Comments on: Man Vs. Wild, Real Vs. Fake?

By: Shnookey

Shnookey — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 02:37:38 +0000

I am a bit peeved at Man Vs Wild personally. After watching these last few episodes, I am just ticked at the way he wastes his food. He kills these animals purely for TV, not for survival. A few examples that upset me were the episode where he was on a small island. First he catches hermit crabs. Rips off the pinchers, and tosses the living helpless crabs back into the water. Unnessecary suffering for those crabs who may surely die without thier defenses. Then catches a large Sea Cucumber. Takes one bite. Talks of how discusting it is. And tosses the rest of the body. Then kills a gorgeous sting ray. GORGEOUS. Eats a few bites, and is done. Now you know if he was really surviving he would have eaten more than 1 or two bites of these animals. So he is just doing this for TV, and getting his real food off camera. If you want to TELL me how you COULD kill and eat a Sea cucumber or stingray, fine, tell me. But dont kill it and then not even eat it just to show how it’s done. Waste.
He did the same thing in the swamp I believe it was, with a snake. Catches it. Bites the head off. Takes one or maybe two bites, then tosses the rest of the body into the water behind him WTF?!
Not too happy about all that.
I like Survivor man. He doesn’t kill certain animals because he knows he is just doing this for television, and some things are not worth killing, even for survival, if it’s just based for TV. He will instead tell of how you CAN kill and eat these animals. Such as baby birds in one episode. No one wants to see baby birds killed for a TV show. If it were really a matter of life and death, yeh, you could eat them.
Man Vs. Wild upsets me more now than it used to. The more I see him waste food just so he can have a thrill killing it, and get away with it because it’s on TV.

By: greg2

greg2 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:05:13 +0000

I saw Man vs. Wild for the first time the other night and had my doubts about it being honestly done which is why I ended up here; it is entertaining, but should not be on Discovery Channel, Fox seems more appropriate.

Survivorman is much more authentic, Survivorman has a much tougher time and can’t stage his action shots since he has to set up his own cameras before each shot. Both of them do some crazy things, but with Man vs. Wild you never know how much of it is real.

By: Emily

Emily — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:24:21 +0000

I am a huge fan of the show. Even though I recently found out it was fake, I still like it.

You people have to understand, its a TV show… Entertainment. And to those of you who think its NOT fake… This might shed some light, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UpSlpvb1is

Like I said, Man vs. Wild is a great show, but its fake… but honestly, it’s all for entertainment. So you can’t be that hard on him, he’s making money.

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:09:00 +0000

The problem is the advice he gives and risks he takes when attempting to SURVIVE, like he claims to be doing. I agree it’s just a show, but then don’t try and give people advice on topics of survival and not be accurate about the advice. There is nothing wrong with Bear running around the world showing you how to eat nasty things. Just don’t claim to be giving sound survival advice.
I don’t claim to be a survival expert by any means, but I did spend 9 years in the US Army in a combat arms unit, and a lot of the advice or just how Bear does things goes against all basic and fundamental survival advice.

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:13:57 +0000

Ok once again people take things way to far and argue over nothing. It’s TV. Ok once more. It’s TV. It’s entertainment so watch PBS or go to a college lecture if you want to learn something. Who cares if Man vs. Wild is not actually “real” it’s a fun show that I like to watch. Bear is probably not that hyper but the action is fun to watch. Actually he should be praised for his acting skills. Now Les Stroud is awesome too. His show can be seen as boring by some but I like it just as much as Bears show. It’s more educational. So quit rambling about people you don’t even know and get a life.

By: Davron

Davron — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:31:46 +0000

I’m watching it right now. This guys is crazy, I watch it as a comedy show. He’s eating shit right now, literally. LOL!

By: adam mcanulty

adam mcanulty — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 21:24:39 +0000

You people are full of crap! and it is just a show so if you don’t like it then don’t watch. You don’t know what Bear Grylls’s life is like, so how are going to sit there and criticize some thing and some one that you know nothing about! He isn’t doing the show to impress you eh, he is doing it so you will be aware of certain things if ever in those kind of situations.

