Netflix's latest hit show is so popular it's toppled The Night Agent
New Harlan Coben adaptation has drawn bigger crowds than 2023's smash hit
Netflix’s latest Harlan Coben adaptation has truly gone and blown the doors off any other TV show released recently.
The first week of viewing stats for Fool Me Once are out, and they are truly eye-opening.
According to Netflix stats, we spent 238 million hours watching Fool Me Once from January 1 to January 7.
Not only is this good by the standards of Netflix shows, it’s a bigger one-week haul than any show of 2023. That includes smash hit Night Agent, which peaked in its second week with 216 million hours viewed.
To find a show that performed better than Fool Me Once we have to rewind back to November 2022 when Wednesday was going like gangbusters. It clocked 341 million hours in its first week, and a mind-blowing 411 million hours in its second. But then it is the most successful Netflix show of them all.
This is the typical pattern on Netflix. Shows usually peak in their second week, although Fool Me Once had the unusual distinction of releasing on January 1 — meaning its first week numbers account for a whole week on stream.
It’s still pulling in the crowds, though, according to Flixpatrol, taking up the top spot in 69-75 countries each day over the last week.
We’ll level with you. We didn’t quite see this one coming. Fool Me Once reviews were mixed, ranging from 1-star stinkers to 4-star reviews that generally called it a sort of guilty pleasure.
And the last Harlan Coben Netflix adaptations, of which there are now eight, didn’t make anything like this splash. 2021’s Stay Close peaked at a 91-million-hour week, while 2022’s Hold Tight didn’t even chart. But, hey, it was a Polish production so didn’t have the best chance with US and UK audiences.
Fool Me Once has clearly captured the public’s imagination with its twisty-turny story. Maya’s husband is killed, but a wider plot unravels when she believes she sees him on a “nanny cam.”
It’s an 8-episode series and, in true Netflix style, all are ready and waiting for a binge watch.
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