Hacking the Wild

No one would get in such situations with all this equipment this guy carries in his backpack with his "everyday electronics". Which seems to always have some hard to explain extras to suit the shows situation. Most would not even have a backpack or items would get lost in most worst cases. I love survival shows but this one is for dreamers not reality and I always end up yelling at the TV about how staged this or that is. There are some good hacks but you will most likely use them in the comfort of your backyard.

I agree with each comment made here. The show is really not to be taken seriously because like one comment here made it seems he has just the right Gadget to complete his journey to survive. Two of his shows if he did not have a tracking GPS on him he would be doomed. Also unlike Survivorman who had a camera that he would set up and properly use for the show when he has completed his task. This show seems the cameras are place everywhere from different angles.So are there cameramen

There?

I'm a big fan of survival shows, but this one is absolutely ridiculous, bordering on the dangerous (for poor information).

First episode he has a few of the usual things you might have on you hiking etc ... but also just happens to have an electric drill, some LED's, a laptop (ok, you might), a soldering iron, an electronic compass module ... seriously??? "Survival tips" include not only making a compass from the module you have (as you're far more likely to have that on you than, say, an actual compass, but you'll learn how to solder the LED's to make it easier to see the rf detector (you've also made) direction indicators.

OK, maybe it was just a bad first episode, so I gave it a second go.

Episode two you'll see how to make, using the motor/servo unit and laser pointer one always has, so that you can make something that can release your rope by pointing the laser pointer at the photo receptor you also had lying around.

At that point I gave up.

You'll learn more about surviving in the wilderness from the average Simpsons episode.

Not a bad show, sure the host may have some quirks that viewers don't like, and the contraptions he builds may be unconventional, but that's what is good about the show. I like seeing him build his gear..it may not be the BEST survival show, but who needs another hum-drum survival show, at least what he builds is interesting and may give viewers ideas of their own..of what 'can' be built from common items.

The show has some interesting ideas, and for the most part employs actual science. However the practicality of a number of the things demonstrated is very low, if not totally pointless.

Additionally, Andy, the survivor / hacker, is a vegetarian. The ability for humans to totally avoid meat is a luxury excess of our modern society - a vast array of fruits and vegetables are available year round even in temperate regions. In many of the areas he visits, the only type of food available for harvest is animal. It's hard to take a _survival_ show seriously when a person would die from not consuming the available food.

A better format for this show would have been some kind of survival tribe type setting, where Andy was with other people that were more of the true survivalists. They would have a village type habitat He could then provide them with tech to make their tasks and lifestyle easier / better / more pleasant. However a problem with this (as illustrated in the few interactions he had with other people on the show) is that there would be a lot of pushback about the ideas simply not being practical or effective enough to bother with in the first place.

Ultimately, the settings are too contrived (he just happened to have peltier devices with him one time...), and the host is too naive and inexperienced in deadly survival settings for us to feel like we should be learning how to survive from him. That's why I feel a different format for the show would be better received.