A.J. Quinnell’s 1980 novel Man On Fire has been adapted for movies and TV more than one might expect; there were films in 1987 and 2004, and now a seven-episode series on Netflix. They all take place in different locales, but the gist of all of them is the same.

MAN ON FIRE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “VALLEJO INDUSTRIAL ZONE, MEXICO CITY.” We see a man in a room, staring at monitors and leading an operation.

The Gist:  John Creasy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a Special Forces mercenary, and he’s confident as he directs his team to get in position to separate their asset from a briefcase they’re after. Just as the operation begins, though, masked gunmen swarm in and capture his team; they also find Creasy, and put a hood over his head. He manages to put up a fight and escape their clutches. but he ends up seeing all of his team members shot to death, one by one, all of them wearing hoods.

Four years later, Creasy wakes up from the nightmare of that incident, a hood over his head. He’s suffering a severe case of PTSD; he drinks and takes pills to ease the pain, and he gets so despondent he disables the airbag in his car and drives it into a pillar.

However, he wakes up, and sitting next to him in his hospital room is his former mentor, Paul Rayburn (Bobby Cannavale). He thinks Creasy still has the skills he showed as one of his top operatives, and invites Creasy to work with him in Rio, where he now lives with his family. Creasy agrees to it, but then regrets it when he finds out where it is.

Once in Rio, though, Creasy reconnects with Paul’s wife and kids, as well as Paul’s teenage daughter Poe (Billie Boullet). Creasy remembers when Paul would take the time to call home on a satellite phone just to sing “Never Tear Us Apart” to Poe when she was a kid, and points it out to her as he observes the difficulty she’s having with him over moving them to Rio.

The job is to help flush out a possible terrorist attack against luxury condo developments, a signature achievement of Brazil’s President Carmo (Billy Blanco Jr.). Carmo’s head of security has his doubts about Creasy, given what happened in Mexico and his emotional state since. But Paul vouches for him.

When Creasy expresses doubts, Paul tells him that he’s the type of guy who ends up finding a reason to kick into action. Later that night, Creasy gets drunk and, when he calls a driver named Valeria Melo (Alice Braga), who Paul recommended, he demonstrates that when he almost gets mugged. But what happens when Valeria finally gets him back to the building where the Rayburn’s live really kicks him into action.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Kyle Killen and based on A. J. Quinnell’s novels, this is the third iteration of Man On Fire; there was also a 1987 film starring Scott Glenn and Joe Peci, and a 2004 film starring Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning.

Our Take: Even though all three iterations of Man On Fire are in different locales, the situation in all of them is the same: The burned-out former operative uses all of his skills to protect the daughter of his mentor after a tragedy occurs. Here, Creasy is going to need to protect Poe as the various forces that conspired to attack targets in Rio look for her; it’s a situation where no one can be trusted, including Carmo and his henchmen.

We’re not sure, however, how the story translates from a movie running time (90+ minutes in 1987, almost 150 minutes in 2004) to seven 42-60 minute episodes. Will Creasy’s past and his current PTSD issues be explored? Will we get more about his seeming mentor/mentee relationship with Paul, and will we get more about how Poe’s life was affected by Paul’s work as a contract mercenary?

Our guess is that the show is going to be a bit more of a contemplative action thriller than the movies were because Killen and his writers have the space to be able to explore the psyches of Creasy, Poe and Valerio, the last of whom we suspect is more than just a driver. But we aren’t hopeful that a more contemplative tone between fight and chase scenes is going to do anything but slow things down.

It doesn’t help that the first episode has two fine actors in Cannavale and Abdul-Mateen speaking leaden dialogue that feels more like verbal sledgehammers than real, human dialogue. Cannavale, for instance has always been one of our favorites, and he has a bit of insouciance about him that generally makes whatever his characters say more nuanced than the words seem on the page. But there are some lines in this first episode that even Cannavale can’t keep from sounding clunky (see below for an example).

If Killen’s goal was to take the Quinnell’s stories and make them more subtle and nuanced, then the dialogue we heard in the first episode isn’t encouraging in that respect.

Performance Worth Watching: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is the centerpiece of Man On Fire as John Creasy, and he commands the screen, even when Creasy is at his lowest point.

Sex And Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: With a pillowcase over his head, Creasy puts together a Glock and points his gun, proving to himself that his skills are still there.

Sleeper Star: Like we said, we get the feeling that Alice Braga’s character Valeria is more than just a driver. Either way, she’s going to help Creasy and Poe navigate Rio, especially when they hide out in the city’s favelas.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Pretty soon, they’re going to be asking me to find ten more of you. You know what I’m going to tell them? I’m gonna tell them what I used to tell Uncle Sam: All you need is one,” says Paul to Creasy about why he wants him on this job.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Man On Fire feels like it’s going to be seven episodes of filler and tortured monologuing between action scenes, which doesn’t exactly make for entertaining television.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.