After my wife got me addicted to Hell's Kitchen (US) during its first season, we've jumped at the opportunity to watch every show or series we could with Gordon in it.
We had previously watched several episodes of his show "The F Word" before eventually getting bored with it. This show, however, seems to be much more entertaining and worth watching. If you enjoy documentaries and/or reality shows, this series might be worth watching. To me, this series is to the restaurant industry as The Biggest Loser is to the obese. Although Kitchen Nightmares is not in any way a competitive series, its ultimate goal is very similar to that of The Biggest Loser. Where TBL takes several fat people (some of whom are heart attacks waiting to happen) and "saves" them by whipping them into shape and making them skinny again, Kitchen Nightmares each week showcases a single restaurant on the verge of shutting down due to any number of reasons (food quality, service, management, organization, etc) and attempts to transform the business into one that is popular and profitable.
Overall, I'm impressed with the quality of Gordon's "consultant" skills. He does bring out some of his brutally honest mannerisms in this series, but he doesn't take it to extremes like he's some drill sergeant constantly yelling at recruits. Although he does occasionally get in face-to-face jawing matches with some of the people involved, he does often show a more human side, being very professional and down to earth with the owner(s) of each restaurant and telling them what he thinks needs to change. He helps them by giving their dining area a makeover and occasionally replaces old, run down kitchen equipment with new and fancy ones. He's also good about complementing the restaurants and individuals on any positive changes he observes.
While one of the other posters wrote about the US version lacking some features present in the UK version of the show (which I don't see as a problem because Americans and Britons often have different tastes anyway), I will agree that the series could be improved by including a segment on how each showcased restaurant is doing several months after Gordon's visit. Such an inclusion would certainly be nice to see, but it might have been deliberately left out for a good reason - why cut out other dramatic details that are definitely worth leaving in the show when they can always throw in 1-2 episodes dedicated specifically to the "how are they now" questions later in the season (or even 1 at the mid-point and another at the end of the season)?
