Ed Stafford: First Man Out

I've always been a huge Ed Stafford fan and always considered him the real deal, but why has he sold out to TV drama? The show is so staged it could rival EastEnders for the top drama award. Ed has so many amazing achievements to be proud of but this is one to forget as the plot for each episode is so easy to read. It's strange that every time something is needed it happens to appear right on the route they are taking. For a show that takes place over a few days, the time and effort spent on ridiculous survival methods are pointless.

Please Ed, go back to what you do best and show us the real Ed Stafford on real challenges.

Ed is great, the guest survivalists are great, but boy oh boy does this show push a new low in the survival genre thanks to an overdose artificial drama and unnecessary scripting.

Each episode sees Ed up against a different guest survival expert in a week-long race to a finish line set by a bloke named Woody. Sounds decent enough. Unfortunately what follows is an hour-long avalanche of contrived garbage. Bummer.

On the positive, some appropriate skills for the race at hand do sneak their way in from time to time. Thanks to what can only have been a oversight in editing we are treated to Matt Graham making a really practical improvised water container by splitting, carving, and then sealing some wood to help him across a desert. But as usual the rest of the editing is on point and we are shown no further useful skills. Ahh yes, there is Ed suckling from the teat of a dead marmot he's hollowed out and filled with water. Nice one Ed. I'll keep that one handy in case I ever want to spend a month on my toilet.

With that little ray of positivity aside this really is just an awkward, forced mix of bushcraft/survival and a very tedious race. It fails entirely at being a race because every bloody episode they try to convince us that the week-long ordeal came down to a sprint for the line, and it fails at showcasing survival skills because the skills are either practical and get skimmed over, or are overly elaborate, inappropriate, ill advised or useless.

By far the hardest part of First Man Out to watch is the decision-making from our trusty survivalists. The production folks are obviously in there meddling away to create drama, but it just falls flat and the result is pretty well a manual on what not to do. Terrible decisions of note:

• Running across the desert in the midday sun with no water.
• Getting completely soaked while fully clothed. Repeatedly.
• Descending into a dark, bat-filled cave to find a shortcut.
• Drinking unsterilized water. Also repeatedly.

Of course with each terrible decision we cut over to an equally terrible justification, either from Ed & Co or old mate Woody who definitely isn't getting paid enough for the thought gymnastics he's doing.

If you're into bushcraft give it a miss. If you're into action and adventure races give it a miss. Come to think of it I can't think of anyone who shouldn't give it a miss.

Ed is an amazing host for these kind of survival shows..but this show is so staged that it literally take away any sense of urgency and believability. I've seen sitcom's that felt less scripted, and that's sad because the subject maker is really interesting..but without the "reality" aspect, they're just isn't any substance whatsoever!

And you're to blame, too ! To lower as much those standards you used to hold dear. Killing a goat with a stone in China...at 20 m...LOL. Even the colour of flesh of that supposed fresh killed animal is hilarious and unbelievable stupid to be delivered to us as a real fact. You're shows are now like those sham Geronimo circus in 1890s.

The series is fun. Ed "battles" another survivor expert with a different set of skills and a different personality each time. One of the other reviewers has got it wrong by saying that Ed wins every time - he doesn't.

If you take it with a pinch of salt, have fun watching with someone else and betting who will win, you will enjoy it. If you are unrealistically expecting an unedited life or death survivor experience, of course you will be disappointed.

Having said that, it is always unclear exactly what is going on, how many days the two competitors took to get out, how far each competitor really is from each other and the speed with which they travel as they supposedly race "neck and neck" for the finish line. Some "wins" seem strange - especially episode two when the person way ahead somehow manages to lose. This isn't really explained and as we have no clue as to the real distances and times, we just think, "Huh!"

There are some daft things as others say: both seem to travel for almost two days across a desert without water; I'm not sure that I believed that certain animals were actually caught; someone was sunburnt on day two but not day three; I didn't believe all the supposed crocodiles lurking everywhere and they only seem to sleep two or three times in this "less than a week" they are expected to take to reach the finish.

I guess, if it suffers it is because there are not enough survivor skills/bushcraft shown to be interesting and not enough of real racing to be the focus either.