The short answer is Yes & Yes.

When reading the responses on this forum you should bear one thing in mind (pardon the pun). Bear is not an American. He is British. So far as certain members of the American contingent on this forum is concerned:

One Brit Survival Expert Is Fine. Two Is Too Many. If anyone care's to disagree, perhaps one should consider the uncritical praise that Les Stroud get's. If one was to do a line by line critique of him, he would not come out of it looking good.

I consider the fact that Bear's audience (of whom I am one) are considered incapable of differentiating between the survival advise and the "showmanship" elements of the program both rude and insulting.

In my judgement, anyone who follows survival advice blindly is a fool who deserves to die.

Who is the second Brit? Stroud is Canadian.

I think he is referring to Ray Mears.

Gasoline .... sorry couldn't resist

I like Bear and I like to watch MvW. I like how IronRaven says that "He makes me look humble." Haha. Great quote.

While you do have to take some if not most of his show with a grain of salt, so must we all when we are camping or in the back country with our peers. I spent a week in Yosemite with more mosquitoes than I have ever seen and two of our party refused DEET and 'roughed it' with multiple bandannas 24/7 around their head. As a (hopefully) right thinking person I choose the DEET and would continue to do that every time.

I tend to watch MvW whenever I happen upon it, but what always turns me off is when he does something that would get a typical survivor killed or put them in a position to be killed for no benefit. Fore front in my mind is the episode in Patagonia where he makes a raft to cross the freezing lake instead of walking around it. Obviously the raft makes better television than just walking around it, but in a survival situation where you are alone don't you want to ensure your safety over everything?

That said, he seems to bring in a wider audience than Survivorman, I would speculate this is due to his charisma and his stunts (and a name like Bear!). So I can applaud his work for making more people aware of being prepared than Les might have reached. That is a sincere compliment, because I think someone with a half correct education is better than someone with none. If a viewing of MvW sparks an interest in survival that leads them to picking up a book on the subject and really educating themselves, well that's a win in my book.

Thanks for the links, some of the information there is pretty amusing.

One of the true steps into adulthood, is knowing what you don't know, and being able to admit it.

If someone has no survival training, they know they don't know. If someone mistakes MvW as survival training and thinks they are ready, they are twice as dangerous as before.

If MvW get someone to buy a survival book, I hope Griles didn't write it.

As I've said, he is technically competent. Now that I've watched a few more shows, I've even seen a couple things that I hadn't thought of before, like wrapping your shirt around your legs then go wading through high grass to gather dew.

That being said, he never saw a cliff that he didn't want to climb (most survival situations, incresing your risk profile is dumb), a hole in rocks he didn't want to crawl into (dumb at the best of times, you don't know what is in there), or a ball of elephant poo he didn't want to get fresh squeezed juice out of. He also routinely misportrayed his activities as authentic, like when he rode the "wild" horse with the very shiny shoes. Sorry, don't lie to your customers.

If you are doing something that you are describing as adventure television, or reality TV, that's fine. I think Survivor is tripe, but I accept it for what it is. Now that he admits he has his baggage train with the tent and the cot and caterers, I can accept him for what it is. But when you tell me you are sleeping in the dirt, no insulation under you, you aren't going to be neat and clean first thing in the morning. Even if you wash your face before turning on the cams, as I think Les sometimes has done, your clothing is still going to have some dirt on it.

And I'll be critical of Les. I think the destroying of the headlamp to get a fire was very questionable- he had other ways open to him, and a headlamp is just too useful to trash the first night. I'd have tried another method first. I think he's done some silly stuff trying to get out, becuase he's dingy from not having eaten much for a few days, dehydration and exhaustion. But I've done some pretty dingy stuff to, and I'm just as critical of myself. And I would love to have seen him go back to one or two of the places he'd been, with a pocket kit like an off the shelf AMK or BCB item, or a basic pocket kit of his own design and DOES NOT change (yes, you tailor your kit to the location, but a PSK is pretty standard, all terrain/climate stuff folks), a water bottle and a ferro rod, along with his SAK or multi. Heck, I don't take the trash out without most of that in my jacket pockets. *laughs*

That Bear at least takes the basics with him during each episode of Backwoods Bonehead is where I will give him credit. Then he goes and crawls into a small cave in cougar country. Yes, that is so brilliant. That is a good way to get your face torn off.

ironraven, right on about both Bear showing some useful things and taking some pretty dumb risks: the raft across and icy Andean lake; using a limestone cave to get through a rain forest; scaling almost every wall of rock or waterfall he sees; or deciding to descend inside a glacier. But he also provids some useful information.

Les, does some of the same things, like letting the sled dogs while crossing the Canadian north in winter, to really strand himself. He's got his own times when his info is not so good, like not knowing what to do for his foot rot in the episode when he runs back to the village because he thinks a jaguar is stalking him. He's got his own backup team too, although he seems to get less support than Bear.

There is some good info in both, but all of it should not simply be accepted as right.

And I'll admit both do a lot better than I would in most such situations.