Survivorman (2004– ) User Reviews

Unique, interesting show

[dorotka24 · 9/10 · 30 July 2008]

I was transfixed by this show since my first viewing. One man in the wild for seven days - no camera crew, nothing but a multi-tool and some basic equipment. The show is set up to more or less mimic a typical survival situation - lost at sea, lost while hiking, a plane crash in the wilderness, etc. It adds an extra element of credibility and realism.

The host then proceeds to do what he must to survive with what he has available, and to make use of or anticipate a use for what he is left with, be it a damaged bicycle, plane, parachute, backpack, etc. Les is alone in this, performing everything including all of his own camera work. So when we see him walking off into the distance or climbing down a bluff, he has to walk or climb all the way back to his camera to retrieve it.

The wilderness settings are incredibly varied, from the arctic to the jungles, tropical islands to open ocean. We get a taste of just about every possible terrain as well, from mountains to desert plains.

The thing I like the most about the show is its practicality. Les doesn't take unnecessary risks for the sake of entertainment. He cooks his food whenever he can, doesn't attempt unrealistic tasks that would set him up for injury, and otherwise attempts to conserve his energy as much as possible. He also stresses the psychological aspects of survival, focusing on keeping his spirits up to avoid the depression and lonely solitude of his situation.

I don't have much criticism for the show. Les plans to be rescued in seven days, and it is often easy to see this anticipation in his routine. In a way this reduces the tension, since we know he will be saved at a predetermined time. But then again if someone isn't rescued from being lost in a few days, then their chance of survival diminishes dramatically. It is not realistic to eschew certain safety considerations and prolong one's suffering merely because I think it might make for a more unpredictable show.

So then my complaints really are minor and perhaps frivolous, since this remains among my favorite shows on TV. Practical, interesting, often exciting, and filled with useful survival information, this show is great and deserves the success it enjoys. Enjoy with my recommendations.

Just my comments

[metal_freak1991 · 9/10 · 29 September 2007]

This is by far my favorite show, Les is a great role model in the sense that his house is completely self sufficient ...if you have ever seen his show off the grid, you would know his water is from a well. his power is wind water and solar generated. Now sorry 4 rambling on back to serviorman. my personal favorite episode is the (canadian boreal forest) one because its in my home country and i sometimes go out it the woods and do my own little survivor thing. not for a week or anything but for like a weekend all my friends think in nuts... anyway!! this show kicks the crap out of any other survivor show GO LES!!!!!

He /could/ die, I suppose...

[grizzledgeezer · 7/10 · 30 January 2014]

"Survivorman" appears to be unique among outdoor-survival shows. Les Stroud is presented as being truly alone, with no one to assist him. If he makes it to the time limit (currently 10 days), he'll be automatically picked up. But he can't summon help -- and he could very well die.

I normally don't like such things. It smacks of trapeze artists working without a net, pandering to the audience's desire to see someone be killed, live. But people do find themselves in extreme situations not always of their own making. Such programming is potentially helpful -- and it serves to remind us how easy our lives are.

I just saw the Tierra del Fuego episode, arguably the "low point" of the series (emotionally as well as geographically). I hope Stroud was paid a great deal for this particular "adventure", as no one in their right mind would want to spend more than a few minutes in that place.

This is one of a few "reality" programs worth watching.

PS: After submitting this review, I more-carefully read the Wikipedia article. It seems Mr Stroud carries a satellite radio, and can get in touch with his crew at any time. This has /never/ been mentioned in any episode; the audience is left believing he is totally alone. I certainly don't want to see Mr Stroud die -- and he /is/ in rather more danger than he would be if cameramen were present -- but his lying-by-omission obliges me to change my rating from 9 to 7.

Terrific and Unusual Survivor Television

[Eventuallyequalsalways · 10/10 · 29 April 2006]

I stumbled onto this program on the Discovery Channel completely by accident and was struck by the incredible audacity of Les Straud to undertake such an enterprise. The inherent weakness of most television involves the ever-present camera crew and their entourage. Les does it all. When you are watching "Survivor", you are always aware there are several cameramen lurking about, and you know you are seeing an edited version of "reality." With Les and "Survivorman", you know the only footage you don't see is the endless footage of him selecting a vantage point for the tripod and camera so that he can effectively function as his own cameraman. This is a great program if you are at all interested in true survival of one man against the great wilderness of the world.

