This article was published on 1/19 and republished on 1/20.
After several, surprising weeks on top, Harlan Coben’s mystery Fool Me Once has been knocked off the #1 spot on Netflix’s Top 10 list, and a new show has taken its place. That would be American Nightmare, a three episode True Crime doc about an alleged staged kidnapping that’s often compared to Gone Girl.
As for Fool Me Once, we have seen many Harlan Coben mysteries do well on Netflix, but this well? It racked up a ton of time as #1, and the last official numbers we have from Netflix for last week say that it had 153 million hours viewed, triple second place, The Brothers Sun, with 50 million.
This is yet another example of a Netflix show doing really well with a lot of people not really seeming to like it. The show had a good-not-great 67% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, but just a 46% from fans, indicating they did not like how the mystery unfolded. But while as limited series, Fool Me Once will not get a second season, this performance ensures they will continue investing in many more Harlan Coben stories to come, as they already have been for years.
Elsewhere on the list we have comedian Dusty Slay, described as having a “clean-cut” routine that is not going to be one of the controversial Chapelle/Gervais-type offerings that Netflix is usually known for. Then at #4 there’s The Trust: A Game of Greed, a new reality series as Netflix continues to invest endlessly in that genre.
Loudermilk has made its Netflix debut recently and has done quite well. It’s another former USA show that Netflix has grabbed the rights to after its original debut back in 2017. Netflix has a history of making what’s old new again, just because of its reach. Just ask Suits.
I am curious if The Brothers Sun will perform well enough for season 2. I don’t think I saw it going any higher than #3 on the US list, at least, and it’s not meant to be a limited series as far as I know. I was going to watch #7, Detective Forst, a Polish murder mystery, until I saw that it was reviewing very badly. So instead I’m watching Boy Swallows Universe, an amazing Australian series with 90% critic and audience scores. I’m not done yet, but it really is excellent and I would easily recommend it to everyone.
Obviously a three episode documentary like American Nightmare is not going to last long on top, so we might see Fool Me Once up there once more. Stay turned.
Update (1/20): Again, while there is not going to be a second season of Fool Me Once, it’s interesting how Netflix has worked things out with author Harlan Coben, given that he keeps producing hits like this for them with his source material.
This all started back in 2018 when Coben signed a deal with Netflix that would bring 14 of his 33 books to the service as adaptations. That deal was for five years, but was renewed a year early in 2022. Back then, nine shows had already been made of the original 14.
It seems that the next book of Coben’s that will be Just One Look, with a second, unnamed book adaptation in the works. While it’s assumed these will also be for Netflix, that has not yet been confirmed. He does seem to heavily indicate that’s the case, however, with an interview at RadioTimes:
“There’s no doubt that if Netflix wants us back, which hopefully everyone watching will make this happen, I’ll be working with Nicola [Shindler], Richard [Fee] and Danny [Brocklehurst] on at least another one or two. We want to keep this going, we love this kind of yearly thing if we can.”
“We skipped last year but we’d love to try doing it where we have that New Year’s Day release for everybody, they can watch us hungover and we can join them in the new year. This team has just been a dream to work with.”
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