‘Fool Me Once’ is a new mystery thriller series streaming on Netflix. Starring Michelle Keegan in the lead role, it follows Maya as she investigates the sudden death of her husband, Joe. The narrative begins right after Joe’s funeral – when Maya goes through a rabbit hole of dark secrets from their past. The show is based on Harlan Coben’s 2016 novel of the same name. Besides Keegan, Fool Me Once’s cast includes Richard Armitage, Adeel Akhtar, Emmett J. Scanlan, and Joanna Lumley. The series is set in the UK instead of the American setting of the source material. It is written by Danny Brocklehurst and is directed by Nimer Rashed & David Moore. Spoilers ahead.
Fool Me Once (Season 1) ‘Netflix’ Recap:
What is ‘Fool Me Once’ on Netflix about?
‘Fool Me Once’ on Netflix is about Maya Stern (played by Michelle Keegan), who starts a full-blown investigation into her husband’s murder. The series follows her journey where she tries to know whether her husband, Joe (played by Richard Armitage), is dead or alive. It is a British TV drama series based on the book by Harlan Coben.
What makes Maya decide to investigate Joe’s death?
Maya attends Joe’s funeral along with their friends and family. Joe’s mother – Judith (played by Joanna Lumley), feels concerned for Maya. She worries Maya isn’t dealing with her grief well enough. She recounts how Joe’s death marks the third untimely loss in their family. In the recent past, Maya’s sister – Claire (played by Natalie Anderson) also died. Years ago, Joe’s brother Andrew also suffered a tragic death. Now, Maya witnessed Joe’s murder herself. So, Judith thinks Maya needs to grieve properly. After the funeral, Maya’s friend gifts her a digital photo frame. She also adds a nanny cam to it – so that Maya can look after her daughter Lily while she is out of home.
Eventually, Maya places the frame in Lily’s room and leaves her with nanny Izabella (played by Natalia Kostrzewa). Sometime later, Maya returns home and checks the footage. She notices a man arrive in Lily’s room, wearing Joe’s green shirt. This man looks back at the camera and shows his face. Maya realizes that the man is Joe. But how is that possible? Isn’t Joe dead? She starts wondering. Later, she confronts Izabella about it. But instead of sharing anything helpful, Izabella just sprays pepper in Maya’s eyes and runs away. Anyhow, because of the footage, Maya decides to investigate the truth behind Joe’s death.
Why was Claire killed? What was the reason behind Claire’s death?
Joe’s murder investigation case gets assigned to DS Sami Kierce (played by Adeel Akhtar). Maya tells him about her suspicion about Joe being alive. Kierce finds it silly, considering they both attended Joe’s funeral. He looks at Maya’s house for any signs of guns. Later on, he makes a shocking discovery about Joe’s murder – Joe and Claire both were killed by the bullet from the same gun. It sets the investigation on a new course. Meanwhile, Maya goes searching for answers and learns something surprising about her sister.
Maya notices someone following her in a red car. She tracks the person down and eventually meets Corey – an ambitious individual who had stayed in touch with Claire before her death. Turns out, Claire was looking at the questionable dealings by the medical business conglomerate, owned by the Burkett family. Since she threatened to blow the whistle on them, she was killed. Meanwhile, Claire’s children find an old film roll in their mother’s storage boxes. They develop it to find a photo where Claire is pregnant. However, the photo was clicked in 2003, before either of them were born. So, they decide to find the truth about this kid.
How is Detective Kierce connected to the Burkett family?
Maya looks through Joe’s call log and notices the contact number of a game arcade. She meets the arcade manager, but he does not share any details that could help her. Eventually, she goes to the Burketts’ mansion to discuss the deed. Joe’s sister, Caroline, tells Maya about her research into the financial transactions from their family’s secret bank account. For some reason, it showed a consistent transfer of some amount to Detective Kierce’s account. Judith and her son do not explain the reason behind those transactions. Rather, they try to throw the matter under the rug.
Detective Kierce, who was hoping to get married, had a troubled past. Since his fiancee’s death, he started taking some pills from the Bracketts’ medical business. These drugs harmed him more than helped him. That is most likely why the family was paying him to keep his mouth shut. On the other hand, Claire’s children learn that Claire’s ex came to see her at the graveyard. They believe he is likely the father and go up to meet him. That is the first time he realizes that he and Claire had a child together. He does not take it well and acts quite immaturely.
What happened in Kierce’s past?
Detective Kierce and his junior subordinate – Marty McGregor (played by Dino Fetscher), follow a trail related to the crime scene. They find out the details of a motorbike owner and question him. The man turns out to be Claire’s daughter’s football coach Phil Dawson. He refuses to share any details about his son PJ. McGregor realizes that Kierce accidentally bumped his car in the past. He suspects it had to do with some health issues. Meanwhile, the same issues catch up with Kierce at a critical moment in their investigation. He calls McGreggor and asks for help.
