Get ready for a wild ride with Fool Me Once, the latest twisty-turny mystery series from master storyteller Harlan Coben now streaming on Netflix.
Spoiler Alert!!
Starring Michelle Keegan (Coronation Street) as grieving army pilot Maya Stern, whose world implodes when she spots her supposedly murdered husband Joe (played by The Stranger's Richard Armitage) on the nanny cam in her home. Say what now?? Maya is convinced she's losing her mind, yet the evidence doesn't lie. Is Joe somehow still alive two years after his vicious slaying? And if so, what sinister secrets has he been hiding all this time?
As the mystery deepens, Maya finds herself clashing with her manipulative psychiatrist mother-in-law Judith (the iconic Joanna Lumley), crossing paths with cagey detective Sami Kierce (Four Lions' Adeel Akhtar) who may know more than he lets on, and uncovering shocking layers of deceit that entwine the past and present.
By the end, your head will be spinning wondering what it all means. But isn't that why we love Harlan Coben? Just when you think you've sussed it out, he pulls the rug out from under you again. And Fool Me Once surely delivers those gasp-out-loud twists in spades.
So brew a pot of tea (or pour yourself a glass of wine) and cancel your plans for the weekend, because you’re going to want to binge every single episode of this addictive, baffling, stay-up-way-too-late thriller. ☕️ 🍷
An Army of Questions
From the opening scene showing Joe's funeral, we know things are about to get weird. The mood of foreboding continues as we're introduced to badass helicopter pilot Maya, struggling with PTSD and transitioning into civilian life after a decade serving Queen and country. Despite being happily married to wealthy aristocrat Joe Burkett for seven years, she's never quite fit into her in-laws’ posh world, overshadowed by disdainful mother-in-law Judith who sees Maya as beneath them.
Maya is still reeling from her beloved sister Claire’s murder a few months prior. Then while home alone one evening, she witnesses something unthinkable on the nanny cam feed: Joe, casually hanging out with their daughter Lily. The man who supposedly bled out after being shot in cold blood two years earlier.
Understandably freaked out by this bizarre development, Maya tries telling her friend (and former army buddy) Shane as well as the lead detective on Joe's case, the prickly DS Sami Kierce. But both shrug her off, convinced she's hallucinating. However, Maya trusts the evidence of her own eyes. She knows what she saw. Her husband is still alive, which means his murder investigation needs to be reopened.
But why would Joe fake his own death and disappear, letting his wife and daughter believe he was gone for two years? What secrets was he hiding? And if he is actually dead after all, who is the mystery man chilling in Maya's living room that fateful night?
Down The Rabbit Hole
With the cops refusing to pursue this ghostly Joe sighting as a real lead, Maya takes matters into her own hands. She starts digging into places her husband spent time - his work, his old school haunts, his family history - believing clues to this baffling riddle must lie there.
The deeper Maya goes, the more unsettling revelations she uncovers. Like the fact that Joe's brother died suspiciously decades earlier, a case eerily similar to Claire’s unsolved murder. The coincidence chills Maya to the bone.
Meanwhile, Joe's relatives are acting shady themselves in the wake of his supposed “resurrection.” They pressure Detective Sami to dismiss Maya as crazy, anxious she'll expose dark Burkett family secrets they want to be kept buried.
And Maya isn’t the only one poking around Joe’s history. Her scrappy niece and nephew have launched their own stealth operation to get justice for their mom Claire's slaying, convinced the two deaths must somehow connect.
As if that wasn’t enough action, Sami is also hiding personal demons that jeopardize both the case and his crumbling relationship. His blackout spells mean pivotal clues and confrontations are frustratingly hazy, the details just out of reach.
Expect The Unexpected
Halfway through this exhilarating series, fresh intel suggests Maya may have fabricated seeing Joe herself. As a way to avoid accepting his death? Or to cover her own role in it perhaps? 😨
At one point Maya comes face to face with the creep who ruined her life. Yet how exactly shady Joe fits into everything still isn't clear.
By the last couple of episodes, Maya has connected Joe's dark past to the death of another woman 26 years ago. Sami finally learns the cause of his blackouts which provides disturbing clarity. Both have had their worlds rocked by ugly revelations in the quest for the truth.
And that ending? 🤯 Let's just say it reframes the whole series in an unforeseeable way that will move this show firmly onto your favorites list.
Fool Me Once takes the classic back-from-the-dead trope pioneered by Hitchcock’s Vertigo and adds 21st-century twists, propulsive energy and binge-watch compulsiveness that’s Coben’s trademark. With distinctly British flourishes woven throughout the plot, this transatlantic thriller partnership just plain works.
Oh, and that chemistry between Michelle Keegan and Richard Armitage...? Off the charts explosive. 🔥 Trust me, this is Harlan Coben crack at its most addictive, and I thoroughly enjoyed every shocking, confounding second.
Answering All Your Questions
Where was Netflix Fool Me Once filmed?
The 2024 Netflix series Fool Me Once was filmed in Manchester, Cheshire, and Oldham, England. The series is based on Harlan Coben's 2016 novel of the same name.
The Burkett family estate and Joe and Maya's wedding scenes were filmed at Arley Hall and Gardens, a 15th-century mansion in Cheshire. The series also features a residential house where the nanny cam scene and other scenes take place.
The series begins with Maya and Joe meeting at a gala dinner under the wings of the Concorde at Runway Visitor Park in Manchester.
How many episodes of Fool Me Once are on Netflix?
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