Read + Write + Report
Home | Start a blog | About Orble | FAQ | Blogs | Writers | Paid | My Orble | Login
 
Welcome to "Cinema Herald". My aim is to bring movie reviews to a somewhat different level. I don't know about you guys but I'm sick and tired of Critics who dissect a movie to bits. Who cares about all that deep stuff, sometimes you just want to know if you'll be entertained or not. Is it worth me spending $10? Now don't get me wrong, sometimes when we watch a movie, it does require us to put on our thinking caps and I'll do that from time to time depending on the film I review but for the most part, I just want to know if I'm going to have a laugh or a cry or even crap my pants - in other words, will it take my mind off the fact that I'm broke and my rent is due for a few hours? Movies are a public service...they are to help us escape for a few hours and forget that we're overworked and under paid.

TV: Discovery's Man Vs. Wild with Bear Grylls

September 5th 2010 15:10
Category: TV-Reality
It's been a while since I've visited the small screen and although two of my favorite TV shows are currently in full swing: Entourage (Season 7) and Mad Men (Season 4), I decided to do something completely different.

Normally I wouldn't give Reality TV the time of day but there are some shows out there under this genre that have a purpose that makes it worth while, especially when it comes to educational programming. Having been a fan of all things "outdoors" and harboring an extreme admiration of surviving in the wilds on minimal rations and necessities, I enthusiastically tucked into Discovery Channel's "Man Vs. Wild" series featuring Bear Grylls (aka Born Survivor: Bear Grylls or Ultimate Survival) which has been on for 5 seasons.

Each episode is an instruction manual on how to survive in
the wild if you should ever become stranded. He gives instructions on how to find nourishment, build a shelter and also navigate your way to the nearest city using only what nature provides, armed with only a flint, a water bottle, and a knife. Every episode finds Bear, followed by his camera crew documenting his survival techniques in the most extreme conditions, from the Florida Everglades where he's under continued threat of alligators, poisonous snakes and black bears to the European Alps where he braves extreme cold conditions and lack of food to the Costa Rican Rain Forest, where again he must confront poisonous snakes and spiders and also deadly bacteria. He also throws himself in to life or death situations to give guidance on how to pull yourself through.



Some of his intense examples of survival include jumping into sub zero ice water to demonstrate how not to panic and what to do in order to avoid hypothermia, jumping into a bog swamp and also a muddy sink hole to demonstrate how not to get sucked under. He gives a never ending list of some of the most disgusting things to eat like sheep eyeballs, larvae, ants, yak testicles, and even spiders should you find yourself without food and in need of nourishment. If you should find yourself
thirsty in hot conditions well that's easy enough - you can always drink your own piss whilst melting snow using the warmth of your body is more idea in arctic weather. These are all vital survival tips in the most desperate situations, especially when you are in need of nourishment to help you sustain enough energy to keep going, however, it doesn't help knowing that these things have a high concentration of protein and vitamins - the fact that you have to eat such things in order to survive sort of outweighs the nutritional content but then he stresses that you must be willing to go to the extremes in order to survive the extremes.

Man Vs. Wild has not been without controversy. There are those who claim that Bear is a fraud but I'm not one of them, something tells me that he's definitely legit if he has the guts
to eat the things he does and throw himself into life threatening conditions. Apparently what happened is that when the shows first aired it was discovered that some of the circumstances were fabricated - duh! It's clear that some of the camera angles were set-up for instructional purposes. Realistically speaking, some of these conditions would need to be staged or the show would be boring especially if his journeys were uneventful. What's important is that you learn what to do to keep your head "cool" to make it out alive. In the subsequent episodes the Discovery Channel has made it quite clear what the purpose
Nasty case of bee sting
of the show is and the DVD releases behind the scenes footage for the sake of transparency and it involves some of the extremities that are also suffered by the camera crew.

All in all, if you haven't discovered this show yet and you are a fan of the great outdoors, it's definitely a fun watch.










71
Vote
Add To: del.icio.us Digg Furl Spurl.net StumbleUpon Yahoo

   
subscribe to this blog 


   

   

[ Link ]
Related Posts:

Add A Comment

To create a fully formatted comment please click here.


CLICK HERE TO LOGIN | CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Name or Orble Tag
Home Page (optional)
Comments
Bold Italic Underline Strikethrough Separator Left Center Right Separator Quote Insert Link Insert Email
Notify me of replies
Your Email Address
(optional)
(required for reply notification)
Submit
More Posts
November 2010
1 Posts
September 2010
6 Posts
August 2010
12 Posts
Older Posts
154 Posts dating from March 2008
Email Subscription
Receive e-mail notifications of new posts on this blog:
0
[ View Blog Summary ] [ Create A New Post ] [ Add A Comment ]

Deni's Blogs

3960 Vote(s)
4 Comment(s)
20 Post(s)
Moderated by Deni
Copyright © 2012 On Topic Media PTY LTD. All Rights Reserved. Design by Vimu.com.
On Topic Media ZPages: Sydney |  Melbourne |  Brisbane |  London |  Birmingham |  Leeds     [ Advertise ] [ Contact Us ] [ Privacy Policy ]