Maya keeps investigating Burketts’ financial affairs and realizes they bribed Tommy to keep his mouth shut about something. She discovers that Joe’s brother, Andrew, did not die by accident. He jumped either of his own volition or because someone made him jump. While she starts looking into Joe and Andrew’s pasts, Kierce tries to find details on PJ. He suspects PJ to be the person who shot Joe. Claire’s daughter finds out that her half-brother is Louis, who was working for their school football team for a while. Maya visits the school Andrew and Joe go to and meets their principal. She questions him why Claire visited the school with Louis. Although reluctant at first, the principal reveals the details.
Why did Claire visit the posh school with Louis?
Claire went to the posh school to speak about their past pupil, Theo Mora. He died of alcohol overdose not long before Andrew’s death. It leads Maya to another investigation into both deaths – since something about them led to Claire’s death. Maya meets Theo’s mother to realize he was never someone with an alcohol use disorder. That means he was forced to drink alcohol against his will, which led to his untimely death. While speaking with Claire’s husband, Maya learns a crucial detail about Andrew & Theo’s schoolmate – Christopher Swain.
Maya decides to meet Swain to learn the truth. Meanwhile, the detectives suspect Maya had something to do with Joe’s death because she was recently found at a crime scene with someone else. She dodges the bullet by accusing Corey instead. While McGreggor discovers something new about Kierce, Maya finds a way to meet Swain. She reaches his lavish villa to speak with him. He gets anxious seeing her there. However, since Joe is dead, Swain decides to come clean.
Who killed Andrew?
Swain reveals that Joe was behind his brother Andrew’s death. It happened after their group of friends accidentally made Theo drink a lot of booze against his will. In their raucousness, they did not realize that Theo was struggling to breathe. While they made him drink alcohol, he suffered seizures, which led to his death. It took a toll on Andrew’s mental health, who felt guilty for poor Theo’s death. When they were on a boat, Andrew got pushed into the water. That’s how he died. For years, Joe stopped others from speaking about it.
Fool Me Once (Season 1) ‘Netflix’ Ending Explained:
What happened to Joe? Is Joe dead or alive?
Detective Kierce and Detective McGregor follow PJ to find him at a construction site. Kierce climbs up on the roof to follow the kid but starts suffering from the side effects of pills. PJ walks up to help the detective but falls down himself. After this incident, Kierce gets pushed out of the federation because he did not report his deteriorating medical condition. Meanwhile, Maya follows a car to find Izabella with her partner. She confronts them about the tape and learns the truth. Izabella stole Joe’s green shirt and made Luca wear it. Then, they used deepfake to make Joe appear in the video footage.
Who killed Joe?
Shane suspects Maya is hiding something from him. He confronts her, and she accepts that it was, in fact, she who killed Joe. Four months earlier, Joe had killed Claire to keep his family’s secrets hidden. Once Maya became certain about it, she decided to confront him. He took out his gun and tried shooting her. But she had already taken out its bullets. After seeing Joe feel no remorse for his actions, she shot him dead. Then, she placed the gun back in their house as if nothing ever happened. Kierce learns about it and informs McGreggor. While they track Maya’s car, she misdirects them and reaches the Beckett residence.
What happens to Maya in the end?
Once the Becketts return home, Maya confronts them about their dubious past. Just like her son, Judith feels no remorse for her cruel actions, and neither does her other son. He does not want the truth to go out of the room. So, moments later, he shoots Maya repeatedly. But none of the family members realized that Maya had put up a nanny cam in the room, which was live streaming their conversation. In the end, Maya’s brave act helps expose the truth about Bracketts as Claire wanted to.
Fool Me Once (Season 1) ‘Netflix’ Review:
An Atrocious Series that Tests Your Patience
Imagine you’re attending a screenwriting lecture. The professor is talking about dialogues and the importance of subtext. You hear only half the part and miss out on understanding the craft of organic or believable dialogue. ‘Fool Me Once’ is a result of a similar student who just puts all the subtext in the dialogue without making any effort to ask whether people speak like that in real life.
Let me put it in a simpler terms. Character A arrives in a dark room with two others, turns on the light, and asks the surprise guest – ‘What are you doing here sitting in the dark?’ Here’s another situation. Character A tells details of character B’s traumatic past by listing them down while speaking with her. The ‘dialogue’ appears unapologetically expositional. Then, there are multiple instances where characters just state the obvious by the words coming out of their mouths. It makes you wonder – Have we, as human writers, collectively decided not to put any effort into what we write? Are we going to just blindly submit to the whims of ChatGPT?
As if its bad dialogue writing is enough of an issue, ‘Fool Me Once’ also disappoints in terms of its plot development and direction. Many scenes are so ludicrously directed that you end up laughing at its stupidity. I wish I had a better, detailed explanation to offer for the migraine this 8-episode series gave me. There is an effort to offer a takedown of a Sackler-like family that profited by praying on innocent people’s lives. However, pretty much every loophole, every bad acting performance, and bad dialogue is just enough of an explanation in itself. In all sincerity, it felt like a stretched version of terrible thriller movies you find on Lifetime or Hallmark.
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