Quad Blogs

Another season of Man Vs. Wild has concluded. For the season finale itself, the show delivered another Behind The Scenes episodes. Behind The Scenes usually features the crew commenting on the various challenges and locales they’ve been to. This episode included footage and commentary for some of the newer episodes. The blueprint for shooting the show doesn’t change. I didn’t learn anything I didn’t know already about the process of shooting the show but there were moments of great humor and insight into specific challenges in some of the shoots for this season. I’ll just dive into the highlights:

-The best part of the Behind The Scenes episodes is whenever the crew has the same reaction that viewers did to Bear’s antics. For example, four minutes or so were spent on the shark-infested waters in Northern Australia. I wrote about the episode a few weeks ago. Dan Etheridge, the second camera man for Man Vs. Wild, described the island as the scariest locale he’s been to because sharks were everywhere–in the shallows, in the deep part of the ocean. Bear had to go from island-to-island through the shark-infested waters. The most memorable bit was when Bear felt a shark hit his leg as more sharks got closer. Bear and his cameramen eventually sprinted out of the waters. Additional shots of the waters were included for this episode. In the actual episode, only one shot of a shark in the shallows made the final cut. There were several shots of sharks hanging out in the shallows.

-Speaking of perilous situations, the crew commented on the alligator populated lands of the Northern Territory in Australia. This episode had the memorable moment when Bear fought an alligator, briefly, for food before conceding the fight to the alligator. The crew commented on the tough climb Bear had to get to the other side of the water. The tree he had to climb was rotted so Simon nor Dan could follow him. Bear nearly dropped but he didn’t. Once again, additional shots were in this episode of alligators bubbling beneath the water. Australia’s an insane country but I’d still visit there if I could.

-The funniest part of the Behind The Scenes episodes was the segment about what Bear eats in the wild. The series has done episodes about the food Bear eats so, again, this wasn’t new ground nor was the information. In North Africa, Bear collected a bunch of bugs that crawled into his camp because of the fire for breakfast in the morning. Bear decided to make a bug patty. He squished every bug and combined it all into something that resembled a beef patty. Simon nor Dan ever turn the camera from Bear when he’s eating something. They basically force Bear to swallow the entire thing. After Bear finished his bug patty, he said that it was a truly terribly way to begin the morning.

Overall, there isn’t a whole lot to write about with an episode that comments on the series itself. As I mentioned at the top, I’m very familiar with the Behind The Scenes stuff because there’s been a few of these kinds of episodes in the past. The crew deserves their time in the spotlight because they do everything Bear does (well only the camera men). The entire crew does a tremendous job on each and every episode.

I posted my Terriers review about an hour ago so check that out below. The Week 3 NFL picks won’t be posted until late tonight.

SCREENPLAY OF THE DAY

Treme–”Pilot–Written By David Simon & Eric Overmyer

http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/Treme_1x01_-_Pilot.pdf

For an 80 minute pilot, the screenplay is only 66 pages. Remember: Treme is a show that features a lot of music. If you’re a David Simon fan and you don’t have HBO, read the Treme pilot.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK

The desert is always an interesting place for Bear Grylls to go. The man does anything for water and food in the desert. He once used the stomach of a camel as shelter. He took on a hive of bees for honey which led to the infamous swollen face after a bee sting. Fun times for Bear in the desert.

The latest episode of Man Vs. Wild finds Bear in the Mojave desert in the United States. The episode is the sequel to the episode when Bear and his crew created different survival situations for him such as the avalanche, icy water and the infamous glissade incident that nearly killed him. In the desert, Bear endures a sandstorm, a flash food, angers a rattlesnake and plays with scorpions in the darkness. Bear doesn’t experience any near deaths. As always, here are the highlights:

-The opening of the episode is one of the best in the series. For the first time in his life, Bear prepares to skydive from 30,000 feet. The air temperature is -45 degrees at that altitude. His eyes could freeze immediately without goggles. Nitrogen bubbles could knock him unconscious twenty minutes after the jump without proper oxygen intake before skydive. The show missed a golden opportunity to reenact the dramatic, intense skydive scene from Point Break. If one man would jump from a plane without a parachute like Johnny Utah, he would be Bear Grylls. In the interest of safety, Bear doesn’t follow in Utah’s footsteps. Bear jumps and absolutely loves the feeling of falling so fast through the sky. He is euphoric as am I because THAT is how a Man Vs. Wild episode should open. Also, he jumped into -45 degree temperatures and landed in the desert heat.

