In the UK version Gordon seems far more human than heroic, the series is less about high drama and more about the sheer effort and willpower it takes to pull the business out of the pit it's fallen into. It also feels more like Ramsay's show, he addresses the camera more and does the voiceover which gives the thing more intimacy, you know that these are his personal thoughts and not those of some detached narrator. Plus by the end of it things are not nearly as clear-cut as they appear in the US version, very often although the business has been stabilised by Ramsay, there's no guarantee that it will continue to thrive and be successful, in fact all too often things still seem to be very much in the balance.
You really do get an impression of how precrarious the whole thing really is, even with the help of one of the worlds greatest chefs.