3 Netflix shows we’re binge-watching this weekend (Nov. 15-16)

All of a sudden it’s cold. And if it’s not cold where you live, sorry, but it’s gonna get cold. Our advice: give yourself permission to stay inside and watch a bunch of TV on Netflix.

While Netflix is out here launching Jackbox competitors and talking a big game about playing Red Dead Redemption on your phone, it also remains home to some of the best television shows, both original and licensed. (It’s also home to some of the worst television shows ever, which makes finding the good ones even harder.) So let’s give you three — here’s what to binge next:

Death By Lightning

If you’ve never heard of Charles J. Guiteau — or if the extent of your knowledge is limited to Stephen Sondheim’s musical, Assassins — load up Death By Lightning. The procedural-by-spry miniseries chronicles the surprise presidential ascendency of James A. Garfield and the slow-motion car crash that was Guiteau, his eventual assassin. These were real people who did real things! It can’t be said enough.

Created by Mike Makowsky, whose blistering 2020 film Bad Education would have been a much bigger deal for star Hugh Jackman if it hadn’t been dropped mid-pandemic, adapts Candice Millard’s book Destiny of the Republic with a commitment to history but an ear for real talk. Like the often crude tone of Deadwood, Makowsky’s incision into America’s past unearths hot-headed politicians, wacky hucksters, and folks who cuss. As Garfield, Michael Shannon gets his most down-to-earth role, who is still a titan in congressional halls. Meanwhile, Matthew Macfadyen, fresh off crafting one of the saddest losers ever in Succession, finds similar frailty in Guiteau, who embodied the failure of the American Dream. With sepia tones and light-footedness, Makowsky also recalls Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln — maybe because Shea Whigham as Roscoe Conkling and Nick Offerman as Chester A. Arthur are both terrific as they cut deals to push agendas forward.

After plowing through the series, I gotta say: Death By Lightning stands tall as a rare achievement for Netflix. It’s hearty adult-targeting entertainment in just four episodes, no cheap cliffhangers required.

Splinter Cell: Deathwatch

Image: Netflix

Whether you’re a longtime Splinter Cell fan or a newb who lives for fictional spycraft, Deathwatch is worth your time. Created by John Wick mastermind Derek Kolstad and animated in the now-traditional Castlevania and Tomb Raider anime-ish style, the Netflix series brings Sam Fisher (voiced by Liev Schreiber) out of retirement for a grim, globe-spanning mission that fuses stealth action with timely themes like climate disinformation and the possibly degrading loyalty of our servicemen to the U.S. government. We dug it. Here’s our a bit of our original review:

This isn’t the first time Fisher has questioned his role or work in the franchise — he’s disobeyed direct orders before in the video games, and, spoiler alert, he does again in this series. But seeing that rebellion mirrored through McKenna, a much younger agent who still shares Fisher’s anger and disenchantment about the relationships and people they’ve lost throughout their years, is particularly poignant in conveying how their roles in the Fourth Echeleon don’t feel like heroic spy power fantasies. There are no heroes here, just broken people.

This lack of heroes ultimately seems to be what Kolstad and his team want audiences to take away from Deathwatch. While the finale is dynamic, with some truly fantastic animation, the ending is so bleak that I waited through the end credits to see if there was more.

The Haunting of Hill House

Image: Netflix

Halloween is behind us but spooky season is forever. And if you never saw Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House miniseries, it’s finally time to correct that.

Haunting of Hill House is more than just a series of well-timed jump scares — it’s a masterclass in turning supernatural terror into a devastating family drama. Flanagan, who may be best known now for Midnight Mass, breathes new life into Shirley Jackson’s classic novel by focusing on the Crain siblings, whose childhood in the titular haunted house left deep psychic wounds. As adults, they’re broken in different ways, each trying to suppress their trauma, until eerie visitations — and memories they can no longer outrun — pull them back to Hill House. What unfolds is a chilling, gorgeously shot series that finds just as much fear in grief and addiction as it does in ghosts.

Flanagan doesn’t leave his characters in despair. Beneath the show’s oppressive atmosphere and hidden phantoms — some tucked slyly into the background of nearly every scene! — is a carefully built story about acceptance and healing. So we suggest: turn down those lights and sit with Haunting of Hill House’s brand of darkness.