Netflix is turning two more Harlan Coben novels into series as Fool Me Once proves to be a hit with viewers
Fool me onceNetflix’s eighth adaptation of Harlan Coben’s blockbuster murder mysteries has only been streaming since January 1, 2024 — but it’s doing so well that Netflix has announced two more shows based on Coben’s books are in production. Miss you And Run away will be the ninth and tenth screen adaptations of the Netflix-Coben collaboration.
While reviews of Fool me once are mixed – it sits at 67% on Rotten Tomatoes with 46% of the audience – the series is the most-watched show on the top streaming service this week. Netflix says it has amassed 61 million views worldwide in its first two weeks and has risen into the Netflix top 10 in 91 different countries over the past two weeks.
What to expect from Missing You and Run Away
Miss you, which starts filming in Britain early this year, is about a detective whose fiancée disappears without a trace. Eleven years later she sees his face on a dating app and her world is turned upside down. Oh, and her father was also murdered a long time ago. Could the two events be related? That’s a rhetorical question.
Run away, on the other, it’s about someone who, you guessed it, runs away: Simon’s eldest daughter, who thought he had the perfect life until his daughter up and left. When he finds her, “vulnerable and addicted to drugs in a city park”, his attempts to bring her home go badly wrong and escalate into shocking violence. Once again we are confronted with long-hidden secrets, worlds turned upside down and families torn apart.
That all sounds quite formal, but it kind of is. But as reviewers of both books have noted, Harlan Coben is really good at this kind of thing: reviewing Miss you, Kirkus Reviews said that “the setup is irresistible, the twists generously stacked and the climax suitably pulsating”.
Unfortunately the review is from the same site Run away says that in this “Coben goes too far: the widespread complications feel forced and schematic rather than nightmarish.” But some of the best TV requires a certain suspension of disbelief: I watch Disney Plus’s evildoers right now, which is very silly and one of the most fun Disney Plus shows you can stream – and for Run away, writer Danny Brocklehurst is on the case, fresh from adapting Fool me once. So I wouldn’t suggest running away Run away just.