-The first challenge is a man made sand storm. As always, Bear wants to demonstrate proper survival methods to take. My first thought when I saw the large cloud of sand move closer and closer to Bear was, “I would run the other direction.” On cue, Bear tells the audience that running is a bad idea because sandstorms can be miles long. The storm will inevitably cover a person. The smart thing to do is wait. Find shelter even if the shelter is small. Bear uses a broken car door. The difference between the wind underneath the car compared to the wide open is 50mph. Bear instructs to cover your mouth with a shirt because the easiest way to die in a sand storm is through suffocation. After the sand storm ends, Bear plainly tells the camera that he hates sand as he spits sand from his mouth and rubs sand from his clothes, hair and forehead.

-The second challenge is a flash food. I’ll admit to being surprised by the two big challenges happening in the first twenty minutes of the show. The second half of show suffers because of the front-loading of awesome challenges. Anywho, the crew has three tanks of water. Together, 90,000 tons of water are going to come at Bear and his tent. Only Bear would sit in a tent with 90,000 tons of water targeting him. He explains that LESS water can move an entire SUV. Bear must be aware of rocks as well. The water is soon dumped but the water doesn’t hit Bear directly because he set up camp AWAY from where the bulk of the water would go. His tent gets taken out though. The flash food looked FUN rather than scary, sort of like a water ride at Dorney Park. Bear loved skydiving and sort of enjoyed the flash food. This is like an episode when Les Stroud was on a desert island, eating fruit, fish and having a fantastic time.

Also, before the water was released, Bear said he felt happy, then added ‘as happy as one can before 90,000 tons of water hit them.’ One of the great sentences from Bear Grylls.

-Bear wore special snake boots to track the speed of rattle snake biting the foot of a human. The rattle snake can bite in .5 second which gives a person no chance to defend since the body takes 4 seconds to react and a second or two to process the danger.

-Bear played with two scorpions in the desert. By play, I mean he wore protective gloves and poked at their stinger. If you saw any previous desert episodes or an episode of Survivorman in the desert, you know scorpions are dangerous but the greatest source of food in the desert. The two guys always ate scorpions. Les cooked them and Bear ate them raw.

-The final challenge’s signifcance was lost on me. It involved a difficult climb. I think Bear wanted to show off his expert climbing skills. Also, he said he feared heights. This is the same guy who climbed Everest twice and just jumped out of a plane that was flying at 30,000 feet in the beginning of the episode.

Another solid Man Vs. Wild. Next week is the season finale.

The week two NFL picks should be up in a bit.

SCREENPLAY OF THE DAY

Community–”Pilot”–Written by Dan Harmon http://www.zen134237.zen.co.uk/Community/Community_1x01_-_Pilot.pdf

It’s only 34 pages. I estimate the read time to be around 20-22 minutes. Half-hour comedy scripts are different from hour long drama scripts as well as feature length screenplays. Dan Harmon’s an awesome writer and Community’s great. Go ahead and read it.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK

This picture is unrelated to the actual episode but it's so awesome.

Last summer, Will Ferrell joined Bear Grylls for two days in Sweden to promote his movie, Land of the Lost. With another person to look after, Bear toned the intensity of the challenges down. Ferrell actually had a walk in the park compared to the two fans who won a chance to survive for two days in the Canadian wilderness with Bear Grylls. Bear’s mission is to push both fans, Joe Mesto and Sean Lacoste, to their limits. Bear also wants each man to face and conquer their fears. Joe fears heights. Sean fears water.

The challenges the two fans face aren’t fierce. Bear and Discovery can’t get these guys killed so there won’t be any fights between man and an actual bear for food. Bear used rope more than ever and might’ve repelled down a mountain more than ever. They are in British Columbia, in the Powder mountain range (I think).

As per usual, here are the highlights:

-The helicopter has no way to land on the mountain so the three have to rope down. Joe and Sean look terrified. Bear descends first and then shouts directions to the two men. Both reach the ground safely. Bear tells them they need to do two things: listen to him and trust him. If I’m in the wilderness with Bear Grylls, am I going to do anything but trust him? Surprisingly, Joe doesn’t give complete trust to Bear. More on this later.

-Whenever an episode begins high on a mountain, the first half is devoted to climbing down. You know what that means: REPEL. Bear uses a rock anchor for the descent via rope. For Joe and Sean’s first time, Bear puts the two together. Bear has to assure Joe that the rope will hold. It does. They are safe.

