Fool Me Once - General Discussion

[AnimeMania]

Fool Me Once is an 8 episode Drama TV Series streaming on January 1, 2024 on Netflix. The TV Series is based on the 2016 novel “Fool Me Once” by Harlan Coben. Although the novel was set in United States, this adaptation is set in the Northwest of England in the Manchester area.

Maya Stern is a woman coming to terms with the brutal murder of her husband Joe, only to get the shock of her life when she spots him seemingly alive and well on her daughter’s nanny cam. 

Detective Sergeant Sami Kierce is the lead detective in the homicide investigation into Joe’s murder (but he has secrets of his own). 

Maya's niece and nephew, Abby and Daniel, are in the middle of their own investigation, trying to find the truth about their mother's murder, several months earlier. 

Are these two cases connected? Fool Me Once follows these characters on a thrilling hunt for the truth that will reveal shocking secrets and change their lives forever. A shocking story of how secrets and deceit have the power to bring people together, while simultaneously tearing them apart. 

Michelle Keegan as Maya Stern 

Richard Armitage as Joe Burkett

Joanna Lumley as Judith Burkett, Joe's overprotective mother 

Dino Fetscher as Marty McGreggor

Adeel Akhtar as Detective Sergeant Sami Kierce 

Emmett J. Scanlan as Shane Tessier, a friend who was a soldier from Maya Stern's army platoon

Marcus Garvey as Eddie Walker

Adelle Leonce as Eva

Natalia Kostrzewa as Izabella Godek  

Natalie Anderson as Claire Walker

Hattie Morahan  

James Northcote  

Dänya Griver 

Daniel Burt 

Laura Gibbons 

[Snazzy Daisy]

Fool Me Once | Official Trailer | Netflix

[AnimeMania]

Fool Me Once       January 1, 2024        Netflix     

Episodes 1-8       Titles and Descriptions

Spoiler

S01.E01: Episode 1

Maya attends the funeral of her murdered husband Joe at his family’s stately home — then thinks she sees him, days later, on a hidden nanny cam.

S01.E02: Episode 2

News about the murder weapon sets the investigation on a new course. Maya goes searching for answers and learns something surprising about her sister.

S01.E03: Episode 3

Maya chases the car that's been following her. With the adults distracted, Claire's children investigate the mystery of their mother's old photo.

S01.E04: Episode 4

The detectives question the owner of the motorbike from the crime scene. Kierce's condition catches up with him at a critical moment.

S01.E05: Episode 5

Maya sees an unexpected face when she takes Lily to see her grandmother. Kierce struggles to come to terms with his test results.

S01.E06: Episode 6

Suspicion falls on Maya when she's found at a crime scene — but she's the one who makes an accusation. McGreggor discovers something new about Kierce.

S01.E07: Episode 7

As the police close in on a suspect, Maya decides to take drastic action. Shane begs her for answers — and learns the truth about their shared past.

S01.E08: Episode 8

With the last pieces of the puzzle starting to fall into place, Maya confronts her husband's family one last time, and Kierce seeks help from Corey.

[Snazzy Daisy]

I like this show better than Shelter and Stay Close. Don’t stop watching after one episode.

For someone with combat experience, Maya is really bad at strategising and self-restraint. She has no problem revealing to Izabella about the secret nanny cam in the playroom. Rushing to show the nanny cam clip to her nanny, she doesn’t even bother to make a copy of that file. She also doesn’t know when to STFU, easily telling people about her findings. Why is she so trusting?

In E07, when Christopher is telling Maya about what happened in the boarding school and on the yacht, I wonder why she believes everything at face value. We then have the answer in the first 5 minutes of E08.

Throughout the episodes, I have been wondering why do we need to witness Kierce’s multiple blackouts. It feels like a waste of time. The answer is only revealed in E07.

This series can actually be wrapped up in less than 6 episodes. The subplots re Claire’s other son and all the football practices, are they really necessary?

For me, Adeel Akhtar will always be Andy Fisher - the timid guy who killed his daughter in law in Sherwood.

