Despite a new-ish title, the Fox reality series Bear Grylls Is Running Wild isn’t new; it’s been around under various titles on both NBC and Nat Geo since 2014. In its first season on Fox, though, Grylls and company are going on rugged two-day adventures with some pretty big-name celebrities.
Opening Shot: “FOLGEFONNA GLACIER” On a glacier in Norway, we see Matthew McConaughey riding a dogsled.
The Gist: In each episode of Bear Grylls Is Running Wild, the British survivalist meets a celebrity in a remote location and takes them on a rugged two-day adventure, which usually consists of lots of climbing or rappelling, consuming weird food cooked over a fire, and lots of talking about lives and careers.
Grylls flies in on a helicopter and meets Matthew McConaughey on that Norwegian glacier. There’s lots of ice and snow around, but because it’s summer, there’s lots of greenspace for the two of them to hike across. McConaughey has been wanting to do this for over 20 years, as he states more than once, and he’s looking for the natural high that being one with nature can give a person.
One of the other features of the series is that Grylls has the celebrities do things they haven’t done before, but seem to be confident they can accomplish. Despite the fact that McConaughey is athletic, he knows that climbing up a steep rock face or rappelling straight down another are new things for him. But he takes on the challenges with his usual “All right, all right, all right” attitude. Even the reindeer testicles he and Grylls cook at their campsite don’t faze him.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Bear Grylls Is Running Wild is the 9th season of a series that has been previously called Running Wild With Bear Grylls and Running Wild With Bear Grylls: The Challenge. It’s the first season on Fox after runs on NBC and Nat Geo.
Our Take: Anyone who has watched the various incarnations of Running Wild knows that Grylls and the producers don’t throw anything at these celebrities that they can’t handle. Safety is paramount; no one is climbing or rappelling without harnesses and other redundancies that will keep the person from falling, for instance. Any apparatus that Grylls and his guest need are set up ahead of their arrival on site, for the most part.
So there really isn’t any sort of tension surrounding the celebrities’ ability to survive or get out of truly dangerous situations. But the reason why the format has been such a success over the past 12 years is that it shows the various guests in an unusual environment, actually challenging themselves, and opening up to Grylls in ways that can only happen when two people are sitting in front of a fire after hiking, climbing, and doing other things that get them out of their comfort zones.
For instance, during one of the interludes, McConaughey talks about how he got his iconic role in Dazed And Confused, and how the producer that he randomly met that told him to audition for it advised him to wait to get an agent so he doesn’t look like he “needed” it. It’s an anecdote we’re sure he’s talked about before, but in the relaxed environment of the outdoors, with amazing views in the background, the anecdote has a less rote, more sincere tone to it.
It’s that sort of openness people want to see, as well as seeing the usually-coddled celebrities putting themselves out there and taking risks, even if the risks are well-managed by Grylls and the show’s crew.
Performance Worth Watching: McConaughey continues to be one of the least uptight A-listers we’ve ever seen. His story about his buddy Woody Harrelson sleeping between him and his new wife was funny to listen to.
Sex And Skin: When the producers throw the bag with the signal flare into a frigid glacial lake, it’s a perfect chance to watch both Grylls and McConaughey swim out there in their boxer briefs. That’s about as much skin as we’ll see on this show.
Parting Shot: Both Grylls and McConaughey fly out of the glacier, standing on one of the skids of the helicopter they’re on.
Sleeper Star: Other guest stars this season: Tiffany Haddish, MGK, Uma Thurman, Colman Domingo, Michelle Monaghan, Rhys Darby and Elizabeth Banks.
Most Pilot-y Line: There were a couple of shots from McConaughey’s body cam that made it look like he was going to fall from the first rock face he was rappelling down, but he only slipped a little bit.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Bear Grylls Is Running Wild continues the format’s tradition of showing celebrities in a different environment, which helps them open up to Grylls when he interviews them.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.