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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Fool Me Once

Michelle Keegan in Fool Me Once.

The gods of streaming must love the novelist Harlan Coben, since the 12 (so far!) adaptations of his thrillers are all twisty pleasures. Fool Me Once, which is now available on Netflix, is melodrama at its best, complete with false leads, a satchel of suspects, and enough cliff-hangers to make California’s coastal Route 1 look like a straightaway. Maya Stern, played beautifully by the British actress Michelle Keegan, is a recently widowed former military-helicopter pilot whose bad luck includes the murder of her sister just a few months before her husband got killed. Of course, there is the wealthy mother-in-law, played with clenched brilliance by the absolutely fab Joanna Lumley, and the bumbling and mysteriously ill detective portrayed by Adeel Akhtar, who in the past has handled comedy and drama (The Big Sick, River) with equal aplomb and here almost steals the show, which is quite a feat given the fine performances by the entire cast. —Jim Kelly

Photo courtesy of Netflix