I've seen about five episodes each of "Man vs. Wild" and "Survivorman," and I know I'm coming late to the game on this one, but I think both are incredibly entertaining. I just can't get enough. But I've been pondering which dude is the more bad-assed.
"Man Vs. Wild"'s guy is named "Bear," which sounds extremely bad-ass, but when you learn that the name came from his real name of Theodore, and then Teddy, and then Teddy Bear, it's a little less impressive. He's also got an English accent, which, well, just always sounds kind of girly to me. But then he does things like this, and he could be wearing a tutu and still seem incredibly manly:
As tough as the conditions he puts himself in (abandoned at the top of the Swiss alps; stuck in the heart of Death Valley) the fact is he's got a camera crew following him around the whole time, and that makes every risk he takes seem a little less risky, since there's someone right there to help if he screws up.
That's a luxury "Survivorman"'s Les (granted, a far less cool a name than Bear) doesn't have, as he does all of his adventuring and surviving alone, acting as his own cameraman. True, his rescue crew is never too far away, but they're still father away than standing right next to him, as they are with Bear. Les is hobbled by an accent too, in this case Canadian, and not an episode goes by where he doesn't say he needs to "get ooot of here." And I haven't seen him bite into a live salmon yet, but he is no stranger to eating live things. Mainly grubs.
In the end, while "Survivorman" might be the more "impressive," as far as actual survival goes, "Man Vs. Wild" is the far more entertaining show. Just don't watch either if you're squeamish.
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