I found this new series on the Science Channel (a subchannel of Discovery), Survivorman. The premise is man overcomes nature in everyday situations against all odds. Les Stroud (teacher, musician and filmmaker) takes us into many different climates and shows us how to survive in "everyday" situations. While dirt biking in the desert, you dirt bike breaks. While flying a commuter plane in the Canadian north, you crash. While sailing in the great deep blue, your boat sinks. Uncommon situations at any given time that calls for ones survival.My interest in the subject matter was instantaneous. Man against nature has always appealed to me, and the feeling of what accomplishment it would be to survive in unfamiliar climates and environments is very appealing. The term "roughing it"is far beyond tents and sleeping bags.
The show starts off by explaining to us what the situation is, dirt biking gone bad in the desert. Then we get a brief history of the environment and what supplies Les is left with. Usually he is given clothes, bottle of water and a multitool. In the dirt biking episode, he is also left the broken dirt bike to salvage.
After this the camera crew leaves and he is left to survive for 7 days to accomplish a goal (get to a check point or find civilization), survive and document everything. At this point the production crew leaves him with not only what he has been given but two cameras and a weeks worth of batteries and tapes.
The show goes on, day by day as Les talks to us in a mixture of diary and instructional video on how to survive and how he is surviving. The show is more then interesting and appealing, but amazing how Les has to shoot the whole thing by himself. He continues to explain how he has to set up the camera, walk down the path, then come back for the camera. Many of the small tricks and skills to survive are scattered between Les critiques of how he is doing.
I have watched 3 of the 9 episodes that have been aired and my interest is dwindling. Though if find the settings beautiful and motivates me to get off the beaten path, the show is more of a "how awesome I am" feel to it.
Les spends as much time explaining how hard it is to setup the cameras for survival that we begin not to think, how is he going to survive, but how is he going to document him surviving. It becomes more about him then the actual situations. It is understandable that he is the only character and in fact the only subject matter, but the way he over dramatizes many subtle situations and talks in a candid matter about obscure survival skills, you almost root against him.
However, in a world of bad reality television and far and few decent sitcoms, Survivorman is interesting and gets me motivated to get off the beaten path this summer.
