It seems like all the good reality T.V. can be found on the Discovery Channel. I’ve enjoyed watching Monster Garage, Monster House, the Orange County Chopper guys, The Deadliest Catch, and Mythbusters all on that one channel. Now the Discovery Channel has two new reality programs on the same subject: one man lost and alone against the elements in the primal wilderness. I think Man vs. Wild started first with a young Scotsman with the name of (get this) Bear Grylls. Yeah I know I didn’t believe it either -a survivalist with the name of Bear Grylls. What’s next a war correspondent naming himself Wolf Blitzer? The other show Survivorman features a somewhat older Canadian by the name of Les Stroud and it was this show I luckily saw first as it is far more real and thus far better than the much more obvious and contrived Man vs. Wild.
In Survivorman Canadian Les Stroud actually takes his own camera equipment out with him to film himself alone for 7 days in a hostile setting with little or no food, no water and only a bare minimum of supplies to help him get through and survive the week. Survivorman does have a crew that camps some miles away and is aware of Les Stroud’s general location but he really is out there totally by himself miles away from anyone. In Man vs. Wild a cameraman accompanies Bear Grylls everywhere and there simply isn’t the kind of tension that exists in Survivorman with Les Stroud filming his own every move while trying to build shelter and fire, find wild edible plants and grubs, fish and hunt for meat, and find his way out of his stranded location back to his appointed rendevouz with his crew all within 7 days. In Survivorman you can clearly see the effects of hunger and cold on Stroud as he attempts to juggle filming himself with satisfying his daily needs for shelter, warmth, water, and food. In Man vs. Wild everything is much more obviously contrived and it simply does not contain the kind of dramatic tension provided by any real interest or investment in the survival of the protagonist. It is obvious that despite being cold and in often extremely hostile environments Bear Grylls (yeah that name again) is going to survive his struggle with the elements and we don’t get the same real feel for the difficulties of survival for even one week alone. It is obvious that Les Stroud wants us to feel the terror that attempting to survive alone in hostile environments engenders in anyone unlucky enough to be caught in that horrid situation.
I remember when I was in Boy Scouts how I thought it would be so great to get out in the wilderness away from everyone and simplify your life and see if you could survive in the wilderness alone. Nobody out there to bother you or give you a hard time. Nobody to argue with or against. No traffic. No bosses. No deadlines. It has to be great, right? Wrong. Wrong. Horribly wrong. Perhaps part of it is just the alone part and having nobody to talk to or work with or help you, but in Survivorman particularly I can really feel the terror as at any moment this guy could fall and twist his ankle, break his leg, not find a thing to eat, not be able to build a fire or even get hypothermia and freeze to death. I’ve seen Les Stroud and Bear Grylls avoid blizzards, avalanches, poisonous snakes, alligators, crocodiles, lions, hyenas, poisonous scorpions and spiders, hypothermia, lack of water, lack of food for days, and blazing heat and dehydration and it all adds up to the fact that survival alone in the wilderness is absolutely terrifying. Yes, maybe the producers of these shows are pushing the idea of reality T.V. too far but both Les Stroud and Bear Grylls are highly trained survival experts and one thing is certain. It doesn’t get much more real than Surivorman and Man vs. Wild. One man alone in the wilderness against the elements. Real reality television.
