''Fool Me Once'' is a British thriller television series, produced by Quay Street Productions for

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

. It was adapted by

Danny Brocklehurst Danny Brocklehurst (born June 1971) is an English screenwriter, playwright, and former journalist. He has won both BAFTA and Royal Television Society writing awards. He was featured in the writers' section of ''Broadcast'' magazine's Hot 100 in ...

from

Harlan Coben Harlan Coben (born January 4, 1962) is an American writer of mystery novels and thrillers. The plots of his novels often involve the resurfacing of unresolved or misinterpreted events in the past, murders, or fatal accidents and have multiple ...

's 2016 novel of the same name. It features

Michelle Keegan Michelle Keegan (born 3 June 1987) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Tina McIntyre in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' (2008–2014) and Georgie Lane in the BBC military drama '' Our Girl'' (2016–2020). Keegan h ...

Adeel Akhtar Adeel Akhtar is a British actor. He is known for his role in '' Murdered by My Father'', for which he won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 2017. He is also known for ''Utopia'', '' Ali & Ava'', '' Showtrial'', and '' She ...

, Dino Fetscher, Richard Armitage and

Joanna Lumley Dame Joanna Lamond Lumley (born 1 May 1946) is an Indian-born British actress, presenter, author, television producer, activist and former model. She has won two BAFTA TV Awards for her role as Patsy Stone in the BBC sitcom ''Absolutely Fabulo ...

. The series premiered on Netflix on 1 January 2024.

Premise

Following the murder of her husband Joe Burkett, Maya Stern is given a nanny cam by her friend Eva Finn to watch over her daughter Lily. When watching the camera footage she sees Joe who was presumed dead, visiting their daughter. Meanwhile Abby and Daniel, her niece and nephew, seek to find the truth about the murder of their mother Claire Walker, and the possible connections between both cases.

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.

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 Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England, in February 2023, and other locations in the

northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

, 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

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website

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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'' 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 Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

calculated a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

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 Barb or the BARBs or ''variation'' may refer to: People * Barb (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * Barb, a term used by fans of Nicki Minaj to refer to themselves * The Barbs, a band Places * 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 The 29th National Television Awards were held on 11 September 2024 at the O2 Arena and were hosted by Joel Dommett for the fourth year running. The longlist nominations were released on 21 May 2024 and the shortlist was announced on 20 August ...

References

External links

* {{Netflix original ended series (2019–present) 2024 British television series debuts 2024 British television series endings 2020s British crime drama television series 2020s British television miniseries British thriller television series British English-language television shows Netflix television dramas Television shows based on American novels Television shows filmed in England Television series created by Danny Brocklehurst Television shows based on works by Harlan Coben