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It’s always a gamble when a novel is adapted for the small or big screen. Readers form an impression of the characters in their minds — how they look, sound, walk, interact, and react in their fictional spaces — and invariable, when those characters are brought to life, there’s always a of naysayers who protest that what they see on TV or in the movies is nothing like what’s present in their minds. This can make it difficult to get the diehard fans of the print medium. Beyond the characters, readers demand that the settings, plots, and themes that keep them turning the page get faithfully transferred to the screen, least they lost interest completely.

So imagine the daunting task of translating author Karin Slaughter’s 11-book series featuring Atlanta Special Agent Will Trent into a weekly television series. For fans who’ve been glued to the anthology since the first Will Trent novel went to print in 2006, the expectations were high. The good news is that the TV version of Will Trent is likely to please devotees of the novels. There are some things it needs to fix, though, to be a truly great show.

‘Will Trent’ Captures the Essence of the Main Characters

In the first novel in the Will Trent series, “Triptych,” author Slaughter describes the intrepid detective as “6′ 3-4, broad shouldered, lanky and strong, with short sandy/dirty-blond hair and large hands.” Enter the TV version of Will Trent, actor Ramón Rodríguez, 5′ 11, handsome, well-groomed, slim, solidly built, and with wavy black hair. Not exactly the hardcover version of the main character. While the physical appearance of Trent may not match his book counterpart, it quickly becomes clear that Rodríguez embodies Trent’s unique, somewhat off-balance presence, and he becomes believable as the quirky detective. Viewers first see Trent at an animal shelter holding a tiny, trembling stray Chihuahua he’s found, trying his hardest to get the women behind the desk to take the cute canine off his hands. Like the Will Trent of “Triptych,” Rodríguez portrays a character who is stilted, not particularly at ease socially, and certainly not congenial. If Rodríguez doesn’t physically embody the Will Trent of the novels, he embodies the character’s essence. And readers of Slaughter’s novels certainly understand why Trent ultimately takes Betty the Chihuahua home with him. It’s not because Trent is an altruist; it’s because he knows what it’s like to be abandoned.

Credit must be given to Slaughter and the episode’s co-writers Liz Heldens and Daniel T. Thomsen for managing to skillfully craft some essential insight into what makes Trent tick within the first few minutes of the show. One big distraction in Rodríguez’s portrayal, though, is Trent’s accent. Sometimes, Rodríguez lays on a deep woods southern drawl that’s so thick, his words are nearly indecipherable. Other times, he sounds like he may be a transplant from the Brooklyn PD. And in some scenes, there’s no accent at all, which becomes a big distraction. Rodríguez needs to perfect the Georgian accent from Slaughter’s books and stick with it.

The other major change the Will Trent series makes is in the casting of Iantha Richardson (most recently of This is Us) as Trent’s sidekick Faith Mitchell. In the book series, Mitchell is a white woman. Having a Black actress portray Trent’s reluctant partner, however, is a brilliant idea that actually adds depth to the partnership of Mitchell and Trent. Mitchell is a woman without pretense who suffers no fools, and Richardson’s portrayal of a smart, but battle-scarred Atlanta cop makes her the ideal bookend for Trent. For the role of Trent’s childhood friend and sometimes romantic partner Angie Polaski, Erika Christensen is the most natural fit, deftly playing a woman balancing on the edge of sobriety, beaten, but not yet down for the count. She and Trent engage in a potentially harmful and codependent relationship, but there’s also warmth and mutual support in their pairing made stronger by their shared past.

Crime Drama Clichés Tend to Hinder ‘Will Trent’

While the cast competently brings Slaughter’s characters to life, Will Trent has a tendency to fall into standard crime drama clichés, relying heavily on pulp magazine-style dialogue uncharacteristic of the novels. With lines like, “I told him I’d bring my best…that’s you,” “How’s it goin’, rat punk,” and “You should be out there turning over every stone,” the show risks heading into Law and Order territory when it has every opportunity to cast aside the banality. And while a certain amount of backstory setup is needed to establish the show’s characters, Will Trent too frequently takes the easy path with unnecessary exposition. In the series’ opening episode, as Trent investigates a homicide/missing person case, there’s clear antagonism between Trent and a man named Paul Campano (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), the father of the teen girl who’s disappeared. The two men eventually come to blows, with Trent blurting out, “Paul and I grew up together in a children’s home,” to which Campano’s wife gasps, “You grew up in an orphanage?!” It’s all a bit too convenient, not to mention unnatural. Will Trent could benefit from taking the time to let the reasons behind that adversarial relationship reveal themselves more organically rather than spelling everything out so blatantly.