-Bear keeps the three of them tied together through rope a lot during the first ten minutes. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

-Bear worries about the guys becoming dehydrated. He and the fans gather snow in their bottles. Yes, Bear doesn’t advise anyone to eat snow for hydration in cold, dry air because eating snow lowers one’s core temperature. As the three continue to work their way down the mountain, the snow will have melted by the time they reach the bottom of the mountain. Bear also worries about the endurance level of the fans because of the high altitude. A new environment is a shock to one’s body and the British Columbia environment takes its toll early on Joe. During the narration, they using their hands and feet to climb down. You know, kicking deeply into the snow or digging their hands into the snow. Bear decides to glissade down the slope. Simon doesn’t crash into anyone this time. He doesn’t follow any of them down with a sled though. The three glissade safely. It looks fun.

-Bear and the fans navigated a glacier with many crevices. All that stood between them and solid, non-snowy ground was a fifty foot icewall that leads into a crevice. Bear and the fans dig an ice anchor for the moments. Bear has to assure Joe that the rope will hold, that the anchor is good. Sean repels easily. Joe struggles. He doesn’t trust himself or Bear. His feet aren’t planted flatly and he isn’t arching back; therefore, he sort of slides down the mountain. Bear wishes Joe would trust himself more.

-The three make camp. Bear brought dinner because he didn’t want the fans to kill for their food. Bear lets Joe remove the bad parts of the rabbit. Bear narrates about how most people like their meat in a pretty package. Bear feeds the fans the heart of the rabbit before cooking the rest of the animal. Joe actually enjoys the cooked rabbit. I guess it beats a raw rabbit heart. The three sleep in twenty degree temperature. I’m not sure if any of them sleep. In the morning they wake up for breakfast. They warm themselves up with tea. Bear instructs them to look under rocks for worms or grub. The fans collect a decent number of worms. The three of them eat. Bear describes the taste as simply “awful.”

-The time comes for Sean to face his fear of water. It’s rather dull. He freezes in the water but Bear pulls him across without stopping. After this experience, Sean repels down a mountain near a waterfall and swims in a glacial river. I think he was cured.

-Joe nearly breaks his knee repelling. He never trusts himself nor Bear. He does deliver the best quote of the episode: “I’m repelling down a mountain with Bear Grylls. This is awesome.”

The rest of the episode without any major highlights. Bear’s a good teacher. He shows patience and genuine concern for the individual fears of his fans. The fans clearly admire and respect Bear. Joe remarks that it’s amazing Bear does this (survive in the wild) for a living.

Overall, Fan Vs. Wild was a decent episode. Next week, Bear is in the desert and his crew will be creating the conditions to demonstrate how to survive in the desert. It’s the sequel to the “How To Survive In The Bitter Cold” episode that aired a few weeks ago.

I’ll be back in a bit with my 2010 Week 1 NFL PREDICTIONS. FOOTBALL HAS ARRIVED!

Oh, if you missed it here are my reviews for Hellcats and Terriers: http://blogs.wcuquad.com/2010/09/09/the-foot-review-of-fxs-terriers-pilot/ and http://blogs.wcuquad.com/2010/09/08/the-foot-review-of-the-hellcats-pilot-a-world-full-of-strangers/

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK

Last night on Man Vs. Wild, Bear Grylls was inches from death. Literally. Had his cameraman and director of photography, Simon Peay, collided with Bear’s head, Bear would have died.

Thus far, the new season of Man Vs. Wild has been insane. He’s flirted with death in every episode. If he isn’t swimming with sharks, he is fighting a crocodile for a fish in North Queensland waters and, if he isn’t fighting a croc then he nearly dies in a situation that he and his crew are supposed to have complete control over. As I talk about this episode, the reader will learn the exact situation that put Bear and his cameraman inches from death. The situation might surprise you.

This episode got me thinking. Bear’s been filming Man Vs. Wild for three years now. I think the man is addicted to this lifestyle now. Perhaps he isn’t but this episode featured survival methods Bear has done multiple times in the past already. Any loyal fan knows this.

This week, Bear was in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia. Instead of the usual, Bear and the crew created different survival scenarios such as a blizzard, an avalanche, icy waters and a glissade down a mountain. Bear wanted to demonstrate how to survive the most catastrophic situations in the bitter cold. He sure earns his paycheck with this episode, folks. Here are the usual highlights:

-The first scenario was an avalanche. In Patagonia, Bear witnessed an avalanche but did not get caught or buried in one. In this scenario, Bear will bury himself beneath 12 feet of snow to simulate an actual survival situation. Most people die buried 2 feet under. The crew set off four explosives to create the avalanche because Bear wanted to time how long it’d take for rescuers to rescue someone trapped. The information he attained from this exercise was used for his own situation. Bear decides he’ll bury himself alive for 12 minutes under the snow. The proper medical equipment is hooked up to him so he can be monitored; meanwhile, he has a device to make his breathing fit into the scenario as well so that oxygen slowly disappears as time passes. Right off the bat, Bear is flirting with death because if the diggers can’t get to him quickly when the time comes, Bear could die.

