European Alps

Buy the official Discovery Channel DVD Set!
I abosuletly love this show. Some people say Bear loses a lot for having a camera crew and putting himself into certain situations that aren't truly dangerous, but this is a television show and it is supposed to be entertaining.
With that aside, I bought this 6-DVD set from amazon with hopes of it being of high quality. I was sorely mistaken. These are DVD-R transfers from an outside company.
The downsides to this set include:
There are no interactive menus
The letterbox presentation bars at the top are unsteady and shake.
The actual shows are not of DVD quality
On the second disk of part one, it wouldn't return back to the menu after the episode was over, it just returned to the middle of the episode.

I returned this item to amazon and they were very friendly about the entire ordeal. Their customer service has never steered me wrong.

The actual Discovery channel box set of Man vs. Wild season 1 has fixed all of the above mentioned...

Still great fun
Over all a very entertaining program, but be forewarned that this DVD release reflects the recent re-editing of the episodes. The original concept of the show has been changed from "finding your way back to civilization," to an on location demonstration of survival technique. While the original concept was more fun to watch, it had been criticized because various situations were staged without informing the audience. The re-edited episodes explain when and where Bear receives outside help. The new concept is more honest, but leaves on the editing room floor scenes that were more staged for their own good, such as the wild horses and bunny kill from the Sierra Nevada episode.

The Hawaiian, the MOAB and the pilot episodes are also missing from this set, as they have been highly criticized for their authenticity.

Also please be aware that this DVD set is presented as non-anamorphic video.

Bear Grylls still comes off as being very charismatic and very...

The Bear Grylls Show
Bear Grylls served in the British Special Forces; at the time he climbed Everest, he broke the world record as the youngest ever to do so; he parasailed the same mountain (really, he had an oxygen tank and a special parasail); he is an avid rockclimber, mountaineer, and adventurer; needless to say, Bear Grylls is a pretty cool guy.

That's why Man vs. Wild, a show dedicated to survival, tends to fixate on him; but this isn't a bad thing. The show is only partly instructional; if person wants some real lessons in survival, they need more then just Man vs. Wild.

A review of the show is not complete without mentioning its scenery. Filmed in HD, this show has some great shots of the world's most foreboding wildernesses; wide angle shots are fantastically directed (even if it takes always from the sincerity of the "survival" situation.) and Bear always needs to get into a place in an interesting way; weather it's hangliding, parachuting, jumping out of a helicopter, or...

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