My favorite character is Shane Tessier. The fact that it’s played by Emmett J. Scanlan is just an added bonus. Lovely! 😘💕

[red12]

On 1/1/2024 at 11:24 PM, Snazzy Daisy said:

I like this show better than Shelter and Stay Close. Don’t stop watching after one episode.

For someone with combat experience, Maya is really bad at strategising and self-restraint. She has no problem revealing to Izabella about the secret nanny cam in the playroom. Rushing to show the nanny cam clip to her nanny, she doesn’t even bother to make a copy of that file. She also doesn’t know when to STFU, easily telling people about her findings. Why is she so trusting?

This series can actually be wrapped up in less than 6 episodes. The subplots re Claire’s other son and all the football practices, are they really necessary?

 

Someone else who found Maya's lack of strategery (Bush II), forethought, and self-restraint mind-boggling. Yeah! How in god's name did she ever get promoted? If presented with a list of the top 3 options for a situation, she picked #5 85% of the time and #4 10%. It was beyond. Does someone who read the book know if this was explained? 

6 episodes...Thank you! The lack of succinct storytelling was so bothersome. My annoyance with wasted time kept rising over the last two episodes.

I saw Harlan on CBS This Morning a couple of days ago acting like the clever cat who swallowed the canary, I wanted to pelt him with fruit. LOL

[Straycat80]

This was a good series. They could have cut out the whole story with the sisters kids and secret son, they had nothing to do with why their Mom got murdered. 
I also got tired of Sami’s multiple black outs, but then in episode 7 it made sense and tied into the story.

I was surprised at the ending. 

[ShadowHunter]

Shane was very ride or die. He did everything Maya asked. Damn.

At first I wasn't thrilled with Sami but it all tied in and I grew to like the Detective alot and was so happy he was alive and well all those years later. I also appreciated the few funny moments the show had like them joking about the younger cop not knowing who Duran Duran was.

This was a perfect example of a show you binge though this definitely would have fallen apart and felt worse if you actually spent 8 weeks watching this show.  It was a fun entertaining watch too many red herrings though. 

[Johnny Dollar]

This show had plot holes so big you could fly an Apache attack helicopter through them.

Why would you kill your husband because you suspect him of killing your sister and then spend the entire series searching for clues of who killed your sister? Why aren’t you laying low and playing the grieving widow instead of doing everything in your power to bring suspicion on yourself? You don’t want your daughter being raised by your murderous husband so you murder him? The same daughter that you pawn off on literally anyone at the drop of a hat. And your only suspicion of your husband’s guilt is because he wasn’t appropriately sad enough?

And dont get me started on the irrelevant side plots. Who cares about the secret half brother? Or Kierce’s illness? Or the asshole soccer coach. And poor PJ. He didn’t deserve any of this.

The show would’ve been much better if she didn’t kill her husband at the outset but spent her time trying to find her sister’s killer while her husband and his family try to gaslight her. She could still kill him on camera and bring down the family but gotten away with it by having it seem like self defense. 

[TV Diva Queen]

any chance this can be broken up into episodes?  I scroll right to the bottom to ask the question - apologies if its been addressed - :) 

[TaraS1]

I couldn't get past how much the lead actress looks like a young Kristin Davis with some Maggie Q and Kim Kardashian thrown in.

[QQQQ]

8 hours ago, TaraS1 said:

I couldn't get past how much the lead actress looks like a young Kristin Davis with some Maggie Q and Kim Kardashian thrown in.

Yes! Kristin Davis - THAT'S who she looks like. Bothered me the whole series.

The ending was marginally better than a Murder at the End of the World, but the protagonists shared many of same qualities that leave viewers shaking their heads in disbelief. And both could have been at least 2 episodes shorter.

[A.Ham]

On 1/8/2024 at 12:37 PM, TaraS1 said:

I couldn't get past how much the lead actress looks like a young Kristin Davis with some Maggie Q and Kim Kardashian thrown in

I really thought the actress was a Maggie Q doppelganger.

