I Shouldn't Be Alive (2005–2012) User Reviews

Real drama!

[dy158 · 8/10 · 26 June 2006]

I know the moment I saw the title and the series having its trailers on the Discovery Channel here, I so know I have to watch. Being almost at death's door once, I so understand the feeling of almost never making it.

So far actually I had only watched like two episodes so far, but I am trying to watch the other episodes available on the Discovery Channel on the cable here. With drama and real-life accounts of those who were involved, one can be very sure it's definitely not a reality show. A no-holds-barred series.

Definitely a series where the human limit is really tested to the very extremes. Where humans can actually triumphed over adversaries in dire situations.

Interesting, exciting and educating!

[Catharina_Sweden · 9/10 · 25 January 2014]

This is a very good show, or at least as far as I have watched it at the moment: series 1, 2 and 3. The actors are very good - although in most cases one has never heard of them! - and the reenactment of the accidents and ordeals are both very realistic and very dramatic. The fact that one knows that it is real events and not fiction, makes it more interesting and exciting than a work of fiction.

I like it that they do neither blow up heroes or gloat in misery. The real events speak for themselves. Also, you learn a lot from this. I feel that if I would ever find myself in a survival situation, I would be more prepared now. I have also got myself some basic survival gear, that I always carry around with me. This show can save lives!

The only thing I have against it, is that they show glimpses of what is to come in the beginning of the program, and also in between after the commercial breaks. Although the glimpses are very short, they are enough to spoil some of the fun for me - so I try to look away and not to listen then. And also the fact that they tell in the beginning how many days the events took place over. I do not want to know that in advance!

Educational and Inspirational

[ebiros2 · 7/10 · 15 November 2012]

I'm interested in outdoor survival, so I was naturally attracted to the title of this series. I started watching the episodes hoping to learn something from them.

What I took out from this series was the following:

1. When you're lost, keep moving. Although there're no guarantee of survival, all the people who survived in this series kept on moving searching for help.

2. Always carry container to carry water.

3. Have plastic sheets and strings to form a shelter from wind and sun, they can also help to collect water.

4. Carry something to filter water. Having real outdoor water filter would be ideal.

5. Carry GPS, and if possible a satellite phone especially if you're going out to the remote areas of wilderness. Keep them in waterproof plastic bags. Going without it is playing Russian Roulette with fate.

6. Carry means to start fire.

7. Carry 3 days worth of food each day worth about 1800 calories. Each Day only weighs about a pound and a half, so it wouldn't be so heavy.

8. Carry a mosquito net in tropics and insect repellent to cover your body.

9. Of course know where you are starting from. Carry a compass and a map of the area.

10. Carry a basic survival kit and first aid.

11. Optional, carry a tent and sleeping bag.

12 Wear a comfortable shoes. Carry a windbreaker, and a hat even if the day is warm.

I've tallied up all these equipment and I found that I can come up with a pack that weighs well below 10 lbs. That's not much of a burden in contrast to the drastic increase in survival possibility.

So the program was not only interesting, but inspirational, and educational as well.

Highly Recommended.

I Shouldn't Be Alive

[frednorman-13727 · 10/10 · 8 October 2016]

Superb program. As an experience outdoorsman (backpacking, kayaking, back country skiing, travel,to remote areas of Alaska/Yukon, Nevada, Northeen California, I am always aware how fate can quickly turn against you. I've done a couple of stupid things.

This series is so well done, they even find actors that bear a resemblance to the real persons they are personifying. I watch these as reruns all the time.

I have a few recommendations:

1. Take a screen shot of your route from Google Maps and text/email it to several good friends. Give them time/dates when you are expect to return. And tell them you will call/email/text them upon your return. Even it's a simple day hike, message someone with your route and the area you plan to be in.

2. If in a very remote area without cell phone coverage (like most of the Sierra Nevada), carry a sat phone or a less expensive alternative, the DeLorme Satellite Communicator that allows you to send an SOS message ( and text friends with your exact location.)

I hope they continue to make new episodes..

Loved this series

[frednorman-13727 · 10/10 · 1 June 2018]

I loved this series, so sorry they quit making them in 2006. I am an avid outdoorsman and have learned lots from the series, how to avoid getting into trouble.