By: Shelby Woods

Shelby Woods — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:24:37 +0000

Well it really is the only way a british guy could possibly seem macho or tough; by staging it and acting. Even so, Bear seems more like a Cub eh. I find it impossible to tell the difference between who is gay, and who is simply british. I grew up in the Canadian wilderness, so none of these survivor types impress me. A real wilderness man doesn’t need a fire because he has his woman to keep him warm. Bit of a closet there if you like being with other guys in the woods you know. I went to the Ukraine once too, and now that’s a place you will find some real tough customers and rather good people as well. Once you’ve seen a real mountain man, all the others just seem like queers.

By: Rich McNulty

Rich McNulty — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:12:55 +0000

I am not a surivval expert, but I did have survival training in the military, and I was told on several occassions that urine is too salty to drink, and that , like drinking salt water, you will actually lose more water than you gain. I also heard a survival consultant for NASA say the same thing during a tour I had with a group of pilots. During training in the Sierras, we were also told emphatically to never jump into a river because it is impossible to know how swift the current actually is just by looking at it. If the water is coming from high altitude or the ambient temperature is cold, you will lose all your strength in as little as seven minutes. Also, the biggest challenge to being stranded, even as a boyscout, is to find dry wood and build a fire. Having a flint starter with you is more than a bit unrealistic. It is actually easier to start a fire with that tool he has than with matches. I must agree that I feel Les Stroud is much more informative and realistic, and Bear’s show is more entertainment driven. I also would not be surprised to find out that Bear was neither SAS or a survival expert. And he would not be the first to claim to have climbed Everest without actually even trying. He is very charismatic and I rather like his presentation and do not feel he is arrogant or an egoist, but I rather feel that Discovery has tried to dupe us, and in doing so, has insulted our intelligence. The “moronic masses’” obviously are a good deal more keen than the entertainment elite seem to realize. A real pity they didn’t do something a bit more realistic with Bear, because he really is an entertaining fellow.

By: Rich Santoro

Rich Santoro — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:58:08 +0000

The reruns of the episodes are where they tell things are set-up. Originally it was dishonest.

Now they have a diclaimer in the beginning, they editted out the outright fake scenes (like trying to mount the “wild” horse in the Sierra Neveda episode, and not showing him throw the stick to kill the rabbit), and added voice overs by Grylle to explain when something is set-up (like in the Scottish highlands episode when they added that he didn’t catch any rabbits in a snare but had one brought in so that he can teach you how to prepare it, and in the Outback episode when the voice over by Bear says “I won’t be staying out here tonight, and “the crew will help”, when he shows how to build a shelter to protect from heavy rains and floods).

Read here to see where they come clean:

http://www.daughtersoftiresias.org/bearwiki/Edited_show_revelations

By: hiddenident

hiddenident — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 07:04:22 +0000

I like both shows and watch them for what they are…shows. I don’t plan on living in the “bush” anytime soon and if I did, I would contact a local guide for some advice.

As a matter of preference, I like Survivorman more. For a few reasons…but thats just me. As for Bear, I do like the guy and he does some crazy stuff. But if you watch the shows closely, they tell you when it happens and before the show starts that it’s not all real. No real trick there, people read and see what they want.

I just want a show.

By: Rich Santoro

Rich Santoro — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:57:11 +0000

Absoultely… Likewise, imagine if we discovered that Survivor was all faked and set-up (based on who would win the challenges, and how the voting would go)… or Sports games, or anything that derives its entertainment quality from unscripted authenticity. What is the point if it is all staged just for drama??? Then it is just a really bad low-budget soap opera… I don’t tune into the Discovery Channel for that… I can watch Pro Wrestling for fake action and cheesy drama (although it is most certainly not low-budget).

NOTE: For the record, I watch neither pro wrestling nor Survivor…