An Insane and Excellent Show

[sias-programming · 10/10 · 15 June 2007]

This is definitely one of the most interesting shows to watch. There are lots of survival shows out there, but this one really kicks the competition. This show is great to watch because Les Stroud really does survive. Most of these types of shows use camera crews to document their survival, which isn't bad either, but this is pretty much a one-man show. The show definitely has a lot of great adventures taken on by Les Stroud, the Survivorman. This is a unique show of how insane it is to survive alone in different wilderness situations and scenarios. This is a great show to watch and I'd definitely recommend watching it if you want to see REAL survival.

Les Stroud is an antidote to crap TV

[DashTheGreat · 10/10 · 16 August 2007]

Les Stroud is my hero.

Survivorman is no doubt an epic show that deserves more credit than it gets. Most people pass this show off as "boring," but you can tell that they never really sit down to watch it. You can't really judge a show by the 5 minutes that you watched. Not to mention that the information on Survivorman is useful. Man vs. Wild was good, but it featured Bear doing impossible stunts and jumping from cliff to cliff. Survivorman just seems more practical. Les beats the crap out of himself for our amusement, and we should honor him for that. Excellent show.

I suddenly have the urge to savagely rip into a pond tuber, but those taste like crap. I then bite into a river reed and break my teeth in half. It got woody on me.

If Les has written a guide...

[Flyingfishman · 10/10 · 16 November 2006]

If Les has written a guide on how to survive in the Wilderness...I want to buy it. The show is fantastic and informative. He never sugar coats any situation. He does not take unreasonable risks much like a normal person wouldn't. Les takes you there and you feel the experience. He also shows you how to use what is available. In one episode they haul in a crashed single engine plane. The show scenario is that Les has just crashed and is assessing his situation. He shows you how to salvage it and use most all of the plane for his shelter, clothing and trip back to civilization. He has shown how to make fire in more situations than I have ever seen. I have seen and enjoyed a lot of survivor shows...this one is tops!

Bye Bye Bear

[lobomcthirsty · 23 May 2011]

One man. A few cameras. Lots of batteries and tape. No food. Sometimes just a canteen of water and the most help he will get is a "rescue team" that often looses contact with him. Through it all, using his learned skill and wiry wit, Les battles not just the elements but his own human frailties and feelings of isolation.

Immediately, the differences between this and Bear Grylls' show, Man Vs. Wild, become apparent. There is little to no theatrics. He does not grab everything he sees and tries to bite it. He does not go running around in the latest garb from L.L Bean and only rarely does he throw himself into situations which are more or less avoidable.

This is not only more interesting entertainment, but also makes for a more human experience and more valuable survival advice. Without all the blatant theatrics, the message of the episodes become clear, and the techniques become better ingrained on the minds of the people watching it. And it is fascinating to watch Les struggle through not just the physical, but mental fatigues and pains that come with surviving alone in all the wildernesses of the world.

Unfortunately, Les canceled this fantastic show. And considering the physical strain it was putting him under, I don't blame him. And while Bear continues to throw himself at trees to a thundering orchestra, this show still has more educational value.

I highly recommend you watch this show if you are at all interested in learning about how to survive the most extreme situations from the comfort of your own home.

Surviving 50+ pounds of camera gear schlepping...for starters!

[muulesaver · 10/10 · 12 August 2007]

Les Stroud is an extraordinary man of 45 highly experienced years as of this writing. His life's journey so far has taken him deep into the world of music for which his "blues harp" talents and compositional skills have established a solid reputation in a realm that both coexists and sublimely contrasts with his unique brand of outdoor adventures which are as informative as they are uniformly grueling.

Les circumnavigates the globe at the behest of his own production team, always seeking new and disparate locations from which to both tackle and parlay his survivalist experiences to those of us willing or wanting to watch him endure his self-inflicted ordeals. It appears that as far as Les is concerned, sometimes his greatest trial is in having to be his own expert cinematographer on site...and the technical hardware doesn't always tolerate the elements as well as Survivorman.

