Dropping into a viper pit in Panama's Camino Reale...navigating his way out of a crevasse of one of the world's largest glaciers...battling extreme conditions in frozen Siberia...it's all in a day's work for adventurer Bea... more »r Grylls. A former British Special Forces soldier, Bear shares ingenious and often shocking techniques for surviving in some of the world's most treacherous environments in each unforgettable episode of Man vs. Wild. Episodes: Sahara: Bear Grylls parachutes into the hottest place on Earth to tackle extreme survival challenges, showing you how your own urine and eating the feared camel spider can stave off dehydration and heat-stroke. Desert Survivor: A camel train takes Bear to the deadly desolation of the salt pans where there's no food and no water but plenty of mirages to trick the mind. However, his biggest survival challenge will be something he learned from the indigenous Berber tribesmen of West Africa. Panama: Bear parachutes into croc- and shark-infested water to tackle the stinking tangle of the mangroves and drops from a vine into the lethal Viper Pits on the historic Camino Reale - where he has to face one of his biggest fears in the pitch-black of a cavern. Jungle: Bear encounters the Emberra Indians, who teach him some of their legendary survival techniques. And in a country where there's a high risk of kidnapping, how can you conceal yourself and dodge your trackers? Patagonia: In the Southern Patagonian Ice Field - one of the largest expanses of ice in the world - Bear negotiates his way out of a crevasse and spends the night in a snow hole sheltering himself from an icy blizzard. Andes Adventure: In this chilling episode, Bear spends the night sleeping under a rock in freezing conditions, skins a hare, climbs a 100-foot cliff, meets a gaucho (a South American cowboy) and tracks pumas to find a recent kill. Bear Eats: Bear puts his taste buds (and stomach) to the ultimate test as he takes us to nature's kitchen: See him drink the liquid from a camel's stomach and eat elephant droppings, live frogs, 3-inch-long beetles and raw goat's testicles...if you dare. Siberia: Battling sub-zero temperatures, Bear journeys toward the Taiga forest, where it's thought that a quarter of the people who enter it never find their way out. On the way, he uses a deer skin he finds to sled down a series of treacherous inclines. Land of Ice: In the Sanyan Mountains in Siberia, Bear meets the Tuvans, yak herders descended from Genghis Khan who have lived there for 20,000 years, and learns some survival techniques from these cold-climate experts. Namibia: Bear's journey begins on the notorious skeleton coast, a lethal 900-mile stretch that has wrecked thousands of ships. Fighting dehydration, Bear meets the masters of desert survival, the San Bushmen, who reveal their methods for finding water in barren locales and teach Bear to hunt porcupine. Zambia: Flash floods of the Zambezi River and the 12-foot waves and vicious currents of the Batoka gorge regularly claim the lives of canoeists and rafters. Before heading into the bush, Bear demonstrates how to survive some of the world's biggest rapids. Jungle Swamp: Bear goes into the Pacific Ring of Fire as he takes on a week of challenges in an area devastated by the 2004 tsunami. He shows how to stay alive by making a simple shelter and scavenging whatever he can from the tiny island. Castaway: In the jungle, Bear sleeps in a tree to stay safe during tropical storms, sharing his bed with a variety of horrible insects. Then he dines on grubs and snakes and must use all his survival skills and ingenuity to get through waterfalls, sheer cliffs and deadly jungle.« less
Pessimists, doubters & naysayers....bitter with life
Samuel Taylor Coolridge | Miami, OK | 01/26/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Apparently the survival experts have spoken and MAN VS WILD = SUPERMEGA FAKE. That's alright with me; I am an idiot who enjoys "dumbed down" productions such as Man vs. Wild moreso than I enjoy watching Survivorman, a show in which the adventurer (i.e. Les) sits around a campfire for 7 days while he plays his harmonica and does nothing else. Survivor experts are we???...yeah...ok. I guess Surviorman is one who brings the excitement of hiking to the screen-he walks to a spot, camps in a spot and does not move.
Bear Grylls (or should I say the infamous Ed...) may camp in "hotels," he may eat pieces of steak instead of badgers, he may jump through sheets of ice into a secretly hidden hot-tub beneath the surface of a "frozen lake," he may even use "smoke machines" to simulate the gaseous, boiling properties of lava, but he nevertheless is more of a survival expert than you and me. Any man or woman who goes into nature and puts his/herself into situations in which he/she shows inexperienced outdoorsman how to escape quicksand, animal threats, etc. has my respect. I suppose the beetle grubs he eats are fake as well.... After using these techniques he displayed for creating compasses, building camps, and even learning of the different types of insects and plants that are edible in regions I myself have visited (i.e. the Moab desert and the Badlands), there is no doubt in my mind that the things he teaches are relevant and useful. While he may not camp through the entire night or eat every single disgusting insect/animal upon which he appears to dine, he nevertheless shows people what to do in moments of emergency.
I have faith in Bear/Ed, his camera crew, and the survival experts with whom he explores. While I do not doubt that some things are staged (i.e. the disclaimer at the beginning of the show states this), there is no way one can completely discount the show, even if that SURVIVAL EXPERT does not agree with the techniques he employs. Further, I have a hard time believing that the Discovery Channel would allow a show to air on their TV station that bore absolutely NO truth and applicability. That is simply ignorant. Bear Grylls is a genius and he should not have to suffer verbal abuse from naysaying simpletons.
Do not allow the negative, pessimistic reviews from those angry with and at life deter you from purchasing this DVD. Buy this DVD and you will know how to survive; more importantly, buy this DVD and you will also know what it means to be human. I will cease writing now, as I aim to write a review and not an essay."
Amazing show!
Paul Stevens | oklahoma state,OK USA | 01/18/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"great for the price. 13 episodes. and as a bonus there's bears mission everest. great buy."
Great entertainment value!
J. Davis | Burlington, CT | 01/02/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Despite all of the controversy surrounding the show, I think season 2 is great. Note that if you get it through the Discovery Store, like I did, its been available since August. In any event, if you take the show for what it is and not for absolute authenticity, then you will probably like it as much as I did. If you are dead set on Bear spending the night in every camp he builds or every encounter being total coincidence and never staged, then maybe this isn't for you. I personally would rather see a staged event to demonstrate techniques rather than an uneventful walk through the forest! For the amazing landscapes the show offers, the fast paced adventure and seeing Bear eat snakes, worms, spiders and all the rest, it will always be worth it to me.
On a side note, I thought season one was slightly better (the first released set, not the edited set that comes with 2 discs in the same package!) based on more varying places all over the world, and more consistent format. Still tho, this is a great buy and I hope we will see more of Bear Grylls."
Great Show!
George Casanova | Atlanta, Ga. | 05/16/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is a great show. Bear shows you different ways to survive in the wilderness or on the beach or in the mountains or the desert or where ever they decide to drop him off, all of which are beautifully shot countrysides. Yes he has a camera crew, yes hes is given some info and help in different situations for him to present to you. so if you don't like that you might not be into this show some people compare him to survivor man Les Stroud which is another one of my favorite shows although Man vs. Wild is a more action packed, because he doesn't have to spend his time lugging around camera gear and trying to get good shots of himself doing these things."
Bear does it again.
P. Robinson | Qld, Australia | 11/30/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Great dvd's and great value from Amazon.com. I love the way Bear doesn't hold back on his opinions of bush tucker (i.e. "it tastes like a prawn, full of sand, that's been left out for about a month, with cheese"), worth watching the DVD's just for that :o)"