HBO’s “The Night Of,” about a young man accused of murder, is based on the BBC’s 2008 series “Criminal Justice.” But Steven Zaillian and Richard Price, the new version’s creators, did more than transplant the mystery to New York. To make the miniseries more realistically American, they changed the central character from a white man to the son of Pakistani immigrants.

In both versions, the central character borrows his father’s taxi and picks up an attractive woman. After a night of sex and drugs, he wakes shocked to find...