Fascinating and educational series.

[nigelmacdonald-97173 · 9/10 · 13 November 2020]

Amazing true stories of often simple mistakes that lead to a fight for survival in some of the most perilous places on earth. The situations are really well re-enacted with excellent commentary and interviews with the actual people envolved. Often these stories are quite harrowing and always emotional, as they really do come extremely close to death and in some of the more distressing cases, not everyone makes it out alive. This also works as an educational series on the precautions everyone should take when venturing into any kind of wilderness.

This amazing series need to be on air once again!

[soccerduck · 9/10 · 6 June 2020]

I have to review it as a tv show and its one that kept the whole family on the screen for about an hour and at the same time we all kept talking for the story that was playing,like what we could do in same situation or what anybody should/could do!No matter what the age this is a show for thw whole family and it was far better and more entertaining that many movies aired on tv!We ve seen all 6 seasons and am pretty sure there are so many stories out there to be heared!

Absolutely outstanding show

[jacobtinsdale · 9/10 · 20 June 2015]

While some of the acting is not that great, 'I Shouldn't be Alive' is an amazing show, that tells dramatic and thrilling stories of people that have been in some of the worst imaginable situations.

I have seen some films where people have gone through situations like this (for example, 'Touching the Void' and 'The Beckoning Silence'), but the fact there was a TV show about these sort of things is incredible.

So like I said before, some of the acting is pretty terrible, but aside from that is it really just an amazing show.

9.5 / 10

Great Show! It can be tolling to watch, but very interesting!

[nlytnd_1 · 10/10 · 8 May 2013]

One of my favorite shows. I've probably seen 90% of the episodes. The announcer can be extremely annoying to listen too. The events are dramatic enough without the announcer going over board. If it's 30 degrees outside he will go on about it being sure death and they will likely freeze to death by morning. He gets over dramatic about the heat as well. Meanwhile in a different episode the person will be in -20 degree weather and live through several nights. One thing this show will teach you is; the old cliché' saying if you're ever lost stay where you are rarely applies(95% of the time)and the 5% of the time it does, who's to say you wouldn't have been found or saved yourself otherwise? In the episode Ice Cave Survivor, a father and son get caught in a blizzard at a Ski Resort on their last ski run of the day and lose sense of direction. So they stumble upon an ice cave and stay there for the night. Since the dad was an officer in the Military he stubbornly abides by the stay where you are rule. Completely healthy and uninjured he sits there in the cave with his son for 10 days and both nearly die. The dude could have hiked and skied around the mountain a thousand times. When you watch episodes where people hike 100's of miles on broken legs to get to safety. This dude was about 1-2 miles from safety in any direction and completely healthy. People who watch this show generally whine about how stupid the people are etc., I rarely do, but there's a handful that are mind blowing and this is one of them. Anywho, a very entertaining show!

Fantastic

[Joe-Naz · 9/10 · 19 February 2020]

This series is so well produced. Not overdone, the narrator, the music, the shots, the actors, learning to know the person to whom that happened. It's a breath of fresh air.

AKA Dumb and Dumber

[MovieCriticOnline · 4/10 · 22 May 2019]

This has to be some of the dumbest people, with the exception of a few. It was just ridiculous how stupid these people can be. I mean one dumb decision after the other, and I'm shocked to see most of them survive. Probably some of them shouldn't, because of their absolute insane decisions.

Just incredible to see this amount of stupidity. Sorry to be harsh, but I hate people that make dumb decisions, followed by even more dumb decisions.

Bring this back!

[ravenclaw_girlrules · 10/10 · 29 June 2022]

I changed from watching true crime where people die horribly at the end to watching survival stories and it improved my mood and perspective on life. As someone dealing with on and off depression, these stories are really inspiring. Please bring this back.

Great Great Show!

[salmanhaider · 10/10 · 10 May 2020]

This is an amazing show about survival in the wildernees and some of the most remote places on earth. Part of the series is also on the Wonder YouTube channel these days so you can check it out. The acting is good and the actors match the real people very well. Accounts are told in very good way too and every episode is engaging. You may learn a few things about survival and life as well. This show teaches you that life is never to be taken for granted and one should always live it to the fullest.

