TV is My Teacher

I think I watched too much TV yeterday, but it was all so worth it. I laughed, I yelled, I learned- it was truly a roller coaster of entertainment.

First I caught up on two episodes of Ricky Gervais' Extras. I really enjoyed them, and in my opinion it doesn't get any better than Andy Millman wearing that wig and glasses in When the Whistle Blows. And then there's this:


I'd been hearing about Discovery Channel's Planet Earth for a while, but this is the first time I watched it. Wow. It's so incredible to watch all this awesome and intimate footage of things I never even knew existed. The only catch is the commercials that seem to cut in every three or four minutes. But who knew there were swimming and diving monkeys in Indonesia or that there was a place in India where crocodiles and otters live in the same river, (and groups of otters can even intimidate 12 ft. crocs), and then there's this six-foot-long salamander in Japan:


I was ready to turn the TV off after Planet Earth ended, but then Man Vs. Wild came on and I was hooked. I'd never even heard of this show before, but I'm now a hardcore fan. It's hosted by Bear Grylls an adventurer/survivalist who served on some secret special forces unit in the British Army. In each show, Bear parachutes into a new harsh environment and must find his way out with help only from a few supplies, (in the episode I watched: a cup, a bottle, and piece of flint). Last night he trekked through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, impressing me the whole way. Bear climbed down a cliff without any equipment, built a makeshift raft out of driftwood and grapevines, rafted down a river in said raft, caught a snake and ate it, made tea out of pine needles, built a wooden hut, killed a rabbit with a well-thrown stick, cooked said rabbit over a spit, and tried to tame a wild horse. It was incredible. It all seems so impossible and then Bear just goes ahead and does it. Are you skeptical? Then watch this:


I think I'll hold off on TV today. I'm on a strict diet of NPR and print media...