Customer Reviews

Survivorman

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

***** This set does not contain "The Making of Survivorman". That extra footage came out after I purchased this DVD. Try Survivorman's website for the latest version. *****

The two colorful DVDs come in a classic plastic container. The picture quality and sound are perfect. Each episode is shown in its entirety and without commercials. It doesn't get any better than this.

Disc One

Desert - Les salvages his broken bicycle after it strands him in the desert. He later uses those parts to aid his situation.

Boreal Forest - Just what it implies. The forest. It's in one of these forest/jungle outings that Les almost amputates his finger when his knife slips.

Swamp - Bullfrogs and turtles are Les's main staple as he builds a raft out of the swamp.

Jungle - At night the jungle floor moves with activity.

Disc Two

Arctic - No food anywhere, except for his pack of seal blubber. Polar bears stalk his sleeping area.

Mountain - Shelter building and fire making at its best.

Winter Plane Crash - My favorite. Les fakes a broken arm to reflect a real plane crash situation. He builds a nice shelter from the busted up airplane, and traps rabbits with a snare.

Canyonlands - The loneliness of the canyons grates on Les's nerves as he smokes out a living quarters and catches small animals for food.

Lost at Sea - Les takes flight in a rubber raft and gets hit by a nasty unexpected storm.

I can't wait to see what Les has planned for Season Two. I'll be the first to buy his DVD.

Terrific show, great DVD. This is a repackaging of the Season One DVD available on Les Stroud's website for $25. It contains the 9 episodes from Season One plus a behind-the-scenes episode.

Years ago when I heard about "Survivor" I thought it would be dumping modern Americans on an island and watching them try to feed themselves. I thought that would be a great show. Instead it was the series of challenges and voting people off the island - not about survival at all.

Les Stroud made my wish come true. He recreates accidents that would leave you stranded in the wilderness, and then uses the items at hand and his wits to survive for seven days. He actually falls out of his canoe and watches it drift away, then he swims to shore, gets out his backpack and sees what he has to survive - in one episode he smashes a video camera and uses the lens to start a fire. He survives the desert, artic, a shipwreck in a raft, the Georgia swamp (he catches and eats a rattlesnake).

He does all his own filming, talking as he goes. This leads to some of the humor in the show - he'll film himself making a slow trek up a steep ridge, and then point out he has to go back down to get his camera - then go up the ridge again.

Some of what he does works well - he catches a snow-shoe hare with a snare, something everyone has heard about but he actually shows you how it works (its not like in the cartoons) but some are flops. He eats plants which make him throw up, and it takes him a LONG time to start some of his fires, with multiple failed attempts. I find it all very interesting.

He has immense patience, and his super-power is to go for five days without eating more than two lizards without complaining.

One last comment - the show invites a comparison to man vs wild, which is much more dramatic and over-the-top and gross - the man vs wild guy drinks by squeezing elephant dung and brown liquid comes out and he swallows that. That guy goes out of his way to face drama - he chooses an escape path over a lava field so you can see his boots smoke, where Les Stroud would walk around it. Plus I can never forget that the man vs wild guy is standing there with a camera crew which has coolers and a truck right there. They are presumably drinking Coke and eating McDonald's while the guy drinks elephant dung juice. Its a stunt. Whereas when Les Stroud found the rattlesnake (he jumped a mile and they had to bleep what he said) if he had gotten bitten he would have had to face it alone.

Les Stroud is very low key and Canadian, and he plays his harmonica to keep his spirits up. He is very likable.

My whole family likes Survivorman. We bought the DVD on his website and were delighted. I recommend it heartily.

When I first heard of the show on Discovery Channel, I thought it was another reality show gimick. But the show is actually very entertaining and enlightening. Les Shroud gets dropped off in some remote place with some camera gear and has to survive on his own for 7 days. He really puts you right there with him. The shows are generally about him building a shelter, making a fire and finding food. He uses some random stuff that his production crew has planted in his kit, but otherwise, it's just him and mother nature. Looking forward to Survivorman, season 2.