Amazing series!

[mlc435 · 9/10 · 19 March 2022]

This series was extremely well produced!

The reenactments of the real life situations faced by the survivors were just incredible. It really felt that you were right there with them as it happened. I wonder how they were able to reproduce the situations as close as possible to the real life events!

Each survivor story is unique in its own right. I love how the stories are interwoven between the narrator's voice over, the survivor's commentary and the re-enactments. Makes for great storytelling.

Most of the survivors stories were very uplifting and heartbreaking at times. How lucky and determined they were to get out of the situations they found themselves in. It also teaches us how humans can come to each other's aid and need each other, in times of peril.

I wish this series was still in production!

stuart diver survival story

[gregwebace · 10/10 · 26 November 2013]

This is one of my favorite shows.

In Australia, we had an epic survival story called "The Stuart Diver survival story" (see Google).

He survived a landslide at the Threadbo ski resort and was trapped underground. It was watched live on national TV and Australian's lived this survival story as it was broadcast live. I would like to see this story on "I Shouldn't Be Alive".

Stuart Diver (born 14 January 1970 in New South Wales, Australia) is a ski instructor and was the sole survivor of the 1997 Thredbo landslide. At 11.35pm, on 30 July 1997, 3500 tonnes of rock and mud, slid down the side of Thredbo taking two ski lodges with it.

The landslide killed 18 people, one of whom was Diver's wife, Sally. After 26 hours in sub-zero temperatures With only a small blanket and Jacket, Diver was finally pulled from the rubble.

After the incident, Diver wrote a biography, Survival, with journalist Simon Bouda, detailing his struggles with the experience of the disaster and the aftermath.

Authentic at its best

[sanelemgaga · 10/10 · 7 January 2020]

This show is splendid. They make it look like it is happening again as everything is in Greater detail. One of the best shows ever produced

Darwin Award

[prudhoeboy · 9/10 · 9 April 2023]

This show re-enacts true survival stories where people get into trouble in the outdoors and must withstand the elements or die. What is really shocking to see is how people who should know better but apparently have no common sense or anything between their ears gets others into trouble with them. In many cases someone venturing out into nature without having properly planned the trip or adventure or given any consideration to what could go wrong. Examples include not taking water, not taking a map, going into areas where cell phones don't work, not taking any signalling device like a mirror or flare in case one gets lost. Not even a compass. What one also realizes that these stories are of those who survived, so eventually we see them get rescued at the end of the ordeal. What we don't see is all the other idiots who did not survive, that doesn't make good television. So I ask, how many people don't survive these ordeals for every person who does? I would guess maybe not very many so the show only tells about the small minority that survived. The show is an education though for all those inclined to do extreme activities or go out in nature. Overall the show is good entertainment for those of us who would rather sit in the livingroom and watch dumb or overconfident risk takers put themselves in mortal peril and expose themselves to the wrath of nature by their own stupidity. For this reason I would recommend watching this series.

I Did Something Incredably Stupid and Lived To Tell the Tale!

[Trilby16 · 10/10 · 8 March 2024]

Season 5 has been made available again, and as it was one of my favorite shows some years back, I'm enjoying it again even though I've seen it. Except this time around I've had the thought that it should be called "I Did Something Incredibly Stupid." Or "I Don't Deserve To Be Alive." Or "Just Kill Me Already."

And what's with the very British narrator? I'm watching an episode about two Americans, stuck in a very American desert after their Jeep turns over on its side, and the narrator intones "It was getting to be almost 30 degrees. And they were kilometers from anywhere." We are Americans. Americans in the show, Americans watching the show. We don't want to hear Celsius and decimalization. How can 30 degrees be hot? You know why Fahrenheit makes more sense than Celsius? In the Fahrenheit scale, the range of 0 to 100 degrees is directly related to the HUMAN experience, not to a test tube on a Bunsen burner. That is the range within which most of us humans go about our daily business. And the old measurements which we Americans have stuck to relate to the human body. A "foot" is called a foot, why? Think about it. Then you have liters. Where does that even come from? Science, probably. I really don't care. Where does the measurement "1 cup" come from? From a cup. In less fancy times, you'd reach for a cup from your cupboard to measure a cup of something. Sugar. Flour.

