was my guilty pleasure.

Watched 5/6 of its episodes (guess they couldn't find that many people crazy enough to do it) and it just had the aftershow.

Comedy gold. Favorite episode was the one in Africa where the guy was so macho "I don't need anyone! I'd be better off on my own!" and after stepping on a thorn on Day 1 and having to be cared for 2 weeks, he was STILL saying that as they hauled his bare ass off to the medical tent to keep his foot from getting gangrene.

Then there was the marine "survival instructor" who, falling back on his training, dug a well on a desert island to the "water table" and made himself sick with sandy salt water. Is this really what they teach at military survival academy?

His partner was my favorite, and made me rethink what it means to be human in a good way. They labelled her a "Surfer" or "nature girl" because even the producers didnt know what to call her. When you were in school learning geometry and history and other things you'll never use in everyday life, her parents were globetrotting from one place to another and she learned to survive EVERYwhere. Every spare moment was spent crafting something useful. She did not stay naked very long - on day 1 she made a loincloth, leaf bra and wove a hat. by the end of the challenge she made flip-flops and a short skirt dress from beach trash.

Seriously, guys, we suck at survival. Half the men were incapacitated, 2 would have been dead if it wasn't for medical intervention. The one girl who got sick in epsiode 1 was just a bit of food poisoning and recovered.

Typical woman on the show packed either flint and steel or a cooking vessel (way to live up to the stereotype women only care about the kitchen, but turns out that stuff matters!) purified water, made clothing, and procured food.

typical man on the show packed a knife, burned too many calories building an elaborate shelter (a man cave?) and 1/3 of them drank contaminated water and got sick because they had no fire or container to boil and purify it. (Or in the case of Puma, all of the above, and was STILL recovering at the time of the aftershow.)

I'd probably have been guilty of this myself because the survival manual I have (civilian version of the SAS Survival Manual) says the most important thing to have is a knife and entire chapters on shelter construction. But really it's the illusion of safety from predators and the illusion of comfort.

It's a wonder we ever survived the Stone Age, with half our species dragging us down in energy-burning but useless activities. Or maybe it's just the American Male who's gotten so dysfunctional.

To bad I can't sit down to watch this with the locals laughing their asses off at the dumb white people sitting around naked for no reason and all the things they're doing wrong. That would be both entertaining and educational.