Do yourself a favor and watch Death by Lightning on Netflix.
Tara stumbled on it, scrounging for a new show after we burned through Foundation and For All Mankind on Apple – also highly recommended, particularly coming from someone who isn’t a big fan of space dramas. To lighten things up, we mixed in Chad Powers on Hulu once a week, which I loved, even though the six-episode season was far too short.
If you don’t know anything about Death by Lightning, the title certainly won’t tip you off. It’s a historical drama, remarkably accurate by all accounts, depicting the brief ascendency and presidency of James Garfield. If I’m at risk of ruining the ending for you, maybe history isn’t your thing. Still, the cast and acting are tremendous – if the dude who plays Charles Guiteau doesn’t win all the awards, it would be the second biggest tragedy of the show.
The inevitable final scenes aside, Garfield’s saga was a slice of history I never knew. His unexpected (and unwanted) nomination, his unique political style, and his role in the remediation of Chester Arthur were all news to me. We may have remembered Garfield as one of our greatest presidents had his tenure lasted more than three months.
It’s impossible to watch almost any semi-political drama without seeing the corollaries – or stark contrasts – to the current political landscape. Slow Horses leans unapologetically into it. The West Wing might as well be science fiction at this point, with all its dignity, purpose, and bipartisanship.
The Garfield era, to the extent Death by Lightning indeed captures its essence, was a mixed bag. The political division, corruption (New York was a special kind of cesspool), and violence – not to mention the medical science – in the years following the Civil War made me feel slightly better about the shit-show we’re watching today. As bad as it seems, things have been worse.
At the same time, it’s difficult to imagine a genuinely principled, unambitious, and untethered man or woman climbing to the top of our political heap in this age. The unwritten rules and conventions simply wouldn’t allow it. We’re left with the people who hunger for power and adoration, jockey to keep their partisans happy, and can barter their souls for enough corporate donations to win. Every election feels like a choice between the lesser of two evils.
Anyway, whether you contextualize it or not, Death by Lightning is one of the best things you’ll watch this winter. It’s a measly 4 one-hour episodes, so not a big commitment.
Let me know what you think.
Here’s what we’re seeing:
The holidays are proving to be a jolly, if temporary, boost to consumer confidence. Our Economic Sentiment Index had a nice surge over the past two weeks, jumping more than a full point to levels we haven’t seen since early September. The biggest driver was a 3-point increase in optimism for the job market, consistent with reports this week on lower-than-expected new unemployment claims. The record spending over the Black Friday weekend was another sign of a still-resilient consumer – and echoes the 1.8-point improvement we saw in our personal finances metric.
Despite a banner Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a super-majority of Americans still have a lot of gift-buying left to go. No matter how early people begin buying for the winter holidays (we recorded people buying all the way back in May), most of us wait until the last minute to get everything done. Our latest data show that only 35% of U.S. consumers have completed even half of their holiday shopping as of Monday. One in five hadn’t even started yet. These laggards are more likely than earlier shoppers to visit physical stores, buy clothes as gifts, and rely on recommendations and product reviews over social media ads.
But don’t sleep on the impact of social media on holiday retail. While the emergence of AI as a factor in gift ideation is a big headline this year, it still pales in comparison to social media’s influence during the shopping season. Over half of U.S. shoppers say they’ve turned to social platforms for gift ideas this year, including 78% of Gen Zs. Meanwhile, the percentage of TikTok users who have shopped for gifts on TikTok alone is up 50% since 2024. Naturally, the numbers are highly correlated with the number of difficult-to-buy-for people a respondent has in their life.
Americans continue to have a net negative outlook on the impact of AI. Lost in all our white-collar musings about the benefits of AI to the stock market and company operating efficiencies is the fact that most average people are still freaked out by it. In our 3 Things to Know this week, we found that 40% of U.S. adults believe it will have an adverse impact on their lives over the next decade, while 35% think it will be positive. Concerns over fraud and deepfakes outpace fears of job losses. In other news, a lot of people don’t take very good care of their cars, especially during the holiday retail season. Lastly, we learned that most Americans believe financial literacy is woefully under-taught in U.S. school systems. They’re right.
Overall, our collective mood improved in November, owed likely to a lot of things. The CivicScience Emotional Well-Being Index improved considerably last month, the first uptick it has shown since July. We do often see a bump in November (in non-election years), as the beginning-of-school-year chaos shifts to a steady groove and the prospects of upcoming holiday breaks hit the horizon. Politics may not have been a non-factor, however. Feelings of stress and worry declined – particularly among Democrats – as the few election outcomes early last month gave lefties a glimmer of hope.
More holiday awesomeness from the InsightStore™:
- When it comes to holiday shopping, Bloomingdale’s and Saks Fifth Avenue customers are more different than you’d expect;
- Holiday toy buyers are turning to Walmart.com and other big-box websites in larger numbers this year.
The most popular questions this week:
Which of the following is your favorite holiday movie?
Do you plan to go skiing or snowboarding this winter?
How savvy are you when it comes to gift giving?
How often do you clean your reusable water bottle?
Do you typically anticipate conflict when gathering with family during the holidays?
Answer Key: Elf; No, but I miss it terribly; Incompetent; Nope, 6ft is fine; Ugh, not as often as I probably should; Thankfully, no.
Hoping you’re well.
JD
