I've never seen the original french series, so I can't speak to how it compares to that, but I can say that it holds up on it's own as a great drama series.
The show is not action based in the way that you might expect from a show about a police squad. Sure there is a fair amount of action, fights and gun play, but that's not where the shows strength is. Instead the show is about the characters and the drama between them. This is not typical episodic TV where the characters face a new challenge at the beginning of every episode, and then resolve it by the end of the episode so everything is back to being the same. In 19-2 the storyline stretches across multiple episodes. If you start watching the series he middle of the season it will take you a few episodes to get up to speed, probably a good idea to watch the earlier episodes online first.
The cast of 19-2 is fantastic and the story unfolds more like a feature film than TV.
if you're looking for a shoot 'em up action show then there are other shows you might like better, but I can easily recommend 19-2 to anyone looking for a deeper drama series.
