Man, Woman, Wild (Discovery Channel)

In MAN, WOMAN, WILD, married couple Myke and Ruth Hawke are dropped into extreme environments all over the world and, with cameras rolling, must claw their way back to civilization. While Ruth is a former news anchor and field journalist with little survival experience, Myke is a military-trained survival expert who plans to teach her everything he knows. That includes the best ways to build a suitable shelter, hunt down dinner, and find the best route out of danger, among other things.

It's hard to look at Man, Woman, Wild without comparing it to other shows like it -- and, at least in the case of Man vs. Wild, it doesn't quite measure up. Yes, Man, Woman, Wild tries to do something different by injecting a married-couple dynamic into the whole here's-what-you-do-so-you-don't-die formula. But it also makes Myke's wife, Ruth (an accomplished and intelligent woman who provides most of the show's researchy tidbits about the various locations they're living in) look like a crying, screaming ... well, girl.

At least, that's how a reflective Myke describes it at the end of one episode, when they're finally floating away from danger on a makeshift raft through the Amazon rainforest. "Despite all her girliness -- which I love," he stresses to the camera, "when it came right down to it, she was tough as woodpecker lips. And that made me love her just that much more." He meant it as a compliment, and it's actually a powerful turning point between a husband and wife who clearly have a newfound respect for each another. But equating Ruth's "girliness" with weakness kind of ruins the moment.