In fact, Mr. Stroud, aside from his incredible courage and skill, is a funny and amusing teacher of how to sensibly spend a week in an unpredictable and often non-sensible (for humans) environment. The viewer is oft awarded a brief respite in the form of comic relief. To that end, and to the Survivorman's considerable credit, Les is willing to lapse into good natured self-deprecation if he becomes frustrated by having mishandled a task or judgment call. Conversely, he's not shy to cheer himself on camera for scoring small successes. The end result of his edited filming is always as full of momentary surprises as it is with the kind of awe-inspiring beauty over which nature reigns supreme, for better or for worse.

As folks from New England are prone to say, if you don't like the weather, then wait a little...and so it is with Les, who's circumstances change as quickly as Mt. Washington's (New Hampshire) atmospheric conditions. And weather can be just one of a plethora of unpleasantries to contend with. Ultimately, Les Stroud is a master of extreme teaching. He perhaps goes to conventionally unreasonable lengths to film himself in all manner of temporarily glorious moments which are usually just the other side of an impending predicament...and he's fully aware of that aspect too.

Mr. Stroud is not a daredevil, nor a thrill-seeker for its own sake, but rather a dedicated outdoors-man and supremely accomplished survivalist among his other complimentary talents. With his production crew often stationed somewhere in the general vicinity, Les does his own thing, alone, with his trusty multi-tool and harmonica for comfort wherever there might be none otherwise. As we quietly slip into his journey, Les enriches our knowledge and entertains our senses. It's a photographic treat to follow his intrepid endeavors from the safety of our personal viewing zone. In the spotty world of reality television, "Survivorman" is as flawless as it is fascinating.

As good as survival shows get

[johnstrash1 · 10/10 · 27 August 2010]

After being put through the test of time with other survival shows making it on to the scene, Les Stroud's Survivorman still reigns supreme. Unlike the rest, Survivorman is the only one where the host is completely alone throughout the filming of every episode. And each one is done for seven days, as opposed to some usually unknown (and probably shorter) length of time, as in the case of Man versus Wild, Dual Survival, etc.

Although it is not as exciting as some of the competition, using what you learn from Les will not get you killed. There is no climbing into bottomless crevasses of glaciers or doing butt slaloms down scree slopes, but rather just straight forward survival techniques displayed in easy to understand presentations.

And perhaps most important aspect of the show is the amount of failures that Les encounters. Even with the years of experience that he has accumulated, many of his attempts fall flat simply due to the actual difficulty of what he is trying to do. This not only presents a realistic image of how hard true survival is, but it also shows that in a survival situation, you can fail many times and still survive.

Best survival guide show ever!

[darthwizard13 · 10/10 · 4 January 2008]

This show is so cool. I don't think there is any other T.V show out there that can compare to this. Les is such a great guy. He puts himself in life and death situations and films it all too. Even though his life is on the line in every adventure, he still makes it very entertaining and sometimes adds a little humor into it to. Some off the survival techniques he shows us is very extreme and should not be attempted by anyone unless in real danger. Thats another thing about the show that I love, its all real. Non of it is planed out or set up. Some off the stuff he does is pretty Gross too(like eating raw bugs!) But the main purpose off the show is to show you how to survive in the wild and in dangerous situations. You have to give this guy some credit.

Survivorman Annoying Show

[hendy89 · 1/10 · 3 June 2010]

Do not get me wrong, I admire Les for going into the bush for 7 days at a time and surviving on his own. However, I find him truly annoying and at times gaining no information on how to survive in the scenarios he's in. I just finished watching the Alaska episode where he kayaks into a small bay. The only food other than grass that he managed to find and eat was a rotting fish. He basically survived 7 days on only old half eaten fish that he found decaying on a rock. From my perspective, Les needs to focus more on showing the viewers how to find and capture food while in the wild and show less of him complaining about how tired or fatigued or hungry he is, and pointless shot after shot of him wandering around. I also find the sounds he makes when he does eat something tasty super annoying. A show that conquers this show hands down is Man Vs. Wild. Yes I get that Bear Gryls has plenty of help and isn't "surviving" on his own, but its much much more interesting to actually see how to find and capture food as well as build proper shelters, not just laying on the ground all the time complaining about being cold or getting bitten by bugs.

