What is “Man vs. Wild” ?
Man Vs. Wild is another survival TV show currently airing on the discovery channel.
Unlike Survivorman in Man vs. Wild Bear Grylls has a film crew that follows him around.
Here’s the description of the show from Discovery:
“Bear Grylls is a seasoned adventurer who served with the Special Air Service, a special forces unit of the British army, where he was trained as a survival expert. His experiences include climbing Mount Everest, crossing the freezing North Atlantic Ocean in a small, open boat and climbing a Himalayan peak described by Sir Edmund Hillary as ‘unclimbable’. He has been places and done things that would defeat most normal people. But now, he is up against something completely different.
In each episode of Man vs. Wild Bear strands himself in popular wilderness destinations where tourists often find themselves lost or in danger. As he finds his way back to civilization, he demonstrates local survival techniques, including escaping quicksand in the Moab Desert, navigating dangerous jungle rivers in Costa Rica, crossing ravines in the Alps and surviving sharks off Hawaii.”
[End Discovery Channel Description]
What I think is different about Man vs. Wild and Survivorman.
- Bear is an extreme risk taker.
Les is calm and trys not to put himself at extreme risk. - Bear does not narrate nearly as well as Les.
(Les has more of a film background than Bear.) - Les actually knows more about his situations and teaches more.
Bear is no moron but he passes up on some great opportunities for lessons. - Les offers more techniques and ideas than Bear.
- Bear does things that SHOULD NOT be done in survival situations. *Read: HIGH RISKS!!*
The way I really look at Man vs. Wild and Survivorman is simple.
Watch Man vs. Wild for minimal tips but great entertainment and things NOT to do in a survival situation.
Watch Survivorman for really great ideas to keep yourself alive. It may not be as action packed as Man vs. Wild but it surely has more survival content.
In Man Vs. Wild, Bear gets himself out, while on survivor man he always needs to be rescued. I would definitely use some of the techniques from survivor man, I am not saying that he is not good, but If I was lost, my first instinct would be to emulate Bear.
Comment on March 16, 2007 @ 10:29 am
I have watched both shows, although I am a constant viewer of man vs. wild, and I think Bear has much more advice about EVERY situation you may get into. While Les is stranded in much more tolerable environments than Bear. If both of those two were stranded in the wild, my money would be on Bear any day.
Comment on March 16, 2007 @ 10:35 am
Both are not in tolerable enviroments it depends on the show and there location
Both provide good advice but a LOT of Bear’s advice can lead to your death quickly or slowly where Les provides more information for staying alive.
You can learn a lot from both showsbut don’t rely on anything they say to much it never hurts o practice the tchniques r research thm more./
Comment on March 16, 2007 @ 12:56 pm
Bear is a complete fake.Gets help from film crew, fakes locations, sleeps in hotel when he is suposed to be roughing it. Les is completly on his own no film crew. He made need to be rescued but the point is to survive for a week in the wild. Bear couldn’t wipe les’s but with out help from his crew.
Comment on August 17, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
Survivor man is fake too.There is lots of proof on the web and otherwise to back it up.
Comment on September 2, 2007 @ 8:00 pm
man vs wild is the best and if i get lost i will think what would bear do to get out survivor man is a joke
Comment on September 4, 2007 @ 4:26 pm
I’ve been in the US Army for 16 years. Can’t say what I’ve done, but I now teach SERE (Survival Escape Resist and Evasion) to troops going all over the world. MVW is legit! Bear teaches more on the Evasion from the enemy techniques. These techniques are however not the way to go for all isolated personnel situations. That’s what the Army call’s it by the way, Isolated Solder Guidance (ISG). As far as Bear receiving food and water off camera? Who cares??? As long as he keeps ripping the heads off snakes with his teeth when they say “ACTION” I’m good. Again if you’re on a camping trip and family knows you are on a camping trip and you can’t make it back, then yes you would hang out and wait…If you think they can find you.
As far as entertainment…the survivor man makes me laugh my ass off!!!!!!!!!!!!! Other than that, they should take that junk of the air.
If you’re weak?… than MVW is not for you, and you shouldn’t be outdoors anyway.
Comment on September 24, 2008 @ 11:20 pm