' with white politicians and delegates accurately portrayed. This, he argues, makes the diverse establishing shot seem like 'lazy tokenism' that disservices the cause of genuine representation.
All four episodes of Death by Lightning are now available for streaming on Netflix, leaving audiences to decide where the line falls between inclusive storytelling and historical fidelity.
