Fool Me Once Review

Fool Me Once is one of several Harlan Coben novels Netflix has adapted, made by Quay Street Productions, which moved the book's American story to England and shot it around Manchester. Michelle Keegan plays Maya Stern, a former army helicopter pilot whose husband Joe (Richard Armitage) is shot dead in a park, and who then sees him on her daughter's nanny cam. The gun that killed Joe also killed her sister, and the trail leads into the Burketts and their pharmaceutical fortune.

The scripts, overseen by Danny Brocklehurst, run on revelation, several an episode, and the plotting stops bearing scrutiny well before the finale. What keeps it upright is the cast. Keegan is steely and guarded, Joanna Lumley plays the Burkett matriarch with the relish the material needs, and Adeel Akhtar's Detective Sergeant Sami Kierce, a recovering alcoholic troubled by blackouts, is a better character than the case he is working. The photography is glossy and anonymous, and the dialogue mostly exists to move information around.

Reviews were mixed, and the Rotten Tomatoes consensus warned that its reliance on twists might put viewers off a second look. Audiences disagreed: it was one of the biggest debuts Netflix has had. It is an airport paperback of a series, efficient and disposable, and it knows it.