How can a dead man show up on footage recorded from a hidden camera? This mystery lies at the heart of Fool Me Once, the gripping new eight-episode crime drama from the pen of bestselling Harlan Coben.
This is the problem that confronts Maya Stern (Michelle Keegan), a young mother and widow whose life is turned upside down when she unexpectedly sees her supposedly dead husband, Joe (Richard Armitage) on images recorded recently on a camera in her home. Her husband walks straight into her living room in the footage, stopping to pick up and cuddle their young daughter, Lily (Thea Taylor-Morgan). But what’s going on? Joe is supposed to be dead.
More strange things occur when Maya confronts her East European nanny, Izabella (Natalia Kostrzewa) over the incident, which occurred during a time when she should have been looking after Lily. But Izabella refuses to even acknowledge what the camera has revealed and when Maya gets angry, gives her a quick and painful blast of pepper spray in the face, before fleeing.
Maya’s recent life has been marred by personal tragedy. Both her sister, Claire (Natalie Anderson) and husband were shot dead in separate incidents fairly recently, her husband Joe during what appeared to be a botched robbery in the street. Maya has a military background and is haunted by her experiences of war. Today, she works as a helicopter flying instructor. Her mother-in-law, Judith (Joanna Lumley) is amongst those who have suggested Maya seek out professional counselling. Maya and Judith do not get on: Judith lives in a large house, is very wealthy and seems to look down on Maya a bit. Despite this, Judith is clearly right: regardless of whatever else is going on, she clearly does need counselling.
And lots of other things are going on. For one thing, Claire’s husband, Eddie (Marcus Garvey) is clearly coping badly with his wife’s death, drinking heavily while threatening to cut off Maya’s access to her sister’s two children, who she gets on well with. There’s the children’s football team coach who falls out with Maya after she challenges him for bullying children during a game being played by her niece, Abby (Dänya Griver).
Last but not least, there is DS Sami Kierce (the brilliant Adeel Akhtar) who is investigating Joe’s murder. In his private life, Sami is busily engaged in learning to dance with his fiancée, in time for their imminent wedding. But Sami clearly has more serious problems too: there are hints of addiction problems and some sort of tragedy in his past. He has recently had a minor car accident after blacking out at the wheel.
After just one episode of this, viewers should have a multitude of questions. Is Joe dead or not? Why did Maya’s nanny react so aggressively when Maya confronted her about it? Is Joe’s mother-in-law involved in some way? Why did Maya’s friend, Eva (Adelle Leonce) supply her with the equipment to spy on her nanny anyway? Is there more to Joe’s “death” than meets the eye? Are the shootings of Joe and Claire linked? Could Maya, who owns lots of guns, be in any way culpable? Why did Maya leave the army? What exactly happened to DS Sami before? What’s the deal with the aggressive football team coach? And why was the first episode bookended by strange scenes from the 1990s featuring young people wearing scary masks?
As with The Stranger and Safe, Netfix have done a fine job of bringing another Harlan Coben bestseller to the screen. Admittedly, the setting has been moved from the USA in the book to the UK in the TV version and occasionally it shows. British viewers will, for example, find it odd that Maya owns so many guns and that there is so much gun violence going on anyway.
But generally, this is a very compelling drama: watchable and very addictive.
Chris Hallam's World View 