september 12, 2009 : steve kong : 0 comment(s)
There's a post on my blog that continues to get comments. I wrote the damn thing more than two years ago. The posting "Survivorman" vs "Man vs. Wild" continues to survive even as one of the shows has gone into retirement. Les Stroud (aka Survivorman) has stopped doing the Survivorman series because of the toll it takes on him. Bear Grylls is still going strong with Man vs. Wild, I am sure that it is much easier to film and do because Bear does not strand himself out in the wild for seven straight days without humans.
Anyways, with Surviorman gone, who is going to step up and challenge Bear Grylls? How about Adam Richman of Man v Food! Huh? What?
Recently, I watched the whole first season of Man v Food streamed from Netflix. And now the second season has just started and I am watching it HD (I can't stream HD from Netflix because of my measly 3Mbps DSL connection). The show has a pretty standard formula that it uses from week to week. Adam flies to a city in the US to sample food from three restaurants. The first two restaurants he samples food, talks with the chef and shows us a nice place to eat if we ever travel to that city. The third restaurant is where the "versus" part kicks in. Adam takes a challenge in each city. The challenge is food-based, usually eating the largest or spiciest dish in a restaurant. The restaurants usually have a prize if Adam can do it -- like adding him to the wall-of-fame.
So, outside of the titles of the shows being similar, I think there is a comparison between Man vs. Wild and Man v Food! It is obscure, but it works. See, both shows feature guys eating. And in each show, eating is the challenge. When I watch Man vs. Wild, I see Bear take the challenge of shoving fish heads, or elephant dung, or some grubs into his mouth. That is a big challenge. When I watch Man v Food, I see Adam take the challenge of eating a 7lbs beef steak, or the hottest curry in Manhattan, or 4lbs of pancakes, or some food that is made with the Ghost Chili Pepper.
Man vs. Wild is OK to watch, but again (I'm sorry Bear), Bear loses to someone else. Adam is really fun to watch. He is a dorky, chubby and hilarious guy who travels around the US and eating some very tasty looking food. Bear gets to do the cool stuff like jumping out of helicopters, seeing beautiful landscapes and hanging out with Will Ferrell. But, come on Bear drinks his own pee and sometimes he drinks elephant pee. Adam? He gets to eat donuts, fat burgers, pizza, and all sorts of yummy stuff. Adam gets to eat stuff that we want to eat. Bear? Not so much.
In the "Man vs" challenge, the winner is Adam Richman!
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