Deadliest Warrior: Season One

Entertaining But Needs Improvement
I enjoy this show, I really do. The direction and production values of this show are five stars. Excellent. The announcer also does a great job. The crew of three who return each week: Desmoulin, Geiger and Dorian do a great job interacting with the historical reenactors. The reenactors that return each week are a lot of fun, week in and week out. So enthusiastic. Excellent casting. However...this show needs to improve in one crucial area: the way it comes up with its final results. These problems are best reflected by briefly examining two controversial episodes, "Ninja vs. Spartan" and "Pirate vs. Knight."

To begin with, I thought both episodes had many good and bad points. I thoroughly enjoyed the run-down of various weapons and how they were used. However, the episodes turn on the outcome of the "state of the art" (does anyone under 40 even use that phrase anymore?) computer program by Geiger and it was clear to me that both outcomes were highly unrealistic...

Entertaining
Okay, true confession. I really like this series. Yeah, I know it's a guy show, and it can be gruesome, so it is kind of a `guilty pleasure' but I really enjoy the combat simulations and who would win if: for example a Spartan were to fight a ninja. I particularly like it when the opponents are evenly matched or I particularly like one of the competitors. The Shaolin have been my favorite so far. The monks were classy, honorable and peaceful and yet also quite deadly.

The basic premise of this show is to compare the chosen weapons of each group, and then compare them to another group of warriors. So you might get the IRA- for instance- vs Al Quaeda or The Mafia vs. The Yakuza. Weapons experts discuss the various weapons used and how much damage they might do in combat. They test this using dummies, blocks of wood, pig carcasses or other targets. The matchups can be a bit odd, sometimes spanning centuries, and so it doesn't always seem entirely fair, but It is interesting...

Great but should've been named something else....
Finally, Deadliest Warrior: Season One is on DVD a year after it began airing. This 3 disk set includes all 9 season one episodes:
"Apache vs. Gladiator"
"Viking vs. Samurai"
"Spartan vs. Ninja"
"Pirate vs. Knight"
"Yakuza vs. Mafia"
"Green Beret vs. Spetsnaz"
"Shaolin Monk vs Maori Warrior"
"William Wallace vs. Shaka Zulu"
"IRA vs Taliban"
But there is one major flaw to the show: it's basically just who has the deadliest weapons. I mean, the losing opponent might be a strategist and a thinker, but this show shows brawl rather than brains.
The first season of DEADLIEST WARRIOR is really good, but after season one the warriors start to get more specific, which is cool too.
All in all, I think it's worth it, but the choice is yours.

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