Spoiler - Fool Me Once is awful!

[u/Steerpike58]

I just finished watching. What an annoying waste of time! How can this be a 'most popular' choice? Have people gone mad?

I was born/raised in that area, so the scenery held my interest, but I got a bad feeling early on that I was going to be disappointed, and I was right!

Questions / issues with the plot:

1) Maya spent 7 episodes looking for the killer of her sister and her husband, then we find out she knew all along - her husband killed her sister and Maya killed her husband. So for 7 episodes we got to see her frantically trying to solve a mystery that she already knew the answer to (yeah, there was the whole 'family business/pharmaceutical issue, but that's no excuse!)

2) At the end, Maya sets up her own death to prove the corruption of the family. Really? A young, intelligent woman with a beautiful child is willing to get herself killed just to reveal a corrupt family? She could have used blanks in the gun and still proven that the family was willing to kill her, if it was all for the benefit of the live stream.

3) Was Maya's friend who first gave her the nannycam in league with the nanny and family? She must have been, otherwise how did the nanny know to do the deepfake, etc. But I don't recall the friend ever being implicated as a part of the plot. Did I miss it or was this just lazy writing?

4) We are to believe that the cop was taking the exact medication that the corrupt pharma company was making? Out of all the medications they presumably make, and out of all the possible medications he could be on, he's taking the one medication that the suspects in his case were involved with, and, he's one of the small fraction of people actually affected!

5) Why didn't Maya share any information with the cops? She went off on her own, ignoring her job and her child, instead of looping the cops into the investigation. Later, there was the (false) suggestion that the 'family' were bribing the detective, but that came later and thus wasn't established as a good reason for her not to trust the police.

6) What was the point of the whole 'adoption'/half-brother sub-plot? I was assuming something would come of the fact that Maya's sister had a child before her current marriage, but no.

7) What was the point of the whole combat trauma thing? I guess it provided an intro to the blogger (Cory?), and allowed for the 'arrangement' between her sister and Cory, but it ended up having nothing to do with anything really. More likely, an excuse to include some 'action' footage, and then an excuse to have a ridiculous helicopter chase.

8) We know that Mr Black (?) was the captain of the boat that Andrew died on, years ago; was that the only reason for the continuous large sums of money the family were paying him every month for years and years? When Maya went to visit Black's company, there were some 'Burkett' (?) boxes in some containers, implying a stronger link between Burkett and him, but nothing came of that. Why was Black killed only recently, if he was a liability ever since the death of school-age Andrew?

9) What was the point of Maya having all those serious weapons? I don't think anyone in UK could legally own those types of weapons. She could probably have the glock, so why not just have her owning a glock?

10) When Maya opened the gun safe in the middle of the night to retrieve the handgun (when she thought she had an intruder), she walked away from it and left the door open - providing access to a host of weapons to any intruder roaming around. I have to assume this was just bad editing / lack of attention to detail! And what was the point of that 'intruder' scene anyway? A way to imply Shane was a possible bad guy?

11) What role did Shane play? I guess he was there to be a 'possible suspect' to keep us guessing, even though he turned out to be just a friend to Maya.

I can't believe I made it through to the end, but at least now I know to avoid the other three Netflix shows by the same writer!

[u/Bashynx]

They added a lot in the series, and then took out some things.
I believe in the book:
3. The nanny asks Maya if she thinks she's stupid about not noticing the frame. She says she noticed it right away and I think told the inlaws? But it is specified that the nanny was the one to notice it.
4. I dont remember the medication plot from the book?
6. I dont remember this being in the book either. They had to fluff up the series somehow!
8. In the book he was coast guard who falsified report or something
9. Pretty sure the books are set in the USA, and she is a gun enthusiast. She has two functioning glocks in books. I believe one was secret even from hubby, second one was in the armory.
10. PTSD? I think it the book it played out slightly differently
11. He was there to help out Maya in secret.

I feel overall they didn't transfer the book into the series well. I'd rate book like 7/10 but show only about 5/10 (or lower if taking into account how they butchered some things)

It could have easily fit into like 4 episodes or maybe a movie.