You know ... I don't really have a problem if they map out the route that Bear takes ahead of time. If you stop to think about it, it's really the only practical way to do a TV series like that. Otherwise, you would waste tons of video footage while Bear walks round and round trying to find a route that actually works. They've got to keep things moving along so that the viewers will stay interested.

Here are the things I wonder about in Man vs. Wild. First, there are quite a few times when Bear winds up needing to spend the night in an improvised shelter under less-than-ideal conditions. For example, his clothes are soaking wet, it's getting dark, and it's getting cold. OK ... so he lights a small fire. That helps a bit. But with wet, cold clothes it's still a miserable night - 12 hours of freezing darkness lasts a long time! Does he actually DO the whole night out? Or do they just cut the film making, and then everyone goes back to the hotel to drink a lot of beers?

Also, he will occasionally demonstrate how to get liquids for drinking, such as by squeezing bits of cactus or chopping the ends of a jungle creeper. But either way, if you see how much water he gets from this operation - it's really minimal. Just a small trickle of water at best. It's not even close to what he would need to survive while trekking energetically across rough country or paddling a raft across a stretch of ocean. So again - what do they do? Just cut film making for 20 minutes so Bear can quaff down a quart of gatorade??

Those are the parts of the show where I have some serious doubts about what's going on.

Having voiced these complaints ... I still think that Bear is an excellent individual, and a great example of how to keep a positive mental attitude under harsh conditions.

other Pete