Which brings me to this post by George at Sleepless in Midland ..... I know, I've been spending a lot of time there lately ..... it's HIS fault, with the stuff he posts, and all .....
This report by Robert Booth in the Times of London, notes that, "to live up to his public image of a rugged, ex-SAS adventurer, it must have seemed essential for Bear Grylls to appear at ease sleeping rough and catching his own food in his television survival series" ...... "But it has emerged that Grylls, 33, was enjoying a far more conventional form of comfort, retreating some nights from filming in mountains and on desert islands to nearby lodges and hotels."The report also includes allegations by a consultant to that series, that some scenes - assembling a life raft from scratch, for example, or catching and riding a wild horse - were choreographed, with the raft assembled in advance, and the 'wild' horse trucked in for the shoot.
Grylls' escapades are featured in Man vs. Wild, a weekly series on the Discovery Channel. I am told it is quite the popular series, and I have enjoyed other variations on this theme - especially Les Stroud's Survivorman, which also airs on Discovery - but NOT this one.
So, why do I prefer Survivorman? One reason is the 'man' ..... while Grylls and his copywriters try to portray him as the next great action hero, Stroud comes across as more of an ordinary guy caught in an extraordinary situation. I was already hooked on Stroud's show when I saw my first promo's for Grylls. Their very tone - all the posturing and preening - put me off from the get-go.
Another reason I prefer Survivorman - and this is the media professional in me talking - is the production work ..... it was obvious from the start that no matter how desperate Grylls' situation might appear on our television screens, he was still being accompanied by a production crew. Stroud, on the other hand, is by himself. For me, an interesting feature of the show, is how he sets up his cameras in advance to record a single incident from two different perspectives.
He has a pair of cameras, a set of mounts, and batteries - but they are used only to record. He also has a special radio-phone for contacting a rescue crew in the event of a dire emergency. But when it comes to surviving, he relies only on the few items he has been allowed to bring along, and what he can scrounge up - a wrecked bicycle that has stranded him in the desert southwest, a snowmobile that has run out of gas and stranded him north of the Arctic Circle, or the litter that crops-up just about everywhere in the world nowadays.
Stroud doesn't rely on years of commando training and survivalist strategies. He's actually a composer and a filmmaker with a passion for the outdoors. He draws upon what I once considered 'everyday' lessons that many of us learned in scouting ..... starting a fire, setting up a solar still, building a lean-to. Granted, he has built up an extraordinary body of knowledge, and he has an almost 'McGyveresque' ingenuity ..... but he still comes across as one of us.
And he's real.
Survivorman's second season kicks-off August 10 on Discovery Channel, and I plan on watching!
7 comments:
Well, your views on Tex-Mex may be heretical, but you've redeemed yourself with this post.
Gel-Boy cannot hold a candle to survivorman. (And even if he could, chances are he couldn't light the candle without a match!) Viva Survivorman!!
LOL !!! Spookrach, your comment on Gel-Boy really made my day! Thanks for sharing!
I'm a big fan of Les & his "Survivorman" show, but my lone critical comment is that he leans strongly to the overly dramatic edge in his dialoge. No doubt, he places himself in truly precarious situations, but the footage is more than enough to convince me of the very real danger - his commentary can run way over the top sometimes and that kinda dings his credibility for me.
Rob O., thanks for stopping in. You raise a good point ..... whether it's a painting, a photo, or a TV show, a picture can be worth a thousand words; and sometimes the less said - the better
There aren't many things a tv show could do worse than deceiving an audience that expects honesty. And reaction to the Man vs. Wild scandal certainly proves that. However, one thing this also helps demonstrate is that tv viewers certainly have a vast array of shows from which to choose.
We can see house flipping, dog training, history making, and we had two shows demonstrating how to survive in the wilderness. Those are skills few of us will ever need, but it's so entertaining!
And starting a fire is one more distinction between the two shows. If we can believe Survivorman, he built his fires with nothing but what he picked up off the ground. Whereas Grylls used a tool he called a "flint" which lit up the place better than a Bic lighter. I've tried to start a fire by rubbing wood. It was taking too long, so I switched to a drill with a wooden peg in place of a bit. Made lots of smoke, but no fire. Hmmm, I've gotta get me one of those flints.
George, very good point ..... television shows need to deliver what they promise (or, in the case of promotional copywriting, what they appear to promise).
Over the course of his first season, Stroud tried a variety of methods for lighting a fire ..... evrything from survival tools like the flint, to emergency flares, to spinning a makeshift wooden peg.
He's offered some good tips on what we might include in a 'survavl pack' that accompanies us when we go biking, boating, snowmobiling, whatever.
The cell phone is probably the best survival tool to come along in years.
To make it more realistic in some respects, they should show us how to survive with only what can be carried onto a commercial flight.
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