JESUS: REFUGEE, RENEGADE, REDEEMER WITH BEAR GRYLLS: Episode 1.1

Here's the good news up front: this one's a treat. British adventurer and survival expert Bear Grylls drops into the Holy Land — literally, by parachute — to get to know, as he puts it, "Jesus, the real guy." What follows is an engaging, gorgeously shot romp across the Negev Desert to Bethlehem, where the King was born.

The worldview is warmly, unmistakably Christian. Grylls is plainly fascinated by Jesus, and his enthusiasm is contagious. A couple of his throwaway lines about not being "religious in the traditional sense" are vague, but nothing here works against the faith — it works for it.

Content is remarkably clean: no foul language, no sex, no nudity. The only cautions are a death-defying stunt and light references to Herod the Great's Slaughter of the Innocents, which is why we'd keep the very youngest viewers close. For everyone else, this is easy to recommend: stream it.

Bear Grylls jumps from an airplane into the Negev Desert with a single goal: to walk the land as Jesus walked it, and to meet the man behind the Gospel story.

Across blistering sands, he meets a shepherd who calls the harsh landscape home — much as those first invited to Christ's birth once did. He learns that even the desert's plants can kill an unwary traveler. And he presses on toward Bethlehem, where a modern-day stable waits to show him just how rugged and unexpected the birthplace of a long-awaited king really was.

Four stars, and they're earned. The cinematography is breathtaking — sweeping shots of the Negev Desert and modern Bethlehem make the on-location shooting genuinely captivating. This is a well-produced hour with good pacing, writing, and editing.

Grylls himself carries it. Think of him as a modern-day Steve Irwin: he uses his survival skills to keep you enthralled while explaining the dangers of the desert, the surprising shape of the Jesus narrative, and the history and geography surrounding Christ's birth — all while jumping out of a plane, trekking the sands, and taking in the sights and smells of a Bethlehem stable firsthand.

His monologuing reflections do grow a bit repetitive at times. But as a portrait of surviving the Holy Land to glimpse the real Jesus of Nazareth, the result is impactful.

This episode has a strong Christian, biblical worldview, and it wears it gladly. Grylls speaks of his desire to visit Israel and see what walking the land as Jesus did would have been like. He cites Time Magazine's judgment that Jesus is "the most influential man who ever lived," then adds his own conviction: "there is something so intriguing about [Jesus]." He marvels that "this guy effectively changed the world forever" despite his humble beginnings.

There are a few vague notes. When Grylls says, "I'm not very religious in the traditional sense," the line could mean any number of things. But it never pulls against the show's clear center of gravity. By the end, it's obvious the host is as fascinated by the story of Jesus as he is by the adventure of retracing His steps two thousand years later.

That fascination is worth honoring. A famous adventurer, known for surviving the world's harshest places, drawn again and again to a baby in a Bethlehem stable — the show quietly captures how the smallest beginnings hold the greatest weight. Scripture said as much of that very town: "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel" (Micah 5:2).

This is exactly the kind of adventure worth gathering the family around: gorgeous, thrilling, and unashamed of the Gospel. Bear Grylls jumps out of a plane and walks the desert, but the real destination is a baby in a Bethlehem stable — and he lets you feel why that matters. Mind the very young ones during the references to Herod's violence, then enjoy it together. It's worth watching.