TONIGHT on Discovery Bear Grylls takes on the Louisiana swamps. I am an absolute junkie for this show although he is a Brit, he is a super Brit which none can deny being less then a mans' man. Louisiana swamps are loaded with interest because there are so many tangibles afforded for the ability to adapt. The elements you have to beat so this should prove to be an interesting overview. That is if nootch does not spill the beans.
they acknowledge that there is another guy with him, but i would have assumed they have changed the way they used to film the show.
In the past, he would do a show claiming to be out in the wild surviving for a few days. Yet he'd stay in a hotel for the night each night. Or find spots convenient to roads and literally have them film him next to road.
Then you would be incorrect. A friend of mine works in the swamps, doing tours and things like that. Well, Bear and his crew (yes, he had a crew with him) stayed at a camp belonging to one of Eric's (my friends) co-workers while filming this particular episode. Apparently, they filmed Bear wrestling some alligator in the swamp for this episode. Well, Eric told me that he sat there and watched him feed that very alligator for nearly an hour prior to filming that segment. Feeding alligators evidently causes them to become very sedated, giving any would-be 'attacker' a tremendous advantage. Bear is a total fraud. Les Stroud owns him.
OK, what am I missing here? You are lost in a place that is teeming with crawfish and catfish that a kid could catch with a homemade rig and he goes after a gator? Chiiiiit . . . I guess we shouldn't mention that survival in the Atchafalaya is mostly about not getting snakebit or frozen to death for a day or so until some gomer in a motorboat comes along and offers him a beer and a ride to Butte La Rose.
Bear is far from a fraud and although Les Stroud has a great resume, Bear is a graduate of the French Foreign Legion basic course, this just a couple of years after breaking his back with the British SAS. French Foreign Legion, there is no tougher on this earth. You have to divorce your life just to be considered. This is entertainment and you couple that with labor laws so you gotta tone down what you put out into an hour show. That said in consideration for the shows filmed in the US. What the difference here is are the lessons learned from this show and that is obtaining the ability to get out of the situation you are placed in vs. surviving where it is you are at. You can survive in place or you can survive and get the hell out. I choose the out.
The problem some have with his show is that he doesn't teach either one of those. It's just made for tv and done in an outrageous manner.
No one questioned if he was a tough guy, just how authentic his survival show seems. Well, Stroud goes in by himself for a week and finds the going hard, as is realistic. Bear goes in with a camera crew and stages remarkably successful endeavors. It may be argued that Bear teaches more techniques by arranging to have ideal conditions available to demonstrate. But Stroud, without a doubt, teaches far more about having to deal with solitude, slim pickings, desperation, killer conditions and such. There is a place for both series.
