Ed Stafford: Contra Todos

Show is entertaining but completely scripted and choreographed as other have stated. One thing I point to point out. Ed Stafford displays incredibly bad judgement on many of these excursions that nobody without a camera and safety crew nearby would ever undertake. Stafford is no survival expert he; is a risk taker and an actor.

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.

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!

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.

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.