Survival Shows I Do Like

Last week I tore into why I don’t like the show doomsday preppers. Maybe I’m wrong but the episodes I watched has no redeeming qualities, hidden nuggets of Survival wisdom.  Only scared crazy people giving all preppers a bad name.  With that said I feel there are some shows out there over the years with varying amounts of solid advice.  Today I’m going to go over a few of my personal favorite shows.

Man vs Wild

This was the first “survival” show I watched.  I caught it in tv at a friend’s house many years before I got into survivalisim. I was hooked on the show from that first episode I saw. Man vs wild and presenter Bear Grylis get a pretty bad reputation in the survival community.  Admittedly some of it is deserved. Bear is an adventure seeker and a jackass. He takes many risks in his adventures that could and should be avoided.  I feel he does this because he’s crazy and gets off on danger.  Also I feel that him showing the hardest way to do some things makes better tv. It would be pretty boring otherwise.  TVs first role is to entertain,  if some actual teaching is snuk in all the better. Bear does manage to squeeze in some good information from time to time. The key takeaway from man vs wild is watch it to be entertained,  have a laugh and don’t try to replicate his crazy stunts.

Survivor man

Les Stroud and his show is much more respected and for good reason.  Les goes out with no crew and does his own camera work.  No pizza or hotels for him.  That definitely adds a huge measure of realism to the show.  It also adds to the difficulty of trying to survive with les having to constantly go back to get cameras. Another thing this show showed was how bad most survival situation would suck. Les spent most time being miserably, starving, cold and dehydrated. With that said Les really used the show as a teaching platform. He filled the shows with tips and tricks and showed when things didn’t work. I feel that learning from failures is very important and try to always show my failures. Watching this show will help you realize that survival is not glamorous fun times. It will suck and being prepared is the best fix.

I’m putting season one of this show on the list and leaving off season two which I couldn’t stand. The premise of this show was that a group of “survivors” band together in a warehouse after a viral outbreak. The show was pretty unrealistic with the selection of “random” survivors. They picked the best selection of people for the situation. With that said some of the projects they do in the show, like the wood gasifier generator, are worth learning about. The way they deal with situations and the toll the scenario takes on them is worth learning from. I was hooked on this show and highly recommend it.

This is the only fictional show on the list and for good reason. This is the best disaster/ Apocalypse show I’ve ever seen. It is a good emotional show that can drag non-preppers into it. I started re-watching it with a friend of mine and she is totally hooked on it. I have many non-survivalist friends that have loved that show. The premise of this show is that many states in the US are bombed by nuclear weapons. The story shows how the people of the small town of Jericho survive after. The show has some good survival info and best of all makes people think. It starts people on the process of thinking “what if”.

Skip the Doomsday Preppers and check out these shows. They have some good info and are better at entertaining you, unless you really like watching crazy people.