I've watched two episodes of this show so far and i'm still on the fence about it. It feels a little light on survival lessons to me, but the couple thing bugs me sometimes. she seems like a very capable woman, but sometimes, not so much. He's a confident military man, and that can be annoying too. I am glad to see that they've taken the saner route on their show, and seem to be avoiding the showmanship stuff.

All their "Honey" and "Babe" stuff makes me think about my husband. Not because we talk like that, but thinking about how we would interact in a crisis. We've survived small traumatic events and family camping but a major unexpected event has a totally different stress level. Right now I'm reading "When All Hell Breaks Loose", and in it, Cody Lundin talks a lot about our survival personalities.

Any insights?

Survival personalities...

I think people are what they are, and they aren't likely to change in a disaster, in either direction, except maybe emotionally as a result of a partner's or child's death.

I have a sister who is basically a self-made idiot (with a husband to match). I have a good friend who has a genius IQ and no common sense whatsoever. I have a neighbor who is very sweet-natured, but virtually incapable of accomplishing anything other than housework. I had a neighbor who knew baseball history inside and out since it was invented, but who couldn't figure out why his garage door wouldn't work (broken spring). I have another neighbor who only knows how to spend money, and one who is ruled by his rather nasty three under-eight children.

I am one of the shortest-tempered b... witches on the planet. THAT'S not going to change! I don't put up with much idiocy, stupidity, cruelty or dishonesty. In fact, I already have a spot picked out to dump the bodies, and just need to reserve enough gas to get there and back.

Was this what you wanted to know?

Sue

Bacpac:

We have viewed all the episodes and echo some of your comments.

Yes some of the survival lessons are light, however there are few things I gleaned from the show and is filed away in the future knowledge bank.

The man Mykel Hawke certainly knows his stuff and yes the "Honey and Babe" endearments get old however after awhile we kind of got used to / ignored it. His wife who had no prior or little outdoors survival experience did better in some of the later episodes as she gained confidence and knowledge/skills.

All in all, not a bad show and it is worth noting that on some episodes, Mother Nature won some of the survival battles and added some realism (relatively speaking) to the show.

Did not like it. Compared it greatly to bear grylls. Alota things i didnt like about it. I watched the episode with the turtle I forget where it was. They spliced in to much stock footage and crap. When they get the water they are like OMG we are gonna die! when if you look closely NOTHING is around them then they spliced in footage of stuff to make it look like they are feet away from it. Then they magically erected a gilligan shanty in the trees to live in. Then they started a fire like a half mile away from the campsite and then had a dramatic race to the campsite before the fire went out!!!. Then his hunting helmet was the stupidest thing I ever seen since the camera crew is up his ass the entire time anyways.


All in all the chemistry between them is annoying at best. She constantly has to be coddled by him and constantly blabs on and on and on. He aswell is equally annoying with his voice and tough guy bs. To Top it off the "What i learned about my partner threw this" for the last 10 minutes is just dumb to me.


Also as you mentioned above it lacks survival lessons. Its more like watching a annoying couple go on a camping trip.

I watched two episodes and that was plenty for me. It was highly contrived and artificial (for some reason they just absolutely had to cross the Colorado River - mostly to get to the other side, as far as I could tell, and to provide some dramuh for the camera). I write it off as typical TV junk.

Actually i think its funny that i only seen two episodes aswell....seems like it just disappeared after the two episodes? Gotta be a reason.

My wife and I watched all the episodes - there were 6 or 7. We enjoyed it.

I see it as a,Fairly, Real World Situation,Short of the Few Women in this World that show Interest for Outdoors Survival Training,She does a Damn Fine Job of Being Honest & True to her Husband,Putting Complete Trust in his Abilities to,See them Thru Each Scenario,Even though He wasn't able to Provide Everytime!The Episode of them in The Senora Desert,where they were Waterless,& Ate Cacti,& Drank pee,& She came down with Sunstroke,& They got the Camera Crew/EMT to make up some Solution to Re-Hydrate,& She Barfed up Pretty Good,of which wasn't Acting, Any of It!Yes,It is Still Television but, Far more Educational than Bear Grylls,& No Cockney accent to Decipher either,lol!

I confess I like the show. Every point here is well made and I've them myself, but I keep coming back to the fact that here is guy, a technical expect and practical applicator of survival who is taking his wife, a tv journalist, the epitome of symbolism* over substance, and teaching her concepts of his trade.

Thread Jack (to make a point) I can't watch tv infobabes regarding survival/disaster without thinking of the time when the reportette speaking while sitting in a canoe in a recently flooded area, talking about the treacherous conditions and two fire fighters walk into frame and the water is shin deep.

I've watched a few episodes and enjoyed them so far.

I also find all the "honey" and "babe" a bit annoying. I think the producers should have pulled them up on that and stopped it. Often Mykel seems a little condescending towards Ruth;
but its the basic skills and explanation of the approach they take to each situation which is what I like. A much better and more informative show than Man vs Wild.

