As the opening episode of Fool Me Once begins, a boy is tied to a chair near a fire in 1996. He is surrounded by masked individuals. One of them begins to remove their face mask. After the intro, Maya Stern (Michelle Keegan) and others attend a funeral for Joe Burkett (Richard Armitage). In a flashback, Maya meets Joe at a fancy charity party. Maya says she’ll be on a plane back to base in about eleven hours. Joe wants to get the most out of their time then. Then, Maya remembers their wedding. She remembers the moment Joe was fatally shot. Later, Shane Tessier (Emmett Scanlan) checks on Maya who says she is okay. She approaches Detective Sami Kierce (Adeel Akhtar).

She quickly learns that Sami is not any closer to catching Joe’s killer. Outside, Joe’s mom, Judith (Joanna Lumley), tells Maya she invited the detective because she wanted him to see who Joe was. Judith believes there is more going on with Maya than just grieving. She thinks Maya should get help after losing her sister and Joe. Maya speaks to Eva Finn (Adelle Leonce) about the cost of the funeral. Eva gives her a digital picture frame. She shows Maya how it records when it detects movement. Eva suggests she can use it to keep an eye on Lily when she’s away. Maya doubts she needs to keep an eye on the nanny, Isabella Godek (Natalia Kostrzewa). Maya flies in a helicopter before joining Shane at the shooting range.

Shane says he and the guys were talking about coming over this weekend. Once Maya makes it home, Izabella tells her that she and Lily (Thea Taylor-Morgan) had fun. That night, Maya remembers what appears to be a plane crash. In the morning, she messes with the digital picture frame. Later, Maya gets a call from Judith who invites her to come over to Farnwood with Lily this weekend. Maya offers to call her later so they can arrange something for another day. After the call, she watches the video on the picture frame and sees Joe playing with Lily. Maya asks Lilly about being with her daddy, but Lilly shakes her head and doesn’t remember anything. When Izabella comes over, Maya makes her watch the video.

After Lily interrupts, Maya tells Izabella she wants answers. Izabella sprays her with pepper spray before fleeing the house. When Detective Kierce comes over, he learns about the incident. She tries to show him the video only to discover that the SD card is missing. Kierce doesn’t want to believe her. She apologizes before they sit down so Kierce can ask her a few questions. He asks her about the night of the attack and two masked youths appearing on scramble bikes. She wouldn’t let go until she was pushed and fell backwards. Joe didn’t want to hand over his wallet. One of them pulled out a gun and shot him. Kierce thinks it is impressive she was able to identify the gun used, but  Maya says she was issued one overseas.

She admits she liked combat before learning they found three bullets in Joe’s body. They also found three casings from the scene consistent with a Glock 17. Maya shows him where she keeps her gun and how she uses her thumbprint to open the case. She has a Glock 17 that is legally registered and deactivated. Kierce admits he wants to test it. In the car, Kierce speaks to Molly about going out tonight. He gets into a wreck immediately after the call. Maya calls Judith to ask her what Joe’s body looked like when she saw it. Judith says he looked beautiful. Kierce speaks to his boss about the accident and admits it happened again. They talk about Kierce getting married and his sobriety.

He learns he is going to have a partner on the Joe Burkett case. His partner is going to be Marty McGreggor (Dino Fetscher) who says he is stoked to be teaming up. They visit the scene of the attack. Kierce says Maya left the army under controversial circumstances. Marty knows she was a kind of whistleblower. Kierce tells Marty what Maya said about seeing her dead husband. He wonders if she is trying to claim diminished responsibility. He wants to start with a ballistics check on her gun and find out whether the killer’s gun could be linked to other incidents. Maya calls Charlie to see if he has seen Izabella. He thinks she is at the house on the grounds. They say hello to Daniel Walker (Daniel Burt). When they go inside, Maya sees boxes and remembers something from the past including a tombstone for Claire Walker.

