Fool Me Once (TV series)

British television series

3 min read

Fool Me Once is a 2024 British thriller television series, produced by Quay Street Productions for Netflix. It was adapted by Danny Brocklehurst from Harlan Coben's 2016 novel of the same name. It features Michelle Keegan, Adeel Akhtar, Dino Fetscher, Richard Armitage and Joanna Lumley. On 1 January 2024, the series premiered on Netflix.

Plot

Maya Stern, a former military pilot, is struggling with the murder of her husband, Joe Burkett. After installing a nanny cam to monitor her young daughter, she is shocked to see Joe—believed to be dead—appear in the footage. This discovery unravels a web of secrets linked to the earlier death of Maya’s sister, Claire, and exposes dark conspiracies tied to Joe’s wealthy family and their pharmaceutical company, Burkett Global. As Maya investigates, she uncovers dangerous truths involving whistleblower Corey Rudzinski, whose revelations about the company’s misconduct spark a deeper cover-up. Facing betrayal, hidden motives, and threats, Maya’s pursuit of justice leads to shocking revelations about Joe’s past, her own actions, and the crimes buried within the Burkett legacy.

Cast

Episodes

Production

Development

The series is set in the United Kingdom as opposed to the American setting of the novel. Coben, who wrote the original novel, was an executive producer on the show. It is one of several adaptations of Coben's work by Netflix. Danny Brocklehurst was head writer and executive producer, and Nicola Shindler and Richard Fee were executive producers via Quay Street Productions. The episodes were directed by David Moore and Nimer Rashed.

Filming

Filming began in Manchester, England, in February 2023, and other locations in the northwest, with additional filming in Spain. Production wrapped in August 2023.

Release

The series has been available worldwide on Netflix since 1 January 2024. Eight episodes were released.

Reception

The show has received mixed reviews by the critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 71% approval rating with an average rating of 5.3/10, based on 17 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Fool Me Once's reliance on twists might be too much a turnoff for some to check it out twice, but game performances by Michelle Keegan and Joanna Lumley ensure that there'll be no shame for those who stick around". Metacritic calculated a weighted average of 55 out of 100 based on 4 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Within its first week, it was watched by over 37.1 million Netflix accounts with over 238 million hours watched, one of the largest debuts of Netflix. All episodes appeared in the BARB Top 50 most viewed programmes of the week, with the opening episode attracting 6.34 million viewers, making the Top 10.

Keegan was nominated for Drama Performance with the show nominated for New Drama at the 29th National Television Awards.