I believe that they have an episode set in Tasmania which I haven’t seen as yet. I’m in Victoria, so “Tassie” is just a short swim away. I’m looking forward to seeing a bit of (almost) local content on a TV show.

My wife and I hunt together on several multi-day trips into the remote parts of the Chippewa and Superior National Forests each year in late fall.

I like the show, as it helps me envision some of the possible scenarios that could develop during this time. While the episodes I have seen contain a little more drama than survival skill demonstration, I suspect that a real world situation would produce a similar ratio.

All of these survival shows are like a Chinese buffet: I eat light, picking only what I think is good for me, and then just pass on the rest.

"...Putting Complete Trust in his Abilities to,See them Thru Each Scenario,Even though He wasn't able to Provide Everytime! The Episode of them in The Senora Desert,where they were Waterless,& Ate Cacti,& Drank pee,& She came down with Sunstroke..."

Well, I guess THAT'S one of the reasons why I'm not married!

Why on earth should a woman put complete trust in ANYONE in a survival situation??? Face it, most guys know less about survival techniques than they do brain surgery! I will think for myself, thank you very much.

The show and this 'survival expert' is advocating drinking urine? THEY'RE CRAZY! And why didn't he insist she AVOID sunstroke?

When I hear about show like this, I'm glad I don't have TV. Sheesh!

Sue

i'm with you Susan. i have a hard time with ma-cheese-mo on a good day. thankfully my husband isn't one of those - most of the time.

The Tasmania Episode was quite Educational,though No technique or Source was Tried or Exploited that,I haven't tried or were Not Aware of!I have Not Visited Tasmania,Though I would like to One Day,& I find it refreshing to see a Slice of the Unbeaten Path,of Foreign Lands!

LOL!

That is wise. You'll live longer.

Hi Richlacal,
After all the comments here I made a point of watching the Tasmania episode last night. Certainly the best one I’ve seen to date. Ruth seemed to be quite confident.
I see what you mean, most of the skills are very general and could apply almost anywhere.

As they were looking for food I was wondering if they would ignore all the rushes and berries surrounding their camp site, so it was good to see them actually harvest a real feast. I suspect that TV shows tend to avoid showing edible berries etc because imitators may end up poisoning themselves if they choose the wrong things, butthey made an exception in this case!

All those lovely looking white and pink heath berries are delicious, but very small and have large stones in them, so its actually very time consuming to eat a lot, but whenever we encounter them we always pick a few to eat. They occur all along the South East coast and the fruits are plentiful.

The purple flax berries (I think Ruth referred to them blue berries) are listed in some books as being (mildly) poisonous. From my own experiences some are bitter while others are very sweet so we always taste first and skip the bitter ones and only eat a small number of them.

Pig face is the fruit from a succulent and it is both salty and sweet at the same time, generally the inner pulp is the best bit, so I squeeze it like a toothpaste tube and the pulp slips out.

The mat rush stems which Myke snacks on are easy to obtain, but its only really the very end of the white tip which is edible (usually about 1cm (third of an inch)), so its actually quite a bit of work to get any decent amount. It tastes much like you would expect a “mat rush” to taste – Myke describes it as a (raw) potato flavour which is a good description. It is OK to eat and they are wide spread and available all year round. We just had some last weekend in Central Victoria - they occur just about everywhere in the bush and on the coasts (but not in arid regions).

In about a week we will actually be spending a few days camping on the (Eastern) Victorian coast which is very much like the area where the episode was set, so I’m extra looking forward to it now !

Nice to see my local patch on TV and to be able to relate to what’s going on; but I find all the (survival) shows fascinating because so many of the skills and techniques are able to be used anywhere in the world.

As Byrd_Huntr sais, you need to treat them all as buffet.

I think most people can behave in multiple different ways according to context, almost as if they were different people. How they are around their boss may not be the same as they are with subordinates. They might be one way with mates down the pub, and another way with friends and family.

So you might find a crisis brings out someone's "work personality", which you might not have seen before, and you might be surprised by how capable and decisive they are. Or they might go the other way, completely out of their comfort zone and needing to be told what to do. I think which they they turn is likely to be influenced by group dynamics. And I think in a totally new situation, you can get new sides of their personality emerging.

Only watched it a couple of times. I have no doubt that he's knowledgeable, but his attitudes were sometimes hard to take. She puts up with a lot! On the positive side though - it was a good personal reminder for me to be very careful with my spoken language when dealing with family members (or other people) in a real survival situation. It's so easy to come off as being condescending - but that's not good.