The Grandfather of Most Survival Shows

[joshuaharper-72723 · 10/10 · 13 April 2016]

Survivorman is the grandfather to almost all other survival programs, and certainly all shown on Discovery or the Science channel. I watched this show as much as I could when I was a teenager, and even now years later it's still just as enjoyable. The thing that really separates this show from others is the true reality of it. There are no scripted interactions (Dual Survival), minimal or contextual setups with things left for the host (Man Vs Wild), and brilliant camera work for the entire program (Ed Stafford). Les Stroud gives an air of "if i can do it, so can you", compared to most other survival programs (the 3 I named above, for example) being hosted by former military men. Les Stroud is in his 40's, not the most physically fit person on earth, and only has survival techniques which anyone can do if properly instructed. Stroud has a safety net usually about 5 hour's walk away, which is helpful if he's mobile, but if he's attacked by a wild animal then it's game over. Compare that to Bear Grylls and his film crew of 2/3 people watching him do back-flips over waterfalls, ready to call for a helicopter if he gets hurt. Les Stroud does twice the work shown on camera because of his DIY film technique.

Survival wisdom at its finest

[jwtaylor-83427 · 10/10 · 24 June 2016]

As someone who has seen every episode of "Survivorman", all I can say is I'm left wanting more! I'm so happy his show was renewed for an 8th season!

Les Stroud has entered our lives in what once was a hobby, now is a top-rated TV series. "Survivorman" gives the viewer unprecedented access to knowledge and wisdom essential for survival. Les's decades of training and his beautiful camera work make it obvious his incredible level of dedication. His love for life and the environment is shown throughout the series. From the countless ways to start a fire, to build a shelter, every episode showcases numerous ways to deal with the situation at hand.

He strands himself upon all corners of the Earth, from the frost- biting north to the scorched sands of the desert, all for the purpose of educating others in how to survive such inhospitable climates. Have you found yourself floating in the middle of the ocean, or perhaps broken down in an arid wasteland? Survivorman can show you how to survive.

Les Stroud puts forth a truly unique and remarkable work of photography. Perhaps one could consider it a gift to humanity.

To any camper or hunter, hiker or climber, or anyone that appreciates the beauty of nature, this show is a must watch, must own.

Bigfoot episodes

[carolo-966-796364 · 10/10 · 5 April 2014]

I love this show..he's the real deal..much better than that Bear Grillis..he's too fake..at least survivor man is on his own when he films and nothing looks faked..he is very believable..it's now 2014 and. I'm watching the Second part of the Bigfoot show..he really should do more of these..if anyone can get to the truth and hopefully get proof I bet you he can.. Keep up the good work...more of these please until u get the proof..this is the best Bigfoot expedition I've seen yet and I've watched them all and read every book on them as early as the 1800's It would be great if they found an area where the Bigfoot actually lived and somehow try to set cameras to be able to observe them..try to learn more about their habits...don't keep us hanging ...go get em ..thanks for listening..

Keep a cool head.

[codeE · 10/10 · 4 February 2008]

Stay calm, don't panic, and use your head. I can't think of any other show on TV that stresses this. OK there might be some, but they don't spring to mind. Now thinking about it I still can't. The host Les Stroud is the only guy on the show. He lugs around all of his equipment(video and sound stuff) so there is no mysterious unseen cameraman. He refers to his crew but they just drop him off in the middle of nowhere and stay away only to be seen at the end. He does take in supplies but they are minimal. They consist of basically garbage and whatever is lying around. With this he survives for a week in all sorts of different climates, situations and then hikes out lugging his equipment. All this is done with a minimum of flash. Which is the best part. And as an extra bonus you can watch it with your kids and learn something in the process.

Fake and disgusting show

[Dpbwmk · 4/10 · 10 January 2022]

Most of these shows are fake and disgusting. I don't know how many people are believed on it. Definitely mostly dumb, less knowledgeable, uneducated people are like this kinds of shows. Most of what is shown on this TV show is wrong and fake. If anyone does these things in real life, he will die. And sometimes it's also support Animals Cruelty also.....