I remember watching this a couple of years back, caught on some obscure Canadian channel. This channel never had anything good on it, but i was channel flipping and came upon Les. I saw him trying to make a deadfall, and he was messing it up, and i considered him an idiot.

Then one day, i caught that same episode from the beginning, and was completely engrossed in what he was doing.

Les is obviously an expert in survival, but what he does that often TV actively seeks to hide, is to make the show as real as possible, and this includes showing his mistakes. Not only does he learn from his mistakes, but so do we.

It truly is incredible that not only does he have to survive a week with usually nothing more than a multi-tool, but he has to do so while also packing along 50lbs of camera gear and filming himself. If you see him walking away in the distance or climbing a mountain, that means he's done it at LEAST TWICE... once to do the shot, and another to retrieve the camera.

And he doesn't do stunts like some other shows that i won't name. He doesn't try to climb a 30' into the air for coconuts when there are coconuts on the ground already. He doesn't climb down a waterfall when he can just walk around it. It might make good television to do that, but it's completely unwise in a real survival situation to do stunts like that (and he doesn't have people feeding him energy bars behind the camera to do those stunts).

The Discovery channel version is different than the Canadian version i watched. The Discovery channel version edited some things out (i guess not to offend the American public... such as when he ate the seal eye).

Anyways, thank you Les for such a great show... and for inspiring me to head into the woods myself (although i carry actual gear instead of cameras).

I was impressed with Les Stroud's skills at surviving in just harrowing situations and his great ability to provide an entertaining, informative narrative to go with his absolutely amazing experiences. He films his own experiences, so there is no camera crew behind the scenes. I highly recommend this series. He is the authentic 'Survivorman'.

Unlike a certain other show (*cough* Manvswild *cough*) this is genuinely about what you should actually do in wilderness situations. Les Stroud allows you to see everything, even when things don't happen the way they should, and shows a wonderful low-key sense of humour and rationality about situations that would scare the bejesus out of most people. And he's entertaining without being a ham or showboat. I really missed the show after the first season ended and was so glad to see the second season start!

Survivorman is a great series if you like the real outdoor stuff. Les Stroud is amazing in the ways he can improvise in the wilderness. Plus he does all of this while carrying 55 lbs of camera gear with him. Don't be fooled by other similar shows where the survivor is flanked by a camera crew and there is so much editing that you really don't know if it's real. Les Stroud is the real deal and is truly a Survivorman.

When my little brother flipped to this show one time, I--like many others-- considered it to be little more than a reality show stunt. I soon learned I was dead wrong. Les is extremely easy to relate to--most people should be able to do what he does (unlike demi-god Bear Grylls, who scales trees and walls that no normal human being could). He's also got a great sense of humor despite the fact he eats almost nothing for seven days. I particularly like how he usually tries to simulate situations instead of just going in "Bear," like with only his multi-tool. And for anyone who likes music, Les plays an awesome harmonica.

I purchased this DVD for my husband, as he became a fan of the show on The Science Channel; I never expected that I would become hooked too! Les is entertaining and likeable, the landscapes are breath-taking, and the show is educational. Don't be fooled by "set-up" shows like Man Vs. Wild--Les is actually ALONE (no camera-man, no crew) and doing it all on his own. Sometimes he succeeds, sometimes he doesn't. That is the beauty of watching the show. Watch a couple of episodes, and you will be hooked too!

Of all of the reality shows on television with all of the drama and sheer "Everyday BS", it is nice to see a show with honest to goodness, edge of your seat "How the hell is he going to get out of that?" television. Honest drama, and educational factors play a big part in why I am a big fan.
I tried to space out the episodes as to not watch all of it at once, however, Les makes that impossible to do. I had to keep going! Some episodes, you can see the frustration he is going through. Les is also a comedian at times.
I feel this show is one of the best Discovery Channel has to offer. Excellent family entertainment. Most of all, You'll learn something about survival and how to do it in certain situations on a real life survival scale.
Buy it! It's worth your hard earned $$. I highly recommend it to anyone.