For the love of Bear Grylls

Bear Grylls is the main character of the Discovery Channel show Man vs. Wild. He is described on his show's site as a seasoned adventurer drawing experience from his time in a special forces unit in the British army.

Although the show seems to be fairly popular, most of the attention on him has come from allegations that he fabricated some of his survival adventures.

On the show Grylls often parachutes or jumps from some kind of aircraft into a dangerous and isolated area of the world, then tries to survive and find his way to civilization. He hunts and eats all kinds of animals and plants, and helps teach the viewer what to do in survival situations.



Many people seemed to be outraged when it was reported that Grylls was assisted and not really surviving on his own in the elements. However, he is quite obviously not alone, as there has to be someone operating the camera, and never claims to be trying to accomplish a survival mission unaided. In every episode he mentions stories of people getting lost in the wilderness and struggling to survive. I always felt the point of the show was to teach survival tips, not pull of amazing feats of survival.

After he was accused of staying at a hotel in Hawaii while filming a show, Grylls had to apologized to anyone who was mislead and now his show comes with a disclaimer and he is forced to engage with the cameraman so nobody is too confused.

Grylls will put himself in dangerous situations like jumping into freezing water just to demonstrate the best way to get yourself out. If he were doing it as a survival mission, he wouldn't put himself in additional danger and if he wanted you to believe he was on a solo adventure he would film himself like the Survivorman does. I think by having the camera crew we ensure that we don't miss anything Grylls does.

I personally am not as entertained by Survivorman Les Stroud's adventures, maybe because he is not as attractive or interesting as Grylls, but also because I like learning Grylls' survival techniques and hearing about real stories of survival.

It's not that I'm not a fan of the crazy reality survival material because I thought Grizzly Man was a thoroughly entertaining and compelling documentary, but Grylls makes no claims of being that crazy. The point of Man vs. Wild is to teach you how to survive in the wilderness, so if you'd rather look at Stroud or see a guy live with Grizzly Bears, go for it, just let Bear do his thing.

Man vs. Wild picture from sharetv.org