I vaguely remember the original movie from 1973 written/directed by Crichton. I can understand some of the comparisons, but this series seems to have more of a need to prove itself up against past programming successes like "Game of Thrones" to keep HBO viewership viable since HBO sunk a huge $100M budget into the project.
They renewed it for season 2 so my guess is it's been a gamble that's paying off. In an article talking about its fan base it is fascinating to me that the new HBO programming president points out he's been actively following Twitter tweets after its airings on Sunday nights to gain clues on the storylines because viewers were fast at work nitpicking the details apart.