Chris Hemsworth is very personable and watchable. And that's a good thing because a lot of detail is missed in making this high production series photogenic. The experts are wasted, in my view.
Each episode starts with a challenge to illustrate the issue. Such as managing stress, fasting or cold water. That days expert is introduced. A beautiful graphic, in pop-up book style, shows the supposed benefit. Then there is a very superficial "preparation" shown. Chris does the challenge to dramatic music. There may also be vignettes of a tribe or religious monks who practice the discipline but no explanation of whether they will benefit.
So the program cheats the audience twice. The challenge is exactly that. A challenge. For example the stress of the week was to walk along a high crane. So Chris got some coaching from a psychologist. I wanted to hear more from her. The cheat was that this did not address the real killer stress whichever is the long, grinding lifestyle kind. Work mostly. But also family, finance and environment.
The second cheat was the supposed preparation. I believe Chris did the work. But it was not shown. So the cold water swim, another challenge, had a a tiny bit on acclimation. Some surfing in a fjord. There is some evidence of benefits, and it would have been nice to see Chris increasing his exposure gradually. As I'm sure he did.
However, if this gets people interested then it will be a good thing.
