Man vs. Wild Forum

This is amusing. A tv celebrity has issues with producers. Earth to everybody, it is a tv show. It doesn't matter if he was faking it. (He was) It doesn't matter that he drank urine. (He did) It doesn't matter that he didn't really "survive." (He didn't) What matters is; He is a celebrity. He wasn't trying to teach people how to survive, he was entertaining. If you want to have to survive in "the wilderness," you are using what is called escapism. Bear Grylls serves escapism on a platter. You can believe you are capable of escaping society and living in the wild. (Bear Grylls wouldn't last a week) Does it matter?

@ryanwho:

Did we suddenly start talking about Les Stroud?

WHAT HE HAD PEOPLE HELPING HIM? I always thought he had like one of those floating droid cameras like in "Hulk: The End"

It was a great show and the guy is extremely likable, imho.

Some people should be forced to spend some time with Bear... even with all the help he probably got from the camera team etc I'm pretty sure 99% of the complainers (uhh he's so weak and it's all fake uhh) would give up an hour in day one. People seriously underestimate how hard some of the things he did really are.

He will live on in reruns..and make Discovery Channel some money now that they've signed a deal to stream their network's shows (including Mythbusters, Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs) over Amazon Prime's streaming service. Source

I couldn't care less if its staged, it's one damn entertaining slice of television.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu----

Oh dammit. Fuck. There I said it.

Discover Channel fucking blows these days. It's 99% hillbillies doing stupid shit and 1% Mythbusters now. All the "Discover Communications" networks - except maybe Science Channel - suck. Larry the Cable Guy has a show on History Channel, TLC is practically only about gay people telling pigs what dresses they should wear and shows about midgets...no wonder Americans are stupider than they've ever been.

I hope Bear gets another show. I remember he briefly had a show based on those "Worst Case Scenario" books, but since it wasn't about hillbillies, fishermen, extreme truckers or loggers, Discover quickly canceled it. Bear Grylls belongs on Spike TV. And they could use something to pair with Deadliest Warrior, since that skews sort of "Discover Channel-y"...back when Discover Channel didn't suck ass.

EDIT: Anyone getting on Bear's case for taking a bunch of dumb risks is an idiot. It's a tv show about survival, so a) it has to be entertaining, and b)he has to do all that shit to load up his shows with as much info as possible. If all he did was stick to 2-3 techniques, it wouldn't be interesting, or each episode would be 10 minutes. Than it would be back to hillbilly fishermen.

what a loser

Just got fired? Time to drink my own piss.

Regardless of the credibility of danger shown, I always found Grylls to be an entertaining host. Wonder if he has a non-compete clause preventing him from going somewhere else with his skills. And I wonder if Discovery will try to keep the show going without him.

Has anyone else noticed that Bear Grylls conveniently finds rope in almost every episode? Last year the night before PAX East my brother and I were in our hotel room late at night watching a Man Vs. Wild marathon for comedic purposes and in 5 straight episodes he found a bunch of rope, usually in obscure locations. In one episode, he scaled down a sharp cliff face to retrieve it. It was ridiculous.

For me, the difference between Survivorman and Man Vs. Wild is that the former feels much more useful. Les Stroud teaches the viewer ways to get nutrients and how to use the environment to survive, whereas Bear Grylls, in very similar locations, drinks his pee, jumps into freezing rivers, climbs down cliffs, and generally acts plain crazy. Heck, in one episode he couldn't catch a fish and literally had one of the crew members do it for him.

Maybe Man Vs. Wild is primarily meant for silly entertainment purposes, but it takes itself too seriously for me to completely believe that.

@vinsanityv22 said:

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu----

Oh dammit. Fuck. There I said it.

Discover Channel fucking blows these days. It's 99% hillbillies doing stupid shit and 1% Mythbusters now. All the "Discover Communications" networks - except maybe Science Channel - suck. Larry the Cable Guy has a show on History Channel, TLC is practically only about gay people telling pigs what dresses they should wear and shows about midgets...no wonder Americans are stupider than they've ever been.

I hope Bear gets another show. I remember he briefly had a show based on those "Worst Case Scenario" books, but since it wasn't about hillbillies, fishermen, extreme truckers or loggers, Discover quickly canceled it. Bear Grylls belongs on Spike TV. And they could use something to pair with Deadliest Warrior, since that skews sort of "Discover Channel-y"...back when Discover Channel didn't suck ass.

EDIT: Anyone getting on Bear's case for taking a bunch of dumb risks is an idiot. It's a tv show about survival, so a) it has to be entertaining, and b)he has to do all that shit to load up his shows with as much info as possible. If all he did was stick to 2-3 techniques, it wouldn't be interesting, or each episode would be 10 minutes. Than it would be back to hillbilly fishermen.

Oh shit I forgot about that...I hope it's on dvd or something because I remember that show being fucking awesome! Oh right you were saying something...nope can only think about Bear kicking in car windows....sorry...

I was never able to suspend by disbelief long enough to enjoy his shows.

One of the few reasons I watched Discovery from time to time. But I'm not crazy enough to have cable anymore so I guess they really won't care.

I always got the sense that his show wasn't trying to be a Survivorman type thing with him actually in the wild for days, but more they cherrypicked some shit that was sufficiently bad ass or gross that he could do, and that one might have to do if they found themselves in the wild unexpectedly and unprepared. So if he did stay in hotel rooms or something like that I wouldn't care.

@Autechresaint said:

Related note:

http://lesstroud.ca/news/survivorman-returns

Survivor man is making a return.

Out with the fake and in with the genuine. Cya Bear and welcome back Les!

@pyromagnestir said:

I always got the sense that his show wasn't trying to be a Survivorman type thing with him actually in the wild for days, but more they cherrypicked some shit that was sufficiently bad ass or gross that he could do, and that one might have to do if they found themselves in the wild unexpectedly and unprepared. So if he did stay in hotel rooms or something like that I wouldn't care.

This, prettymuch. Which makes the "he's a phony" guys just seem kind of sad. They didn't get the point of the show. Its like watching 24 for real world tips on anti-terrorism.

Bear is ok. Show was bad. Really happy to see Les Stroud back where he belongs. In the wilderness hauling camera equipment around. The other show he did, where he visited different people, tribes etc living close to nature, was not good. (At least not what I saw of it.) Survivor Man is perhaps my favorite show ever. So little happens in each episode. So relaxing.

Those Brits sure love that Bear. When I was there at Christmas it seemed like he was on every other show on TV. I'm sure he will do just fine.

I recall watching recently an episode of some cobblers with bear grylls where he was cocking about in the desert (narrows it down I know) and he went into a ruined building to forage. He heard a vehicle approach, ran into a room and did a roundhouse kick to a window to remove the wood plank covering it, then leapt through. This annoyed the shit out as it seemed so fucking fake. It felt like he and producers decided "it would look wicked cool if you did a spin kick to that wood and jumped through the window"

Honestly, I would rather watch ray mears consume most of the wildlife and vegatation in a jungle than bear grylls leaping from a plane (or drinking wee from a snake skin)