Question is though, is it any good? I'm kinda interested now that the original is gone.
Oh, and let me take the opportunity to say that I love a lot of British tv. But their 6-12 episode seasons really make me crazy.
Get used to it. For the last few years the US has been moving towards that model increasingly. Personally, depending on the show I much prefer 6-12 episodes than trying to artificially stretch things to 22. A lot of shows -- and this includes L&O, Trek, etc. -- have had to produce crap to fill time. As far as I'm concerned in most cases a 6-episode or 12-episode season is just the meat without the gristle. Obviously this isn't going to work for every show, i.e. 24, Lost, etc. But IMO Doctor Who is a much stronger show for only having 13 episodes a season. The remake of BSG would have been a much stronger show with half the episodes. L&O, generally consisting of standalones, is well-suited for a shorter season.
Anyway, as for L&O UK itself, I don't know about later seasons, but the first season actually consisted of remakes of American L&O episodes, but altered considerably for the UK justice system. I liked the episodes I saw, but the only problem is the accents, at times, are almost impenetrable (and I say this as someone well versed in watching British TV) because they take a more "working class" approach. Which is why I hope the DVD has subtitles.
The Law duo are reminiscent of Briscoe and Logan (with the Logan analogue, btw, played by Jamie Bamber of BSG), while the Order duo is closer to the more-recent Cutter/Rubirosa partnership.
If I have a problem with L&O UK is the series hasn't managed to get an iconic character yet. The original L&O didn't either for its first few seasons until Jerry Orbach joined as Briscoe, but SVU has Munsch, while CI had Goren. The fact I can't even remember the character names in L&O UK says something.
Incidentally, I didn't realize until recently that there are actually a number of international L&O series already underway -- I think I read somewhere that one of the actors from one of the US series actually made an appearance on one of these too*:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_%26_Order_%28franchise%29#Adaptations_outside_the_U.S.
Alex
* There's a reference on that Wikipedia page that Belzer was at one point supposed to appear on the French spin-off, but no indication that actually happened.