But some like the precision of liters. Hah! Remember years back when we were getting warnings, hearing rumblings, about the coming change to our measurements? How did that go, eh? The only place it was implemented, and stuck, was in 2 liter soda bottles. Maybe beer, I wouldn't know.

And another thing-- the decimalizers seem proud of how easily these measurements can be divided, like how a kilometer is 1000 meters. So why stop there? How about hours that consist of 100 minutes? A day could be 10 hours followed by a night of 10 hours. So much neater, right? A week could be 10 days, with 10 months in year.

Anyway, back to the show! These poor ******s get themselves stuck, lost, whatever, in a lava field, a dense jungle, the side of a mountain peak-- in a storm! The middle of the ocean without a paddle, a canyon slot, miles from nowhere, have left no map for their loved ones of where they will eventually get lost. And you think, that's it then, they'll never get out of this predicament. There's no way.

But besides the actors in the recreations of these mishaps, the hopelessly-lost actual people are also IN the show, giving away the fact that they will indeed, against all odds, be rescued! Well, the title gives it away as well. But as a viewer you can't help being a bit on the edge of your seat when things look most dire.

But wait! Here come the helicopters (usually)! Or some other "dues ex machina," to save the stranded, lost, out of hope, almost dead people. I'm not giving away any spoilers when I tell you it's almost always helicopters. Or some emergency service. God bless those services! Really! Sometimes the predicaments these folks get themselves into are so painful and seemingly hopeless that I can hardly look, and I play a little game on my phone to distract myself.

Anyway, it a great show. The re-enactments of the dire situations are amazing. Like me, you may also find yourself wondering how they pull that off! And you may (like me) fervently hope that these people, the ones who survived, have learned a lesson from all that!

pales terribly in comparison to 'i survived'

[ricewithaspoon · 5/10 · 17 July 2018]

Sadly the acting is a joke and utterly unnecessary. i found the music and the filling clips annoying to make it to an hour.

"You shouldn't be in my life"

[drystyx · 2/10 · 27 November 2010]

This is supposed to be some news exposes of survival against the elements and the wild.

What we get, though, are narratives that leave one thinking a narrator is pulling on a con job.

We get "morons" who maybe shouldn't be alive, because of their brazen ignorance, but that's a bit harsh. Honestly, though, the show should be called "I Shouldn't be in your life", because these are poor stewards of what they have, and are very destructive. They're the sort of people who dig holes deeper and deeper for their acquaintances, and bury anyone who depends on them. There wouldn't even be a survival story if they weren't punks to begin with.

One case is a jerk who goes to the Amazon, with no preparation, just because he is a rich kid, and he brings his dog with him. "Thanks a lot, pal". He lets two guides he can barely understand take him into a camp of cutthroats. He abandons his guides that night, which may be the only sensible thing he does in this entire mess, and takes his dog down river in a craft, with no idea where he is going.

He wrecks and saves only a few items. Loses his dog, but we know the dog will turn up later. He worries about Malaria, but has not a bit of mosquito repellent or citronella. He complains about hunger, even though he has insects, an Amazon basin which probably has worms in every inch of ground, a river of fish, and plenty of vegetation to at least make soup out of. He does have fire, so this would just be a case of "roughing it" to most people. He nearly dies. When his dog returns to him after a week, he doesn't even go see what his dog has been feeding on, or use the dog's hunting capability. He just tries to be as poor a steward as he can.

All this is his narrative. A viewer gets the feeling that what really happened is SPOILER-his guides and the cutthroats beat him up and ate his dog, and he was too humiliated to tell the truth.

These are people you wouldn't even want to make a single decision for you. Whether they be morons or self destructive punks, the bottom line is that you don't want them around you.

PEOPLE DUMB!

[aquarius-04643 · 2/10 · 23 August 2022]

These people are extremely dense AF! Why TF do you stupid people in the USA do such idiotic $hit? I don't feel sorry for any of you because you all ask for it! Ya maybe stupid people like you shouldn't be alive & leave the rest of the intelligent people on the earth so you're not waisting other people time trying to rescue you & stop waisting our time,space & air ya idiots!