Most Harlan Coben novels-turned-TV-series shoot to the top of Netflix’s chart upon release, and the latest adaptation is no different.
The eight-episode series derived from the American thriller writer’s eponymous 2016 American novel Fool Me Once catapulted to the number one spot among Netflix TV series, according to Jan. 8 data from ratings site FlixPatrol.
Some critics have derided the latest show, released on Jan. 1, as “junk food television.” But the audience is lapping it up, even avoiding work and social plans to finish the show in one go. And Netflix is feeding the fervor by stacking the latest binge-watch candidate on the same shelf as other binge-worthy titles—like the wildly popular Money Heist—which it describes as “the best programmes—from sitcoms to dramas to reality—to devour all at once.” Fool Me Once is currently perched above even Money Heist’s prequel spinoff Berlin on the viewership chart.
The association between the best-selling author and the world’s largest streamer is rooted in formulaic success à la Agatha Christie that can—and is—repeated series after series.
Fool Me Once is the eighth Coben title in Netflix’s roster and the streamer is far from finished building its Harlan Coben universe: In August 2018, Netflix brokered a five-year deal to adapt 14 of Coben’s existing and future works. One key piece of content missing from the deal was Coben’s signature 11-book Myron Bolitar series. Last August, Coben’s Netflix deal was extended by another four years to add all of these titles as well as 2021's Win to the upcoming slate.
Netflix had tested the waters before making the long-drawn commitments. Two series based on the best-selling thriller author’s works—the May 2018 British miniseries Safe and the 2015 French series No Second Chance—were already on the platform before the agreement. The success of these and the subsequent shows were proof-of-concept of what exactly makes up Coben’s virality.
Why Harlan Coben shows work on Netflix
The world’s largest streamer has recognized Coben’s international appeal.
The latest miniseries, Fool Me Once, is largely the same as the book. Only, the setting has been tweaked—from the US to Britain, because the latter has a more pronounced “class thing,” according to the author. It’s the fourth time Coben’s American novel shifting has been shifted to the UK—The Stranger, Stay Close, and The Five were also located across the pond.
In fact, none of the titles produced from Coben’s English-language crime novels so far are American. There rest are Polish (The Woods and The Big Lie), one Spanish (The Innocent), and French (No Second Chance).
“My books actually sell better in other countries, overall, than they do in the US, so they were looking to do one in France and in England and I think it was them—maybe it was me—who came up with the idea of doing an overall deal,” Coben told Hot Press in May 2022. “I was open to it, I’m not a writer who thinks adaptations should be slavishly devoted to the texts, so I was great with moving the stories to Northern England or Barcelona or Warsaw, or wherever else. I think it enriches the story, and I found it creatively compelling.”
The Myron Bolitar series will apparently be the first American production for the collaboration partners.
Coben, whose books have sold more than 80 million copies, serves as an executive producer on all these Netflix projects.
Quotable: Coben doesn’t write books for an eventual screen adaptation
“To say I’m going to write a book that can be made into a movie is the kiss of death. Because they are two very different mediums. The two caveats are, one, I’m willing to make tons of changes so I don’t have to worry about it, the other is we all grew up with TV and movies. It drives me nuts when writers are pretentious about inspiration, Proust, Yates… I grew up with Batman and Robin. We’re the first generation of writers that grew up with tons of visual media and of course it’s an influence. I think I write pretty visually because I grew up with that.”
Show of interest: Shelter on Amazon Prime
Netflix rival Amazon Prime also wanted to cash in the growing Coben fever. Last August, it released the series Shelter, based on Corben’s 2011 young adult novel of the same name. Despite a solid reception, the show was canceled after one season in November 2023 owing to the writers’ and actors’ strikes that brought Hollywood to its knees.
Fun fact: Harlan Coben and Dan Brown are frat brothers
Coben and Da Vinci Code fame author Dan Brown were both part of the same fraternity, Psi Upsilon, at Amherst college back in the ’80s. “They tell me I’ve sold something like 70 million books worldwide, and I’m not even the bestselling author in my fraternity!” Coben remarked in jest at a 2017 interview. Dan Brown has sold over 200 million copies.