[Chaos Theory]

I really enjoyed this but then kind of mystery is in my wheelhouse.  I enjoyed Harlan Corbin’s other stories like Stay Close, Safe and The Stranger.  I think this might be my favorite so far.   Yes there was a bunch of silliness and improbable things going on but the overall story was compelling enough.   I also liked Maya and the mystery surrounding what actually happened to get her thrown out of the army and how it connected to her sisters death.     I really enjoyed the confrontation scene bin the last episode between Maya and Judith.  (Even though I recognized the actress it took me a long time to place the actress and I am a big fan of Absolutely Fabulous so I should get ashamed of myself).  I thought that final scene with Judith her two remaining kids and Maya was fine really well.     
 

while not perfect I thought it was a fun 8 episodes.   

On 1/8/2024 at 7:37 AM, Johnny Dollar said:

This show had plot holes so big you could fly an Apache attack helicopter through them.

Why would you kill your husband because you suspect him of killing your sister and then spend the entire series searching for clues of who killed your sister? Why aren’t you laying low and playing the grieving widow instead of doing everything in your power to bring suspicion on yourself? 

Maya wasn't searching for clues on who killed her sister.   She was trying to figure out who was gaslighting her with the picture of her husband still alive.    She was also trying to figure out who was following her.  When it turned out to be the guy who leaked the info on the army thing and he thought her husband and her sister were killed by the same person she used him to further her own agenda of protecting her daugher against her husband's powerful family.     It turns out that Judith her husband's mother was the one who set up the scenerio because she knew Maya killed her son in the hopes that Maya would do something stupid and confess.   

I am not saying the story didn't have plot holes but alot of the plot holes are reasonable enough that you can look past them to maintain the story.     

 

 

 

Edited January 10 by Chaos Theory

[chaifan]

OK, let me see if I have this right... Maya believes Joe killed Claire, using her own gun.  So she takes that gun to the range, shoots it, gives the casing to buddy Shane for a ballistics test, confirms that was the gun, but then uses the same gun to kill Joe.  Is that right?   If she suspected the gun was used to kill Claire, why in the world would she use it to kill her husband? 

Also, where does the best friend giving Maya the nanny cam come in?  Did the family bribe her to do that?

I guess I enjoyed the show overall, but the ending sort of killed it for me (no pun intended).  I liked Sami and Marty working together, but felt the reveal that Sami's "sponsor" being his dead fiancee was just too much straight out of Sixth Sense.  I kept expecting Shane to be involved somehow.  And I agree with the comments above that Maya, for supposedly being some super smart Army helicopter pilot, had -0- strategic ability.  Killing someone in a public park, where there could be all sorts of witnesses, not to mention security cameras?  That seemed rather stupid. 

I think I would have liked this all better if I stopped after Episode 6, and someone just told me Shane did it. 

Also, at the same time I started watching this, I also started "Who is Erin Carter", and both were a bit similar - attractive dark haired female leads, both bad asses who can fight and shoot, with mysterious pasts that are getting revealed in a slow dribble.  I stopped watching Erin Carter, to get through this one.  Not sure if I'll go back to that.  (Strangely enough, for the first time I found a show that doesn't have a forum here.)

 

 

 

[Anela]

The ending seemed familiar. 

I don't like that the little girl lost both of her parents. I did like them conning the family, getting them on video, and a live broadcast. I guess I should have been expecting a shock ending. Once she confessed to killing her husband, they weren't just going to let her go free. I was also glad the detective survived, and got to see his child grow up. 

Edited January 15 by Anela

[Artsda]

Just finished it and wasn't expecting Maya to be the one who did it. It had some great twists the last 2 episodes.

Maybe she should have taken Lily and left for awhile since she did it. 

Shane was a great BFF.

The secret nephew didn't even get to meet Maya and she's dead too. Did he ever meet his father? That story could have been better or left out. 

[BusyOctober]

Finished this over the weekend.  Aside from all the previously mentioned plot holes. I have a big question.

