NBC has a new supernatural drama ready to hit screens this summer: Midnight, Texas. The show is an adaptation of  Charlaine Harris's book series of the same name, inviting comparisons with the last small-screen adaptation of one of Harris's novels: True Blood. We've already seen the first trailer for the show, which introduces a fantastic cast of characters with all kinds of different supernatural abilities, all living in a small town called Midnight. The show stars François Arnaud as Manfred Bernardo, a psychic newcomer to the town who is prophesied to lead the inhabitants against the darkness.

Midnight, Texas certainly has a lot in common with True Blood, but we're more interested in how it will compare to the book series that inspired it - and now the executive producer has weighed in on the topic.

At the NBCUniversal Press Tour yesterday, executive producer Monica Owusu-Breen spoke about Harris's involvement in the series, as well as how the network changed the books to make the story more suited for network television.

Well, I mean, this is Charlaine Harris's novels that this is based on. So, like all of her novels, it's very character‑driven. It's also got this wild creativity. Like, it goes all over the place. You know, her characters are very three‑dimensional. So they are funny, and they fall in love, and there's passion. And so I do like to describe this show as all my favorite things in a blender. So I think we ride the tones of horror and action and romance and humor, and we don't shy away from any of them.

I mean, she came to set. We talked a lot. But she understands that the novel had a very, sort of, small‑town pace to it, which is very different from what network requires. So it's a little bit like her books on steroids, but yeah. No. I mean, the thing is I really love those characters, and I wanted to stay true to their heart. So I think that, you know, she's extraordinarily supportive of what we've done with this.

It sounds like Midnight, Texas isn't going to be a direct adaptation of the books, given Owusu-Breen's comments on the new pacing of the show, but that's not necessarily the problem. With a character-driven series like this one, the heart of the books is the people in Midnight, more than the events that take place. Owusu-Breen is very clear on the fact that the characters have been changed very little, which will definitely be good news to fans of the books.

We'll be waiting to see what else has been changed in the series, and how it stacks up to True Blood and some of the other supernatural series on air at the moment. For now, however, it looks like NBC may well have a hit on their hands, especially if they have found a way to keep the heart of the book series alive for Harris fans as well as new viewers.

Next: Midnight, Texas Trailer

Midnight, Texas premieres July 25th on NBC.