MovieChat Forums > Survivorman (2005) Discussion > Les has gone all Bear Grylls on us.

Les has gone all Bear Grylls on us.

posted 10 years ago by garrytreat
17 replies | jump to latest

I have been a great admirer of this show over the years but watching the new season episode "Frigate Island" I wonder if things aren't changing fast. I think Les may be getting a little bit fat and happy for us and taking some shortcuts ---- I mean......within minutes of starting out he finds a lighter and fishing line with the hook attached. Maybe it was a coincidence -but I have a feeling that my Aunt Hattie could have made it on Frigate Island. I mean he had to know going in that the island was full of food sources like the welks and cactus fruit and the turtles and the goats...... and the birds and the bird egss....................seems like this episode was an hour long commercial for that LifeStraw gadget.

[–] Arbuckle_T_Boone 10 years ago

seems like this episode was an hour long commercial for that LifeStraw gadget.

I would agree with that if he actually said anything about it. He didn't say how it worked or really anything about the amount of water it filters or the amount of suction it takes to get it going. All he said was that it tasted bad which should be expected since the water source was disgusting. I actually thought it was refreshing for him to be in a place that actually had a food source instead of watching him starve for a week.

[–] verycoolnin 10 years ago

Well, the lighter did leave a rust mark on the rock. Plus, he kind of went on about the amount of pollution and junk washing up on beaches. I'm not surprised he was able to find some basic goods like that.

[–] crumdog420 10 years ago

do you even know what the grenadines are? they may be relatively remote but are inhabited by people. finding human refuse is pretty common on shorelines around the world, no less when you are so close to civilization like in the GRENADINES. Les actually made a point about this at the beginning of the episode but i guess you missed it.

[–] rickathedj 10 years ago

I believe that has been mentioned in several survival shows. Even on more remote islands, you'll find things washing up on shore.

[–] xpmule 10 years ago

I agree it was weird finding that lighter but its plausible but even if it was staged i don't care.. Fire making has been covered and he needs to set up and stage some stuff to do the show in the first place and he does things for a reason and almost always says why.. for a good reason.
Such as why he avoided eating Turtles. Do you know about his parasitic infection he got before that he thinks he got from eating wild turtle before in S01E04 - Georgia Swamp ?

I agree though more info on that Life Straw would have been good though.

I can guarantee if i was stranded i would have a lighter lol

edit:
About his infection he mentions in "Top Ten"
He was infected with a parasite in his mouth for a year and said he was eating out of a straw for a month and that it ate out the lining of his mouth and had all these worm like lesions in his mouth and on his tongue and he figures it came from that swamp turtle most likely. He also said he went to 3rd world disease experts and they never seen anything like that before.

So.. lets not forget being a viewer it real easy being an arm chair quarter back lol
That story disturbed me enough that i doubt i would ever risk eating turtle :o

[–] MtnMan13 9 years ago

I'm guessing he didn't cook it properly, so there's a lesson for you: always make sure whatever you eat out in the wild is thoroughly cooked to kill parasites and bacteria.

[–] dutchman063 10 years ago

finding junk on sea shores is not uncommon..my problem is when he was in norway how he kept stumbling upon shelters with full bags of discarded deer "parts" and a well supplied cabin...or while in argentina when he lives in a shelter full of supplies... just to bear grylls like

[–] MJohnathen 10 years ago

Dutchman063, you do realize there are only a handful of places where signs of man cannot be found right? Especially in populated countries like Noway and Argentina.

[–] rossbarefoot 10 years ago

In Argentina full of supplies? a lump of fat and a bit of flour, I think your definition of "full" is a little embellished.

[–] verycoolnin 9 years ago

The show is scripted in the sense, he knows where to go. That cabin just happened to be empty with some carcass leftovers.

[–] blisterpeanuts 10 years ago

It doesn't bother me. Les is demonstrating how to survive with anything you can find, not how to survive on absolutely nothing.

It's more realistic than being "naked and afraid" and totally cut off from all technology and man-made artifacts. How often does that scenario happen, anyway?

Like when he drove into the desert on an almost-empty tank, then stripped the jeep for parts and tools and even pulled a few drops of fuel out to light a fire with. As I recall, he used the battery to spark a fire, too.

It's about using what you have, not trying to survive on rocks and grass and sticks like a total caveman. It would be hard to avoid artifacts in our crowded, littered world.

I guess if you were lost in the middle of a Brazil or Central American rainforest or one of the great western National Parks in the U.S., you could wander for days in pristine nature without hardly any signs of humanity. But even then, what would you be doing out there without so much as a lighter, a knife, etc.

A really educational show, all in all. I've learned a lot from Les!

[–] xpmule 9 years ago

Well said i couldn't agree more.
Couldn't have said it better either lol

so there you have it.. my opinion (the correct one)

[–] rossbarefoot 10 years ago

To find fishing line in an area where fishing is common practice I don't find unrealistic at all, also even in the most remote areas your going to find garbage laying around on the shoreline. In just about every episode where Les is near a large body of water he always finds something man made from a plastic bag to tin cans etc... I really don't find the connection between Les and Bear. Bear sensationalizes a lot of things where as Les doesn't...In my mind that will always be a defining difference. Bear plays it up like he is Rambo, Les educates the viewer with no bull attached.

[–] standrkm 10 years ago

they cut a whale open the other day and found ten plastic bags in it's stomach, human trash is everywhere

"the day I tried to live, I learned that I was alive"