Izabella the Nanny and her brother Luka  worked for the Burkett.  How did Judith know about the Nanny Cam frame in order for her to get Izabella and Luka to plant the “deep fake” footage (I can barely contain eye rolling just typing that)?  The frame  was a gift from Maya’s friend with no shown connection to Judith or the surviving Burkett siblings.  The frame was given and set up on one day, and Maya saw the Joe fake out the next day.  
Was the friend in on the plot and gave Judith or Izabella the frame before giving it to Maya?

[JustHereForFood]

I have sort of mixed feeling about this. On one hand, it had all of the typical Coben tropes* so I shouldn't probably complain much as I knew what I was getting into and it delivered what I expect from Coben - quick-paced thriller that keeps me guessing until the last minute and expecting one more twist. But while I'm used to the rest of the tropes, I can't get over the fact that the story breaks one of the fundamental rules of mysteries - that the main POV character is not supposed to be the culprit and keep the info from us. Coben already did something similar in one of his books, so I probably shouldn't be surprised, but it was still annoying. 

*Let's see, we have:

- rich family that covers up how one of them accidentally killed someone a long time ago,

- at least one person delivers a self-righteous speech about how the most important thing is to protect their family and how they would scorch the Earth to do so,

- almost everyone the protagonist-turned-amateur detective asks for information immediately tells them their life story with no suspicion,

- a good but grumpy cop who is dealing with their own issues ends up sharing vital information with the protagonist even though objectively they look like the most likely suspect,

- unrelated story about a couch who is too much into the sport and bullies the kids (I don't know anything about sports, is it that common in high schools? Who the hell cares about high school sports apart from the kids and maybe a few stay-at-home parents?)

One of the usual tropes missing in this one was the best friend being somehow involved or at least withholding some vital information, so I guess that was a good twist on that one, I kept suspecting Shane for no reason.

 

On the too-dumb-to-live front, I kept screaming at Maya's niece when she was meeting with her mum's old boyfriend: "Meet in public! Don't go into his flat you idiot!" At least she has the sort of excuse of being a teenager, Maya had no excuse of going alone to the psychiatric hospital after her mother in law who has money and connections in the field, obviously hates her and wants an excuse to take her daughter from her, has already suggested that she is losing her mind. I was watching it with my mother and we both looked at each other at the same time, saying "They are going to keep her there as a patient, right?" 

I agree with the comment that said that the biological kid plotline could have been skipped. At first, I though that the hacker would turn out to be the kid as there was nobody else of that age, but it turned out to be someone we haven't seen before.

Was anyone else thinking about Broadchurch when the detective kept blacking out when he was investigating alone in some remote area? I am glad that he turned out to be ok and it was just side-effects from the drugs (although I probably missed the explanation why was he taking them in the first place if they caused his problems). It was a good twist with his ex being a hallucination, I did not expect that at all. But he really did mess up with his insisting on continuing to work despite his health problems, that suspect falling off the roof was scary as hell.

Edited January 25 by JustHereForFood
forgot one thing

[lidarose9]

I watched 3 episodes and gave up. This is one of the stupidest shows I've ever watched. Let's start with the bright green and electric blue cars that stick out like a sore thumb, especially for cops doing surveillence, yeah right. Randomly parking your helicopter in someone's field and then leaving the student sitting in it (I have a dentist appointment!) while you chase who/what/where? The nanny freaks out, steals the SD card, and runs -- but Maya just imagined the whole thing? It was a collection of tired predictable TV tropes that someone tossed in a paper bag and then arranged into a script. What a waste of time of all involved.

[ribboninthesky1]

I'm so glad others called out the ridiculous plot holes. This could have been wrapped up in 4 episodes.  I'm not familiar with Coben, but looks like I've watched another series (The Stranger, which I don't recall being so absurd) without knowing they were based on books. 

I remember thinking Maya might be the killer because 1) the actress was playing Maya as utterly unaffected, and 2) the reveal of the hidden hand gun.  But I dismissed it because what would be the point of investigating what led to her sister's death if she already knew who killed Claire?

On 1/8/2024 at 7:37 AM, Johnny Dollar said:

The show would’ve been much better if she didn’t kill her husband at the outset but spent her time trying to find her sister’s killer while her husband and his family try to gaslight her.

Yep, and the series title would have played perfectly into this. 