While buried, Bear tells a story about a close of friend of his who died in an avalanche. Bear adds softly that he doesn’t like avalanches. As he sits, the oxygen leaves the air. He has a tough time breathing. Eventually, he’s suffering. But the time elapses and the diggers get him safely. He compares the oxygen returning to his lungs to a light that goes on in a dark house. It sounds like a description being near death through suffocation because, as Bear tells us, suffocation is what kills someone trapped underneath an avalanche.

-The next scenario is a massive blizzard. Bear experienced this while in Iceland. For this, the crew had two huge fans along with small weather stations to make sure the conditions were blizzard-like. Bear advises against fighting the blizzard because the wind will kill you. One must take shelter. The shelter is the snow itself. What one does is dig a deep hole so that it shields you from the wind. I’ve seen Bear implement this method several times in the series. Nothing new with this scenario of surviving a blizzard unless you’re a first-time viewer, in which case you learned something.

-The icy lake was next. Bear never seemed to enjoy himself when he plunged into icy waters in the Arctic Circle or Siberia or anywhere. The plunge and the swim has to be torture. Naturally, Bear is wearing a heart monitor to track his BPM. Simon has a thermal camera to show how cold Bear’s body gets. Bear has to swim 80 feet in the water. Before diving in, he says the icy waters are different when he’s in ‘journey mode’ because he doesn’t stop to think; however, diving in like one dives into a swimming pool is a different beast. He dives in and then surfaces quickly because the trick is to slow one’s heartbeat down because the cold water sends the body into panic mode. Every time Bear went into icy waters, he always made sure he calmed his heart rate down because cardiac arrest is a risk. His BPM drops to 88. He spends nearly five minutes in the water. In his narration he describes the body’s way of surviving by decreasing blood flow. On the surface, his body temperature fell from 88 degrees to 32 degrees.

When Bear leaves the water, his number goal priority is preventing frostbite. Bear rolls in the snow as a way to dry his body (hey it works and he’s done it before) before putting his clothes on. He must start a fire or else he might die from blood flow. Bear gets a fire going quickly and then makes himself tea. As he sips his tea, he RETIRES from diving into icy waters. It’s about time, Bear. He admits he always hated icy waters.

I wondered: can a regular person survive what Bear just survived? He must be in superior shape. He’s climbed Everest twice after all. CHIME IN with your opinion in the comments.

-After three insane challenges, Bear settles down to show the viewer how to make good shelter in a bitterly cold place. The show flashbacks to Siberia when Bear spent a night in minus 30 degree temperatures. Now, personally, I’d like to live in a shack in Siberia. I digress. Bear builds a great shelter and a great fire. In the morning, we find out his shelter was 66 degrees (thanks to the fire and the way he built the shelter) while the British Columbian night had temperatures in the low-20s.

-The final challenge is the icy glissade. In the Yukon, Bear lost his footing and slid down the mountain. Bear wanted to determine the speed of someone doing this as well as the length it takes to stop the slide. Bear tells a story about his wife and son who nearly fell off a cliff but stopped just shy of the edge. I’m not surprised The Grylls family climbs cliffs in Bear’s downtime.

From when Bear began to dig his hands into the snow to stop the slide until he stopped, the distance was 180 feet. Bear stresses the importance of being aware of your environment so no one falls off the edge of a cliff. The second time, Bear uses an ice axe to stop; meanwhile, Simon follows Bear on a sled from behind. Once Bear stops, a white cloud of snow hides Bear from Simon’s sight. Simon collides with Bear. The camera breaks and the crew thinks one or both of them could be dead. Good God. Luckily, Simon did not nail Bear in the head. The crew thinks Bear’s femur might be broken. Simon’s nose is busted. Bear is teary-eyed. Simon talks about the fear he felt. The two are airlifted to a hospital.

An insane ending in yet another insane episode of Man Vs. Wild this season. I hope I never see a glisside again on the show nor a dive into icy waters. I will welcome the return of swimming with sharks or fighting a croc for fish OR staring down 200 elephants and WINNING.

Next week, Bear is in The Caucasus Mountains. In which country? Who knows. Hopefully it is матери России.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK