Here’s hoping he doesn’t eat any bugs.
Oh, he is gonna eat bugs.
Yes he will.
Big…juicy…grubs.
Oh you know he will be eating something gross! or maybe getting naked, or peeing on something cool!
All I know is I can’t wait!!!
Maybe just one bug?
Bug-eating would be more acceptable if there were nudity, although perhaps not while eating the bugs. 
Well it looks like he had a few delicious treats on the new episode Friday. It was great to see him cook it if nothing else. Our dear friend Bear did not disappoint us at all in the new episode he came through with some animal eating and killing and getting dirtier than ever! All in all great episode.
It’s always a good episode when there’s mud.
I had never checked this show out until this Everglades episode, and I was really impressed. We will have to check out *Survivorman *as well, since we had both thought that *Survivor *might be really cool when it was first coming out, but we were thinking it would be, yanno, actual survival.
I too was picturing the camera crew, though not in a “safety net” or “someone to talk to” way. Rather, when he’s building a platform to sleep on, I’m picturing the crew with state-of-the-art tents, mini air conditioners, etc. It doesn’t detract from the show for me.
Two words: Crunchy Frog. Blech.
I liked how he describes what to do and not to do in the given situation. I also really like that he repeated how important knowledge of the area is. Even if you’re a big strong man who swims alligator-infested rivers and climbs trees with your shoelaces, you still need the help of your local library!
Then stop reading them. Human beings compare things, it’s in their nature. The two shows are extremely similar and totally invite comparison. Trying to get people to stop comparing them is just silly and doomed to failure.
Personally, I find Survivorman far superior and more enjoyable to watch. Whatever the intent of Man vs. Wild may or may not be, the presence of that camera crew just robs it of any believability or suspense. Is it any wonder that Les doesn’t look as chirpy as Bear? Les is out there completely alone, AND he has to haul around fifty pounds of camera gear by himself, AND pretty much everywhere he goes he has to make the trek twice, once to haul and set up the cameras, and then again to film himself. Les is truly on his own, in the wilderness, surviving, and Bear is out playing in a park with friends.
This is a guy who broke his back in 3 places (after making it into the SAS), and rehabbed and in less than 2 years climbed Everest. He loves challenges. He’s a more hardcore (I don’t want to say better necesarily) person than any of us will ever be, so it’s very strange to see people say a guy is “pretending” when he’s overcoming challenges greater than almost any of us will choose to face. I very much doubt any of this is at all fake, because this is the very thing that the man lives to do.
There’s no pretending in jumping into a freezing lake (I’ve jumped from 45 degree air into 36 degree water before - it’s crippling and you could easily drown even with people there with you. That he was able to stay in for extended periods while talking about it was extremely impressive), climbing an old zip line of unknown strength across a 150 foot fall using an improvised harness, drinking fluid from elephant shit because it’s the only water around, or many other little things he does.
So what if the camera men have it easier? (And not easy - even if they’ve got nice tents and stuff, they’re still lugging cameras around through climbing, freezing, mud, etc.)
His stated goal is to make it back to civilization, not to be found and rescued, although he gives tips on how you’d do that. He doesn’t want to actually dedicate real search team resources to finding him, so he can’t just hunker down in one spot. And he specifically seeks out challenging situations that he could otherwise avoid so he could demonstrate how to go about doing them if necesary.
Edit: I also really like survivorman. They’re two different shows - one is like a truly realistic, no-help survival situation where he has to play it safe, and the other is where there’s limited help available, so he can take more risks to demonstrate things. But neither is safe - satellite phones aren’t totally reliable, and Bear could easily slip while climbing down a rock face, or hit his head on a rock in a river and drown, etc.
Although for a survival-off to the death, I’d have to take Bear. Les seems like a peaceful, nature loving type, whereas Bear seems like the highly motivated type of guy who could rip out your liver with his bare hands if he had to.
Actually I will complain all I want to thanks. I like both shows so I feel I can do that:) Being that I do watch and like both its hard for me to understand the comparisons. No were ever have I seen Bear say he is trying to survive alone he is just simply trying to show you the dangers out there that people face all the time and show you how HE would get out of them. Where Les is trying to show you how to survive alone. Both are similar in the fact that they are about surviving, but that is where it ends.
And since Les carries around camera gear makes him better? no not at all this is what he signed up for not Bear so saying one is better because they asked to do it this way is wrong (IMO.)
I know people will be comparing these shows as long as they are on, but to (iluvurmom) they are different and I will continue to combat all criticism and similarities to the two shows.
and on that note did anyone see Friday’s episode of Man vs Wild?
Yes. I’ve been watching the new episodes as they appear. I particularly enjoyed this one. It was a new and intriguing landscape, with both snow and boiling mud pools–that you could cook in!
I did and I thought it was one of the weaker episodes. There’s only so much you can show people about surviving in the cold. That frozen sheep was a hell of a find, for sure.
The thing I like about Bear…he doesn’t just tell you that you can eat the eyeballs (or squeeze the elephant dung, or eat live snakes & frogs) - he does it.
I read a great chat transcript (LINK) w/ Bear where he discusses the process of putting the show together and the role that his production crew plays.
Someone upthread mentioned that when he floated down the rapids, it looked like he had a lifevest. He mentions this in the chat transcript as well:
Oh, and also from the same chat:
HelloNinja thanks for putting that link up I am going to have to read the entire thing when I get a chance. I thought the last episode was pretty good. I was grossed out when Bear decided to tear up that sheep though (the eye’s especially) talk about nasty and he ate it with his mouth open!!!
I just saw Bear’s Everglades episode, which I had Tivo’d. He was so thoroughly miserable sloshing through that putrid water day after day, and so relieved when he could finally sit down on dry land without getting his butt wet.
And yeah, the way he popped that little frog into his mouth . . . then explained that you have to kill the frog with the fist bite.
I shamelessly watch the show because Bear’s such a hottie (and sometimes a naked one). Same reason why I watch House.
Yep. Have you seen the Iceland episode? There was a particular scene I want a still of to make into a poster. It was hot. And there was mud!
LOL reading yalls comments are great! But I do agree Bear is a cutie!!! I just new he was going to get naked again on the last episode but no just a little shirtless action(which was great all by itself)
Personally I’m skeptical that a sheep’s eyeball has more protein gram for gram than skeletal muscle. I think he ate the eyeball just to freak us out.
I also think he’s very attractive, and I thought it was interesting that while he’s clearly very strong and in fabulous condition, he is clearly not “ripped” like the guys who bodybuild. Bear’s is a much nicer look, I think.
I love going into the ice cave. “This is why you should never go in one of these. Look at this ice, with the cracks - that could just come down at any time.” poke, poke. I feel bad for his cameraman!
From the earlier link:
It’s probably in his contract or something that he has to eat at least one gross thing per episode.
I’ve only seen one episode of Survivorman, but I found it interesting how different the shows were. Les seems to be showing us how to survive alone until help arrives; Bear shows you how to survive in various situations he comes across until he finds help.
I do like the fact that Les is out there by himself. It seems more authentic. On the other hand, the fact that Les seems to take more stuff with him; on the episode I watched, he used his camera equipment to make shelter (using a tripod and some pulled-out-of-the-cassette videotape). Bear only takes the canteen, the knife, and a flint.
My wife, on the other hand, definitely likes Man vs. Wild better … something about “hotness.”