I watch TV and movies for entertainment – and this is first class entertainment. Is this all real, you say? Bah! Well of course it's all real. Are there things missing that might make it more entertaining? But of course. They could have a Blue Ridge Mountain Pawnshop; or Alleghany Alligator Anglers (this is TV – sharks can fall from the sky – why can't there be Alleghany Alligators?), or how about, 'The Kardashians Styling-up the Catskills'? The possibilities are boundless. I only kid about that stuff above…those may not fly – but I don't know…I may watch any of those. Anyways, this show has a lot to offer dealing with the hardships of mountain living or living off the land. I could do without the staged events. Most episodes carry themselves without any added 'drama' of the self-spun fables. When my B.S. detector goes off – so does the show. I imagine these folks do a lot of paint-watching during bad storms and crappy weather. I can handle that better than dreamt-up filler. This is a fine program about some pretty independent people who are highly skilled at self-preservation. This show is a keeper.

It's funny how they tell us this is about people who live off the grid but none of them actually do. Marty is off grid when on his trap line but his home is quite modern, as are the others. While the voice-over does over dramatize and exaggerate the "danger aspect" for the most part we do see an honest portrayal of how Marty, Tom and the others live. The one exception is Eustace Conway who's story is total fiction. He does not live off the land but off the people who pay good money to visit his land. He in truth raises almost none of his own food. He claims to live on less than $2,000 per year and that selling firewood is his only source of cash income but check out his website, Turtle Island Preserve. You can visit Turtle Island and get a 2 hour buggy ride for $65 or take a half-day course on how to carve a wooden spoon for $95 but to send your kid to camp is $700 for 7 days or $1400 for 14 days. He claims to live like Daniel Boone but did Ol' Dan have his own website? This phony is a great disappointment and promoting such an obvious phony makes one question the whole series. Eustace is like a televangelist begging viewers to contribute when in fact he is in no need of help but is actually rather well to do. Very disappointing indeed.

Great series, but needlessly staged, over dramatized and much too repetitive.Why create such an atmosphere of danger and stress? We know there is a whole camera crew there at all times. We see Tom and his friends go duck hunting, a duck is shot and the camera shows the dead duck. With a camera crew next to the bird, the hunters can't find it? Embarrassing.A grizzly is lurking at night in the yard, Tom fires a shot then goes on his own, armed with a torch to investigate. Come on, we have archive footage of a bear, then a probably armed crew goes filming in the yard.The voice over keeps reminding us that Marty is all on his own, no mention of the cameramen, sound technicians etc. When he breaks down at night "10 miles away from his cabin", are we really to believe that a heartless, sadistic crew would film him unarmed, walking to exhaustion for hours, gasping for water, with bears and wolves marauding? Same when using the plane - will he / won't he make it, shouldn't fly in this weather etc, with his plane being filmed from another aircraft. The loss of his glasses (series 1 -06) to add tension to him being on a very tight schedule ("with no one around for hundreds of miles") was a silly staged situation; search for a couple of minutes, then "oh there they are", camera zooms and miracle! his brown frame, brown oval rimmed spectacles have become white frame white square rim "broken" spectacles! Eustace owes a fair bit of money and claims he is broke. Is he really staring in two TV series pro bono? The chase for the alleged poacher was not credible. Two mountain men moving silently, but accompanied by a full camera crew stomping in the woods. Any poacher would have heard them from miles away.The persistent over dramatization is embarrassing. Will he make in time / will he crash / will the bears or the wolves attack / is he lost in the snow etc etcWhy are we shown the same clips half a dozen times during an episode, going back and forth in time? As for the archive footage of hungry bears and wolves (wolves can weight up to 140 pounds we are told zillions of times), perhaps it made cheap padding, but very boring by the end of the series.Very interesting series, but one gets the feeling that it's produced for an audience of primary school children.

The mountain man of North Carolina show I know from experience is so pumped up for ratings I guess... it's laughable. Killing as was done to an small opossum that was in the hen house was totally uncalled for... I live in the mountains with wildlife not killing them. First secure the hen house so nothing can get in.. it's simple and easy. Preventative can be done by using common sense...lazy and being uneducated bring killing for no good reason. Second an opossum does not go after chickens, only the eggs so the dead animals were killed by something else. This is a show pumped up with drama but not the way life is lived by the ones who love nature and wildlife. What is done for reality shows now a days is just stupid.. all for the drama.