Hacking the Wild

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 idea of someone using common electronics, like a laptop, phone and even an electronics kit to complement their survival skills, sounded like an interesting idea, especially for kids to educate them about science in a fun and exciting manner.

Unfortunately this show doesn't really achieve that goal. The usefulness of the gadgets he makes are debatable, many are completely useless or at least inferior to a low-tech solution.

If you are looking for a show to illustrate basic science principles to kids in an entertaining manner, I'd look elsewhere, many people on YouTube do a far better job of that.

If you are looking for a new survival show, unless you want to watch someone who appears mostly incompetent at survival, negotiate highly staged obstacles, I'd give this a miss.

In saying that, I found that I had a good laugh, mostly at his ineptitude and the sarcastic remarks made by the real survival experts, who provide him with a little advice at the beginning.

The production values are on par with other survival shows like Dual Survival and Bear Grylls, so for that I give it 3 stars.

The premise is a guy with limited - as it turns out extremely limited - outdoor experience trying to survive for four days in the wilderness. He can bring along a backpack full of whatever he wants as long as it is something no sane person would bring with them on a hike.

If anyone actually wandered off into the wilds with the stuff this guy hauls around in his backpack they would need Search and Rescue before the weekend was out. He carries no useful items. Instead, he tries to Rube Goldberg complicated, prone to failure, and largely ineffectual solutions to basic problems with pre-established simple solutions.

Example. He wants fresh water. Does he bring purification tablets? No. Apparently there was no room left in his backpack after packing much more important outdoor items like an electric drill and a laptop. Does he boil the water? In one episode he boils a tiny amount of water in snail shells. A moment later he crafts an antenna out of aluminum foil making you wonder why he didn't make a bowl out of the foil and boil water in it. Never mind.

The next time he needs fresh water he makes a UV light wand from a pair of LEDs, one at the top, one at the bottom of a stirring stick. He then gently stirs a cup of water for a few moments and drinks it. This is a seriously stupid and dangerous alternative to boiling. UV light can disinfect, if it is of the right wavelength and has sufficient exposure, strength, and duration. This hack didn't meet the exposure criteria, at a minimum, as the water in the center of the glass was never exposed. Not to mention he placed the UV emitters in a glass test tube, blocking UVB. I just hope for his sake the water he drank came from a bottle of Perrier offscreen.

The point is his "hacks" are largely theoretical and not practical in the slightest. Compounding the problems are the obvious presence of a camera man, staged meetups at the conclusion of his hikes, laughable decision making, visible "cheater" devices to make his hacks work, and a generally unlikeable main character.

Between the technical problems and an actor who apparently has never been outside before this is poor viewing. Four stars for a decent idea of a show. No stars for the poor execution. Four stars.

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'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.