On 1/22/2024 at 1:31 PM, BusyOctober said:

How did Judith know about the Nanny Cam frame in order for her to get Izabella and Luka to plant the “deep fake” footage (I can barely contain eye rolling just typing that)?

It's never explained and not only is it a plot hole, the entire premise of the series hinges on it. All they had to do was show the nanny in the background or something when Maya's friend gifts the frame. 

On 1/8/2024 at 7:37 AM, Johnny Dollar said:

The same daughter that you pawn off on literally anyone at the drop of a hat.

Right??

[Snazzy Daisy]

‘Fool Me Once’ Star Michelle Keegan ‘Couldn’t Believe’ Finale Twist, Reveals Key Scene That Got Cut

 

[JustHereForFood]

FWIW, there is an explanation for the cam, based on the book:

Harlan Coben’s Fool Me Once Book Explains the Nanny Cam ‘Plot Hole’

[jaigurudeva]

On 1/8/2024 at 4:37 AM, Johnny Dollar said:

The show would’ve been much better if she didn’t kill her husband at the outset but spent her time trying to find her sister’s killer while her husband and his family try to gaslight her. She could still kill him on camera and bring down the family but gotten away with it by having it seem like self defense. 

This would've been the better show. The confrontation/show-down between Maya and Joe would've been the emotional climax, killing him in self-defense would've made Maya less unlikeable (why were her family/friends and the random policeman still so dedicated to her at the end even after revealing she's a serial murderer?), plus it would've cut down on some inconsistences in the plot and characters, which others have already pointed out but I still need to get off my chest: first and foremost, why would Maya use the same gun to kill Joe, connecting their murders and further implicating her? And why do it in a public park where of course there'd be witnesses? Maya only had other suspects (the bike kids) to spin some of the suspicion off her by pure coincidence, too. And how could it be that there's "no way to prove" Joe killed Claire, when Joe is literally the only person who could have had access to the murder weapon in the safe at the time? That's pretty open-and-shut if you ask me, especially if the cops did even a little more digging into Joe. How could the granny and nanny rig up the deep fake within a day after Maya put it up? I'll chock the cop going rogue at the end up to his crazy pills, but it was still dumb for his partner to enable him and it still made me roll my eyes.

[chaifan]

From the Variety article linked above...

Quote

“I knew the audience would like it, but I didn’t expect it to be this huge,” Keegan says. “I knew that the audience really loves [Coben’s] “Stay Close” and “The Stranger” and people are obsessed. Harlan’s got a cult following, so I knew that the followers would love it, but I just didn’t expect it to be so big.”

Really?  Who out there is "loving" this?  yeah, a lot of people watched it, but if this forum is any indicator, people thought it was one hot mess. 

Yes, I watched it, but I've never heard of Coben or read any of his books.  It simply came up on my Netflix "recommended" list.  eh.

 

 

[HerkyJerky]

On 1/1/2024 at 10:24 PM, Snazzy Daisy said:

For me, Adeel Akhtar will always be Andy Fisher - the timid guy who killed his daughter in law in Sherwood.

And for me, I’ll always know him as Dr. Singh in Sweet Tooth…

[MamaMax]

My daughter and I were howling through this whole series. We watched it all the way through to see if it would redeem itself, and to find out why so many people seemingly liked it: Nope and who knows? 

The worst part (aside from the giant plot holes) was the amount of scenery chewed by the detective. THE OVERACTING! THE SHOUTING AND EMOTING!  We were so annoyed we started rooting for this character to fall off a building.

The whole thing was a hot mess. Also- did anyone catch what tainted  drugs the detective was supposed to be on?  I swear they said that the "bad" meds were antibiotics which made little sense to me.

 

 

[Milburn Stone]

I'll pretty much watch Adeel Akhtar in anything. The one thing we couldn't figure was near the beginning. Maya has told him that the nanny has stolen the SD card, which certainly makes the claim of some kind of shenanigans on her part worth looking into. But neither Kierce nor his young partner thinks it would be a good idea to interview the nanny? (Until about 5 episodes later or something, if they ever did.)