Discovery Channel : MAN VS WILD or SURVIVORMAN?

[FreeBeer]

Stroud actually survives for a week as best he can by himself. Stroud has no crew except for emergency rescue, the lost at sea episode being a prime example. He hauls that camera equipment around as part of his gear, which impedes his progress during shows when movement is key.


Bear is teaching survival skills using various techniques. He's a bad-ass mofo, but he's not doing anything more than teaching in his show. IMO, the melodramatic things he does are a huge negative. Bear really does not have to eat a live fish more than once to prove he's hungry. And just once I'd like to see him make a fire without using that damn flint he "happens" to carry.

Bear's show is based on fiction and some of his techniques are faked. Stroud does what he claims, WYSIWYG.

Survivorman FTW.

[BuckyK]

I enjoy Survivorman myself. It does bug me when he makes comments about how hard it is to cross a certain stream or canyon, etc, then it cuts to him already across said obstacle with the camera on the other side. Obviously it's not very difficult.

Bear is a badass though, but his survival techniques seem a little too staged for me. But, I believe he only has one cameraman with him.

[SneakyFerret]

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Bear's show is based on fiction

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Obv a ploy by Stroud to take Bear down

[CORed]

Bear Grylls is a complete fake. I was reading a climbing forum a few months ago, after an episode of Man Vs. Wild that was filmed in the Sierras. Several people recognized the area he had filmed the episode in, which was supposedly in the wilderness, but was actually a quarter mile off the highway. Also, while jumping off of cliffs, eating raw fish, drinking elephant dung and swimming down 40 degree rivers is entertaining, in a real survival situation that kind of stuff would probably get you killed. If you were to dump both Bear Grylls and Les Stroud in a real wilderness with no help or support, i would bet on Les Stroud to make it out alive and Bear Grylls to die of hypothermia from swimming down a river, breaking a leg jumping off a cliff, or of dysentery from drinking water squeezed out of elephant poop.

[ntrik]

You do realise that what Bear Grylls does is all for TV right? In a real survival situation I don't think he'd do half the things does in the show. Most of the time he is just demonstrating what you could do in the most extreme situations.

From the wikipedia page for SAS:

"If candidates have managed to pass through this combat phase then now they have to go through survival and escape and evasion training. In this phase candidates that are left from the hundreds that apply will undergo a survival phase in the jungle, in which they only have a small 'survival kit'. They must 'survive' for a week while evading a hunter force. This is a particularly hard phase because the hunter force is normally accustomed to the ground and are given rewards, such as increased leave, if they capture a candidate. After this week, the candidates must give themselves up at an agreed meeting point. They will then be taken back to the enemy HQ and interrogated. This interrogation phase will make or break their career as they must undergo physical and mental torture as well as aggressive interrogation. The SAS will accept roughly 2-7% of the soldiers who started selection."

You can't fake the SAS selection process.

[amplify]

Yes, I don't think Bear is any less of a survivor than Les, but his attempts to do more edgy and interesting things than Les in the wild just fall flat.

[ocdscale]

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You do realise that what Bear Grylls does is all for TV right? In a real survival situation I don't think he'd do half the things does in the show. Most of the time he is just demonstrating what you could do in the most extreme situations.

From the wikipedia page for SAS:

"If candidates have managed to pass through this combat phase then now they have to go through survival and escape and evasion training. In this phase candidates that are left from the hundreds that apply will undergo a survival phase in the jungle, in which they only have a small 'survival kit'. They must 'survive' for a week while evading a hunter force. This is a particularly hard phase because the hunter force is normally accustomed to the ground and are given rewards, such as increased leave, if they capture a candidate. After this week, the candidates must give themselves up at an agreed meeting point. They will then be taken back to the enemy HQ and interrogated. This interrogation phase will make or break their career as they must undergo physical and mental torture as well as aggressive interrogation. The SAS will accept roughly 2-7% of the soldiers who started selection."

You can't fake the SAS selection process.

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http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle2116195.ece
"He's ex-SAS? Actually he spent two years in the Territorial SAS, and was never in the regular British army at all. He claims to be an expert in about half-a-dozen fields from his time in the SAS, but given he spent so little time with them this is highly doubtful. "
-User Comment
For reference on Territorial SAS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artists%27_Rifles
Looks to be National Guard-esque

Unsubstantiated of course (although the Wiki page lists him as a member), but there's obviously something going on.

[AKHobbes]

les seems more hardcore...but bear is way more interesting... i love that bear eats crazy stuff all the time... plus that dude can make a fire ANYWHERE!

[CaseS87]

Man vs Wild is BOGUS

[CaseS87]

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Man vs Wild is BOGUS

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PS- IN ALL OF YOUR FACES