10 Reasons to Watch Bear Grylls

If you haven’t been watching Bear Grylls, you should start. Bear Grylls is the star of Man vs. Wild (the show’s North American name. In the UK it’s called  – the show is called Born Survivor, and in South Africa it’s called Ultimate Survival). The show follows Bear Grylls as he’s dropped off in various remote locations around the world and he demonstates survival techniques.

Here’s why you should watch the show:

1. Charisma. Bear has a lot of charisma and he makes it enjoyable to follow him through jungles, desserts, forests, and other impossible terrain.
2. Real Survival Skills. It’s amazing how everything in your environment can be used to survive. Bear’s continual tips are golden and truly interesting.
3. Anecdotal Stories. Bear has a lot of short, relevant stories about people who got hurt, were killed, kidnapped, or otherwise in similar scenarios to the one you see him in. You always get the feeling of wanting to hear even more stories.
4. Great Narration. The interplay between following him on his adventures, his discussions while he’s on them, and the narration is phenomenal.
5. Incredible Agility. He’s in great shape and his agility helps him get through all of the obstacles in his path.
6. He Makes Cool Survival Tools. It’s interesting to watch him make survival items out of nature’s offerings. He once made a bed in the trees while in the jungle to stay above ground and away from scorpions and snakes. Another time he used a parachute and some branches to create a raft and go down rapids.
7. Survival Never Looked So Interesting. The show keeps your attention and the basic storyline of Bear getting dropped off and trying to get to the pick-up spot is perfect. The larger views are breathtaking and the angles in which he’s filmed make the show very dynamic.
8. He Eats Everything. I know this sounds gross but it’s amazing how he eats everything he comes across. In one episode, he came across a snake in a desert, killed it with a rock, took a bite out of it (raw!) and then showed you how to cook it properly in the desert (and he finished eating it). He had no problem doing this to this with the snake. Now the peculiar thing is that in another episode, he caught a giant bug (he eats lots of small ones in many episodes) and made faces while eating it as he forced it in.
9. Even the Pre-set-up Obstacles are Interesting. Once in a while, the crew sets up items and animals for him to “stumble” onto. It doesn’t make the show any less interesting, especially when you see what he does. He sometimes “fakes” that he’s worked hard to get somewhere due to the difficult terrain which has lead to a lot of criticism but I think it works well anyways. For example, in Ireland, he came across a dead sheep and used it’s skin and fur as a “sheeping bag” and then used it again to insulate his belongings as he swam across a river. Cool stuff.
10. He Doesn’t Always Win. In one episode, he tried to catch a salmon with stick but gave up. Someone in his film crew tried and was able to catch one. It’s amazing how he just bites into fish, raw, without gutting or cooking it. In another episode, he tried to kill a fish with a rock, missed, and scared them all away.

Bear has been featured in many interviews, including an appearance on Oprah. Will Ferrell made an appearance on his show. Check it out, it’s TV worth watching.