Joanna Lumley appears in Fool Me Once as Judith Burkett, and the series has the kind of audience that turns a supporting role into part of a major streaming title. Netflix said the eight-episode thriller was one of its top ten biggest shows of 2024, with 108 million views.
Michelle Keegan plays Maya Stern, a former army captain struggling to come to terms with her husband's murder, while Richard Armitage plays Joe. The setup gives the show its commercial edge: a mystery built around one woman, one dead husband and one sighting that should not make sense.
Maya Stern and Joe in Fool Me Once
Maya spots Joe seemingly alive and well on her nanny cam, then becomes hellbent on uncovering the truth. That single image does more than advance the plot; it gives the series a clear engine for repeat viewing, which is exactly what a platform measures when it counts a show among its biggest titles.
DS Sami Kierce leads the investigation into Joe's apparent death, and Adeel Akhtar plays the detective. The structure keeps the story moving between what Maya thinks she saw and what the investigation can actually prove, a split that keeps the mystery active across all eight episodes.
Judith Burkett in Netflix
Judith Burkett is the formidable mother-in-law of Maya Stern, and Lumley's role places her inside the family tension rather than outside it. That matters in a show built around hidden history, because the richest pressure points in these stories usually sit inside the household rather than in the investigation room.
Fool Me Once is adapted from Harlan Coben's 2016 bestselling novel of the same name, and the scale of the adaptation helps explain why Netflix counted it among its top ten biggest shows of 2024. A thriller that reaches 108 million views is not a niche add-on; it is a platform asset that keeps the cast visible well beyond the launch window.
108 million views in 2024
The show is available to watch in full on Netflix now, so viewers who have not started it yet are not dealing with a weekly rollout or a delayed return. The immediate takeaway is simple: Lumley's Judith Burkett sits inside one of Netflix's biggest 2024 performers, and the story is already fully available for anyone who wants to see why that audience got there.
