Bear Grylls is a nut!

[Angry Angel]

He eats some crazy shit. One time he was so thirsty he drank his own urine, then 20 minutes later it started raining!

I found the squeezing of the elephant dung to be quite disturbing. Especially when the bits and pieces came along.

Ah well he entertains, it's a fun thing to watch when nothing else is on.

 

[dragunzng]

That's what makes the show so BAD, and potentially dangerous for viewers. He REPEATEDLY makes terrible, terrible decisions. Why go around a ice-cold river when you can jump off a cliff, hope it's deep enough, struggle to swim across, climb a sheer wall on the other side, and then hope you can find a hot spring or start a fire in time to avoid dying?

He makes this kind of decision all the time, and it gives people bad ideas, generally. I'd say, on average, 90% of the things he does are the opposite of what you should do in a survival situation. Plus, with the camera guy there to talk to, a few extra takes when things go wrong, slipping him food or a warmer place to stay... The show is crap!

It's a tv show, not Running Man.

 

[Lookingglassman]

This guy is stupid. I watch his show occasionally and I think, "How many people will actually find themselves in situations like this and does he honestly think any normal person will do the things he does?"

I highly doubt I will find myself stuck in the middle of Africa or the North Pole or some other remote place by myself during my life time. Even if I did, I aint going to eat meat off a rotted dead animal or chase after a deadly snake just so I can cook it, pee in its skin then drink my pee.

The funniest one was when he went after some bees and they stung him all over his face. This moron endured all this pain and ate just a small bit of honey comb. I figure if he was going to endure the pain, the smart thing to do was to at least take as much of the honey comb as you can to munch on later.

 

[Trek4Ever]

I always considered Les Stroud to be a more collected and thinking type compared to Grylls. But I do enjoy Man v. Wild on an entertainment level. I think it's more likely I'd be in a Survivorman situation than in Grylls' deep in the middle of an African jungle. And I think the Briitsh press did an expose a year or so ago about how fake a lot of the show really is.

If you watch the show enough you'll notice Grylls gives contradictory advice. To me a lot of this is just common sense. But one thing that irritates me with both shows is that sometimes they skip over the important details. Ex: How do you exactly build a lean to? In Survivorman they just speed up the footage without showing any closeups.

But for me I'd stick with Stroud, I actually used a couple of techniques and they actually worked. You may also want to keep an eye out for a special show he did about surviving urban disasters (situations like dealing with floods in your home, etc.).

 

[TheMurph]

Bear fake

Bear finds shelter

 

[archeryguy1701]

I'm pretty sure the Bear is responsible for most outdoors deaths in recent years. He doesn't seem to demonstrate survival skills that Average Joe could remember or use. And jumping into a frozen lake/ quick sand/ mud pit that regularly kills animals? Yeah, real bright.

 

[broberfett]

The thing about Man vs Wild is that most of the things we see him do are something most of us shouldn't even attempt in survival situtations anyway.

Yeah. Follow his advice and you'll die very badly. He takes risks for drama sake that would get you killed in a real life survival situation.

 

[Gertch]

That's also why I like Les Stroud better. He actually films himself.

I can't stand his personality. It really detracts from the show.

Indeed. Man VS. Wild is only entertaining until you realize how much of it is faked and that when he goes to sleep in a hole in the snow that he supposedly dug himself, he leaves it 5 minutes later to go to a Sheradin.

How could anyone think he did his own filming? He's got the camera on a moving tripod or something?

Still I do watch them both from time to time. It's interesting to see survival techniques that you'd never think of.

 

[Trekker4747]

I like Man vs. Wild a lot more than Survivorman. I realize that Man vs. Wild is far more fake, but dammit, Bear is just so charming. He does a lot of cool looking stuff, and he always seems excited to be doing it.

Survivorman is just kind of a grizzled old fat lump of boring. He'd be great to have around once society collapses or whatever, but I have no interest in watching him on television.

Yeah, I like MvW a lot more than Suriviorman as Bear is a much more watchable host. Survivorman, God if I never have to see his hairy tuby gut or his bare big hairy monkey-feet again it'll be too soon.

I do like this VIDEO on him, though.

 

[Ryan]

The thing about Man vs Wild is that most of the things we see him do are something most of us shouldn't even attempt in survival situtations anyway.

No kidding. Bear seems to love giving himself hypothermia. He just can't stop himself from jumping into every body of water he finds.

It's still an entertaining show though.

 

[mrcoaster]

I find both shows pretty entertaining. As for realism, come on...
Is anybody REALLY watching these shows so they can prepare themselves for getting lost in the Amazon? Jack Bauer makes decisions that would normally get him killed, doing what Bond does wouldn't necessarily be good for you, etc. It's a tv show! It's for entertainment.

 

[Scout101]

no, not really watching to learn to survive, but there are differences in show tone and well, quality.

Survivorman is more of a documentary-style, here's what to do to survive under these circumstances, and it's fairly obtainable.

Man Vs Wild, though, is more outdoor adventure porn. Claims to follow basically the same ideas (you're lost/stranded/whatever, and need to survive or get out), but the normal level of hardship just isn't there. MvW goes more for the 'kewl' action shots, and taking the dumb, low-probability risks, whereas Survivorman tends to play it safe (which is what you SHOULD do).

 

[Orintho]

I always considered Les Stroud to be a more collected and thinking type compared to Grylls. But I do enjoy Man v. Wild on an entertainment level. I think it's more likely I'd be in a Survivorman situation than in Grylls' deep in the middle of an African jungle. And I think the Briitsh press did an expose a year or so ago about how fake a lot of the show really is.

If you watch the show enough you'll notice Grylls gives contradictory advice. To me a lot of this is just common sense. But one thing that irritates me with both shows is that sometimes they skip over the important details. Ex: How do you exactly build a lean to? In Survivorman they just speed up the footage without showing any closeups.

But for me I'd stick with Stroud, I actually used a couple of techniques and they actually worked. You may also want to keep an eye out for a special show he did about surviving urban disasters (situations like dealing with floods in your home, etc.).

I enjoy both shows myself although like you, I consider Stroud the realist and Bear a 'demonstrator'. And some of Bear's advice should never be taken:

1. Don't think that it is a smart idea to descend into the crevasses of glaciers to look for escape tunnels to lower ground.

2. Don't think that it is a smart idea to descend into possibly flooded limestone caves to look for a shortcut to lower ground.

3. Don't ever eat a skunk. Bear got red swollen eyes over that one.

 

[ITL]

Ray Mears is the man for survival/bushcraft TV shows. He's calm, logical and absolutely non-sensationalist. And makes great TV shows.