That Guardian article is indeed insane, clearly written with a grudge towards US versions of UK shows, and because of that I think you might have gotten the wrong impression of the UK version. The thing about the earpiece for example: that's a gag/improv game they do in the UK version as well, but it's the same - it's just the guest among performers who know the script, allowing them to play off of it in the same way. There aren't any unsuspecting scene partners, because it's not like they let them out into the real world. And there's just as much of the guests and improv actors breaking during scenes (which often leads to the funniest moments).

I'm not blaming you for those misconceptions of course, it's all down to that weird article. I love both versions, and they really are quite similar. The biggest difference is in tone, just because of who the actors are that are playing the game - like with any improv game. Will Arnett and the other actors bring their own energy to it, which make both versions worth checking out.

(There's one other thing that differentiates the UK version and pushes it more into surrealism, which is that all the suspects are imitations of celebrities played by the improv actors - which means that Mary Berry runs a run-down stripclub, the police chief is an absurd version of Gordon Ramsey, the coroner is a spaced out version of Lana Del Rey, and Jimmy Carr is portrayed as an insane criminal goon who can't talk and only communicates through his weird maniacal laugh).

In short: both versions are worth watching on their own terms, and I hope Netflix keeps this going for a second season. I especially like how it's filmed like a regular calble tv detective show, which adds to the fun if seeing the guests thrown into the deep end of a police procedural. It makes me wonder if they could use this same concept in a different genre (although the game show element of the guest trying to guess the killer at the end is a big part of why this works, and you wouldn't have that if you threw Conan into, say, a Sci-Fi thriller).