Thursday, August 23, 2007

Survivorman--See it on The Science Channel


Just a brief shout out to folks who might enjoy the "survivor" reality genre but hate the contrived nature of the (big broadcast TV) program that spawned the whole movement. Here is one that, as far as we can tell, really isn't smoke and mirrors. Expert nature man Les Stroud is SURVIVORMAN on the Science Channel, and he is airlifted in to remote places around the world with his backpack, his camera equipment, and that's about it. He is given a week before the helicopters come pick his much abused body out of any God forsaken swamp, desert, and who knows where the Hell it is part of the world. Because he is on his own (no crew...all camera work is his), there is a nice air of authenticity to the whole production.

I stumbled across this program accidentally and started watching it on DVR recordings. As a professional worrier, I often wonder about how I would survive in catastrophic moments like; plane crash, drought, terrorist attack, asteroid or (weirdly horrific for me, because it has never happened) bee sting. This program might not save you from any of these things, but the calm, level headed outdoor tapestry that Les weaves on his show will at least make you believe that you have a glimmer of a chance....to survive.


http://www.survivorman.ca/
http://science.discovery.com/convergence/survivorman/survivorman.html


3 comments:

Lisa said...

I'm also a first-class worrier about all things catastrophic, and like to know my options! I've watched the show a few times, but will start tuning in more. Of course, there was the recent scandal about him not exactly roughing it all the time during production of the show, but since it's TV, I think we can forgive him a little:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/a-tv-survivalist-caught-cutting-corners/

Lisa said...

My bad! The cheating survivalist was on "Man vs. Wild" not "Survivorman"! My apologies for confusing the two!

-- Lisa

Jane said...

No problemo, Lis-o-matic. In fact, one of the reasons why Survivorman is considered more authentic is because he doesn't bring a crew. He's strictly on his own for a week, just him and his cameras. I think that's why we like it so much...seems less bogus than the other survivor shows!