Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“Fool Me Once” follows widowed Maya, a disgraced military officer turned pilot trainer, as she tries to unravel the mystery of seeing her deceased husband appear on her nanny-cam. But the best subplot in this eight-episode Netflix series involves the cop investigating Maya’s husband’s murder and his budding friendship with a rookie cop that he is forced to partner with on the case.
Directed by David Moore and Nimer Rashed, “Fool Me Once” is a psychological thriller based on a book by Harlan Coben, tweaked for the screen by Daniel Brocklehurst. Michelle Keegan is primary protagonist Maya Stern, who marries into the super-rich Burkett family but feels like an outsider. When her husband is shot dead in a park, she becomes the prime suspect, and there seems to be some connection between the murders of her husband Joe (Richard Armitage) and sister Claire (Natalie Anderson).
Adeel Akhtar, who was the complex Dr. Aditya in “Sweet Tooth”, plays good cop Sami Kierce, in-charge of the Burkett murder case in “Fool Me Once”. Dino Fetscher portrays junior cop Marty McGreggor, who has a penchant for protein shakes and bad jokes, and is assigned to assist Sami due to the latter’s apparent personal issues affecting his work capabilities. While Sami thinks Maya might have something to do with Joe’s murder, Maya thinks the investigators might be on the Burkett payroll. And a whole bunch of family secrets make everything seem sinister.
“Fool Me Once” is constructed in a way that deliberately misleads viewers with seemingly random scenes that ultimately lack resolution. For instance, there’s a moment where a character is shown stalking Maya’s residence, triggering her car alarm to lure her outside. However, this incident remains unexplained throughout the series, leaving viewers puzzled. Were they attempting to break into Maya’s house? Plant a tracker on her? Or perhaps planning a robbery? No idea.
The screenplay is quite engaging, but things often move at a very slow pace, and some of the flashback scenes involving Maya’s time in Afghanistan looked staged. While it was entertaining that Maya is the kind of character who can beat the hell out of grown men, Michelle Keegan was barely convincing as a military woman. Jennifer Lopez looks like she could really take down big men in her action film “The Mother,” adding this random reference in, just so you know I don’t have any sort of prejudice against believing that pretty women cannot beat strong men.
Like I said, the buddy-cop friendship between Sami Kierce and Marty McGregor is the most entertaining part of this series. Although Joanna Lumley as Maya’s uptight mother-in-law, Judith Burkett, is also amusing to watch. Judith is constantly psychoanalyzing and chiding Maya over the way she conducts herself, leading to significant tension between the two women. I would’ve preferred to see more flashback scenes of Maya with her husband Joe instead of her combat flashbacks because Joe is like a ghost hovering throughout the plot. Everything is about his murder, yet we don’t know much about him at all.
The way “Fool Me Once” starts off, it leads you to believe it’s probably an “affair gone wrong” kind of a tale, but it evolves into a complex tale of greed, corruption, and betrayal, and the creators aren’t able to execute the complicated themes in a polished manner. Overall, the series is a decent one-time-watch, and might even be thoroughly entertaining if you turn off the logical part of your brain off.
Stream “Fool Me Once” on Netflix.
Read Next: Bhakshak Review – Predators vs. Indie Journalists
Also Read: A Man Called Ove – Orderline Oring (Audio Version Below)