I Shouldn't Be Alive

[Gary7]

Have you heard of "I Shouldn't Be Alive"? It's a documentary television series that I stumbled across on YouTube. It started in 2005 on the Discovery Channel, but was later picked up by Animal Planet in 2010. I was skeptical of it being anything worthwhile but decided to watch an episode to see if it's any good. Well, the episodes are very well done and the stories incredibly gripping. These are all REAL stories of human survival against the odds, re-enacted by actors but with narration and interviews from the actual survivors. It's pretty bone chilling to see what some people have managed to survive, as well as the horrors they had to endure and the tragic loss of friends or acquaintances.

Here are some episodes listed, randomly picked across the seasons, with about the first nine being the ones I found quite riveting so far:

I Shouldn't Be Alive

* Date From Hell A young couple takes a day trip on a mountain that turns out to be much more than they bargained for--a face off with certain death.

* Shark survivors... just barely A crew of five sailing a yacht from Maine to Florida are dumped into shark infested waters and have nothing but a dingy to cling to, destined to become shark food.

* Blood on the Mountain An experienced New Zealand hiker takes a week long trip out in the wilderness and suffers a fall, with crippling injuries and no way to call for help.

* The Perfect Storm An Air Force rescue helicopter gets caught low on fuel and has to ditch into the sea, after trying to rescue a small boat caught in a severe cyclone super storm, right out of what's depicted in the George Clooney movie, "The Perfect Storm".

* Chasm of Death Three friends go on a day hike into a remote Utah canyon, but one wrong turn ends up putting all of their lives in jeopardy.

* Dive of Terror A Navy trained diver gets caught in a rip current that pulls him out to sea in shark infested waters, and after several days off the New Zealand coast without food and water he is certain his life is up.

* Escape from Bear Mountain An older gentleman is piloting a small Cessna plane with his friend, touring the Alaskan wilderness when they're forced to crash land due to a sudden and persistent down draft. They survive the crash with significant injuries, but are far off their flight plan, in a region having a dense wild bear population.

* Costa Rican Vacation Nightmare A couple and several others on a Costa Rican vacation crash land in the rain forest. Several die, with survivors left for dead under a thick canopy of tall trees.

* Left For Dead on Everest Experienced climber heads up Mt. Everest for the 2nd attempt in his life to reach the summit, and he does... for a terrible price.

* Til Death Do Us Part

* Dad's Worst Nightmare

* A Walk Into Hell

* Shattered on Impact

* Christmas Horror

* Volcano Vacation Hell

* Lost in the Jungle

* A Father's Dilemna

* Hell in the Desert

* Fear in Freefall

 

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, I've seen it. Good show with very interesting and often fascinating stories of survival.

 

[Gary7]

I have to imagine that for every one of those insane stories of survival, there are countless hundreds or thousands of scenarios where the people don't make it. It's definitely a series you don't watch if you've got a weak stomach. There are some horribly graphic scenes. In any case, it's an invaluable teaching tool. A great way to show either what not to do (avoiding the predicament), or how to survive the situation if you're ever in a similar fix.

 

[Trekker4747]

I had no idea it was still on and making episodes, actually. I've got a few the episodes on Discovery's DVDs (the "Science of Survival" variety where survival experts detail their ways of surviving in similar situations to the story.)

Set up the DVR, record repeats and now I can enjoy this show again.

 

[Balrog]

Yikes! Some crazy stories there!

The closest I've ever gotten to "I shouldn't be alive" is "They really shouldn't have validated my parking".

 

[Captain Ice]

I'm going to send this on over to the Gen TV & Media forum since it seems like it is more of a fit there than it is in MISC

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

All that stuff makes me feel like never leaving the house.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Hey its on netflix streaming, Ill check it out! Funny how its only S3 and 4..

 

[Candlelight]

A&E's I Survived is better.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Watched the first two from S3:

Trapped in the Canyon was a lot better than The Date from Hell since the former person came off a lot better than the doofuses in the latter ep, who I was rooting for to die, despite the sad fact that they were being interviewed and therefore my wishes were doomed to futility. Funniest part, the ditz who called upon her cheerleader training for survival skills.

Hopefully the producers have done a reasonably good job in the episodes overall of screening out the idiots who got themselves into trouble due to their own stupidity rather than just bad luck. It becomes to obvious in the interviews what the case it, and when theyre idiots, it kind of spoils it for rooting for them to live.