Eddie Walker (Marcus Garvey) agrees to keep an eye on Lily for Maya for a while. Maya tells Abby she’ll come and see her today. She learns that Eddie is going to be driving Abby even though he is drinking. Eddie insists it isn’t a big deal since it is only one drink. Maya offers to take the boxes out. Eddie claims he is dealing with it and she’ll find out when she starts dealing with Joe’s stuff. Maya wishes she was around more. Eddie admits Claire hated Maya being away. Later, Maya learns that Kierce has been updating Judith. Maya is convinced Izabella saw what she did and she won’t even speak to her now. Maya tries to get in touch with Izabella who doesn’t want to come to the door. Kierce messages Nicole to say he doesn’t know what is happening but they’ll talk about it soon.

He shows Molly his car. She doesn’t like it because the color looks like Kermit vomit. They go to a dancing lesson and tell the instructor it is four weeks until their wedding. Maya watches Abby play soccer while the coach belittles his team. She believes Joe is standing nearby. Maya gets involved when the coach scolds Abby and ridicules her weight. She gets mad and pulls his pants down in front of everyone. When he tries to hit her, Maya tells him to give her an excuse to put him down. After the game, Eddie approaches Maya to say he doesn’t want her around his children. He says death follows her. Molly and Kierce hang out at a pub and talk about their wedding as well as Kierce’s new partner. Kierce gets a call from Marty who is called “The Child” in his phone.

Kierce gets the ballistic report from Marty. Meanwhile, Maya hangs out with Shane and others. After a toast, Shane speaks to Maya in private to see if she is okay. Maya believes she is being followed. She gives him a plate number and asks if he can find the owner. Judith calls Maya to say Izabella is there. Maya gets into a chase with her. Once Izabella is cornered, she gets out and runs. Luka tries to stop Maya from getting to her. Maya takes him down before chasing after Izabella but she loses her. She goes back to Judith to tell her what she saw. Judith is worried about her because she never dealt with the things that happened abroad. She wonders if Maya is in a fit state to look after Lily.

They argue about whether Maya loved Joe. Maya knows she isn’t one of them and never will be. Back at home, Kierce tells Maya that the gun used to kill her husband also killed her sister. The coach covers up what appears to be blood in the back of his van. Eva sets up a digital picture frame in her house. Izabella watches the video of Joe on the SD card before deleting it. Judith goes to the graves of Joe and Andrew Burkett. A flashback shows someone tied to a chair and people dancing around them.

 

Fool Me Once Review

Good lord. Here we go again with another watered-down adaptation of a Harlan Coben book that will prove to be forgettable if not completely skippable. It is time for Netflix and Paramount to begin looking elsewhere for content because using the same one or two writers isn’t going to cut it. Once you’ve seen one Coben series, you’ve seen them all and they have progressively worsened at a dramatic pace.

The first episode was tedious with filler overload. Large chunks could be skipped without missing anything. Since this is unnecessarily long at eight episodes, I guarantee that 4 – 5 episodes can be skipped without missing out on the core story which will probably be ludicrous anyway.

While many have ridiculed the performances, the story and dialogue are the biggest culprits. A script spun through an AI content generator could probably come up with something more original. None of the characters are likable in the least with Maya and Sami being the least likable. The latter should’ve never made it out of the crash.

The character is an imbecile, yet he is belittling Marty who is actually working. As for the Maya Stern character, it is oozing with cringe. Is she supposed to be a vulnerable widow or a replica of G.I. Jane? Can Netflix and Amazon please stop adapting Harlan Coben books into borderline imbecility shows that end up being a waste of time in the long run? The opening episode scores a 3 out of 10.

Unless this is somehow a number one ratings masterpiece as Netflix suggests, this will be the last recap I can stomach for Fool Me Once. Recaps of Fool Me Once will be available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Find out how about advertising on Reel Mockery here. Discuss this show and others at the Reel Mockery Forum.