One reason why I like Bear Grylls is that he has a tremendously positive attitude and a fair degree of humility. I really don't know if he's like that in real life, but I wouldn't be surprised if he is. It's an admirable quality - hard to achieve!

other Pete

i'm watching the louisianna episode right now and find it interesting that he's "seriously mad" at her for climbing a tree by herself. i agree with him that she should have waited for that but, unbekownst to her, he just wrestled an aligator on his own, for no particular reason. he basically said we can't use it so i have to let it go. duh!. that kind of "do as i say not as i do" thing would drive a wedge between my husband and i.

i also agree with her that she was wasting her time doing nothing while waiting for him. standing in a swamp with the sun about to go down, what else could she have done? collect water? crawdads? tinder? sticks for spears?

if you're going to try to boil water in a plastic bottle over a fire, should you fill it all the way to the brim or leave a little room at the top?

I noticed that Bear grylls did the same thing in one of his episodes ... he boiled water in a plastic bottle over a campfire. It is an intriguing idea, but I wouldn't do it if i needed to drink hot water or make some tea. The risk of chemical contamination is too high. It might be OK if the hot water is for external use, or cleaning purposes.

other Pete

Every fruit, nut, and vegetable in existence contains "poisonous" chemicals. Assuming you have a functioning liver, the amount and type of chemicals you'd ingest from occasionally heating water in a plastic bottle won't harm you.

-Blast

I enjoy watching it regardless of it's survival value (not nil either, some tricks are quite fresh to me). Very nice couple in the center of quite thrilling adventure.

Hey Blast ... you sure about that??
Take a look at the Bear Grylls episode, or try it yourself at home. In order to boil the water in a plastic bottle, you really wind up frying the bottle over the flames. The plastic comes out blackened, shriveled up, and very nasty. It doesn't look good at all.

Food for thought!
other Pete

That was only last year that the lady tried the BPA scare on us. Wonder how many forums she tossed that garbage out.

Sounds like it's time to experiment, but it'll have to wait until next weekend. I'll report back the results.

-Blast

Chemical myths about plastic from John Hopkins University. Sidenote: when he get's to the part about phthalates (PBA) he neglects to mention how little phthalate gets extracted by hot water. I'm too tired to look up my calculations based on the most commonly quoted research papers on this subject but it was in the thousands of LITERS of water per KILOGRAM of body weight before you had enough to POSSIBLY have some noticeable effect on the body. I suspect that much water would cause a problem before the phthaltes would.

-Blast

Just watched the episode in Alaska. They have failed to survive there because of a complete lack of food. My question is about the snow cave they've dug for sleeping. It was a mistake to keep the large entrance wide open, is not it? As far as I can recall you have to seal it as best as you can leaving just a very small opening at the bottom for ventilation. They were also suffering from a headache in the morning, most likely because of the smoke from the fire in front of the entrance entering the cave all night long.

I'm picking more and more useful tips from the show. The problem is that many of them comes without a proper explanation, sometimes with only several seconds of partially obscured demonstration. It looks like the makers tend to concentrate on the drama aspect too much - still fun overall though.

Alex you touched on something I failed to mention in my first response here on the show. Myke does actually try to explain what he is doing and how to do it, whereas Les & Bear just do.

When his wife got dehydrated in the desert and he started a fire, he was honest enough to show and tell it took 90 minutes to do with the technique he was using. I am occasionally asked to start fires with what is on me or what is available (BBQ joking around) and people get bored after five minutes watching me strike or rub objects.

I haven't seen the show, but I do know something about snow caves:


You're correct - a small opening located lower than your main cave. Also, make additional ventilation openings - just poke a skiing pole or whatever through the wall.

But if it is warmer outside (i.e. not that much colder than the melting point of water) then the size and shape of the opening really isn't that important. Just block enough to keep unwanted drafts out.



Headache could be dehydration, too... but sleeping in a smoke filled cavity certainly seems like a bad idea.

But there is another thing to notice: Warming the snow cave is totally counter productive - The temperature inside the cave will never be warmer than a few degrees above the freezing point of water no matter what you do. Excessive heat just means that the walls melt faster.

Sheriff Blast ... you're absolutely right about two things. First, it is time to experiment. And I've really got no excuse there, because I just set up a fire pit in my backyard. So I'll try hanging some plastic bottles over it and see what happens.

Second, you said "Chemical myths about plastic from John Hopkins University. Sidenote: when he get's to the part about phthalates (PBA) he neglects to mention how little phthalate gets extracted by hot water. I'm too tired to look up my calculations based on the most commonly quoted research papers on this subject but it was in the thousands of LITERS of water per KILOGRAM of body weight before you had enough to POSSIBLY have some noticeable effect on the body. I suspect that much water would cause a problem before the phthaltes would."

That's also quite helpful for me to know. You're probably aware that the media did publish some articles about the presence of phthalates in standard drinking water (plastic) bottles a while ago. I use a lot of these, and have been wondering if there's any long-term problem. So it's good to know that there isn't.

other Pete

"Just watched the episode in Alaska. They have failed to survive there because of a complete lack of food."

You actually hit on a good point there. It is possible to fail in a survival setting, and so the Man Woman Wild show may actually be presenting more realistic outcomes. Whereas, if you watch Bear Grylls you tend to get the impression that every outcome is positive.

other Pete