Deadliest Warrior

 Review

Common Sense Media says

Educational, but bloodier than other ancient-warrior shows.
greenON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
yellowPAUSE: Know your child; some content
may not be right for some kids.
redOFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
not for kidsNOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age.

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Quality
 
Sometimes media can be age appropriate but a real waste of time. Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

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Parents say

Kids say

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that this series about historical tough guys -- which combines history, science, and combat -- is gorier than its History Channel cousins. Modern experts evaluate specialized weapons and fighting techniques by attacking targets and lifelike human dummies. Some of the tests can be somewhat gruesome; fake heads are smashed in, and blood oozes (or gushes) from some pretty nasty looking injuries. Many staged battles show combatants in action, and these simulated fights to the death can be pretty intense.

  • The show's overall point is to scientifically and objectively evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of some of history's toughest fighters. It's not out to send messages, per se, but younger viewers certainly could come away feeling that violence has been glorified.
  • The combatants do their job well, and there's a good-natured rivalry between them. Still, they're there to fight, and that's about it.
  • Plenty of action. The show painstakingly evaluates various weapons by testing them on targets and lifelike human dummies. Skulls are smashed, and blood oozes from some pretty nasty gashes. The climax of each episode is a staged fight to the death between the two contenders.
  • Not applicable.

What's the story?

Who's tougher, an Apache warrior or a Roman gladiator? Since they lived in different centuries and on separate continents, it's hard to say for sure, but it's a great topic for late-night bull sessions, on par with Godzilla vs. King Kong, or plain M&Ms vs. peanut. DEADLIEST WARRIOR can't settle the issue when it comes to the best chocolate treat, but it's developed an interesting format for comparing ancient fighters. Martial artists and highly trained weapons experts are invited into a special lab to test the weapons and fighting techniques of each hypothetical combatant. The data is fed into a computer simulation that determines who would prevail, and the results are shown in simulated -- and sometimes graphic -- staged fights to the death.


Is it any good?

 

The show has an interesting premise, and the science is both rigorous and entertaining. The series calls in some of the world's top experts in very specialized fighting techniques, and the damage they're able to dish out on dummies is intimidating -- shock and awe, with daggers, bows, and swords.

It can also get a bit gory. Yes, they're only models, but watching a battle axe smash a faux skull to bits -- complete with gooey bits of brain-like matter splattering across the room -- can be a bit unsettling. It's not the realistic "torture porn" of some contemporary horror films, but these images are still quite graphic. The series, which airs on the frat-dude demographic network Spike, is definitely aimed at an older audience than similarly themed shows on the more kid-friendly History Channel. Still, it's a competent blend of education and action and a decent way to settle a late-night bet about history's toughest fighters.


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What families can talk about

  • Families can talk about how this show compares to other historical series. Do you think it's educational?

  • Are the fights too graphic, or is it realistic? What's the impact of seeing violent images on TV?

  • Which
    fighter do you think would prevail? Do you think the tests are a good
    way to evaluate fighting skills?


This review was written by Will Wade
Teen, 14 years old
January 6, 2011
 
This show is awesome!!!

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Teen, 15 years old
November 13, 2009
 
Too bloody for kids.
This is a cool show, but it's bloody.

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Adult
April 17, 2009
 
You Cannot Save Us...Only We Can Do That
To blogging Dads and Moms, get real! Stop trying to protect us by using words like "gory" to describe the show. It's way LESS gory than five minutes on HALO or GT4. Does it make us into murderers? I went online and looked up the stuff about kids and violence. Turns out, colleges have studied it, and even young kids know the diff between reality and this kind of TV. NO backwash. If anything, DEADLIEST does the opposite. I am from a trailer park like all my friends. We were all going to enlust in the Army after high school. After we saw what these poor homies go thru, no way, the Army can stick the katana where the sun doesn't shine!

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Parent of 9, 9, and 11 year old
September 8, 2010
 
What messages do you really want your children to learn
Its one of those shows your kids love to watch but you hesitate to allow. It's extremly violent, bloody and gory. It sends the mixed message to kids about violence. The people get excited about having a head blown off with brain matter thrown across your screen. The more blown up the better. It's like a reward for having the most damage done. I guess there could be some healthy competition in there but I feel why expose the children to this kind of violence if you don't have too. I don't want them to think it's cool to blow up humans no matter what the situation is. There are better messages about life I want the kids to learn than this.

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Teen, 17 years old
May 4, 2010
 
Educational but Violent and Sends Mixed Messages
Deadliest Warrior is probably the best show on Spike right now. It's extraordinarily entertaining and also rather educational (although some of the educational parts are things that you might not want your kids to know e.g. the amount of force it takes to crush a human windpipe or how long it would take to bleed out if you were shot in the side of the face). However, it is extremely violent, bloody, and gory. Bloody slashes, puncture wounds, and the occasional popping head all factor into this. The gore isn't much to worry about, it looks very unrealistic, rather like video game violence, with one exception. Occasionally they use pig corpses as targets, needless to say, these bleed real blood, and some weapons turn them into gore volcanos. Also, the hits on ballistics gel heads can look rather intense, but these are obviously not real people. The language isn't too bad, occasional hell, d*mn, and b*tch unbleeped and very occasional f**k and s**t bleeped. Messages are very mixed throughout. The good parts would be a healthy sense of competition that usually radiates from the experts (not always, but we'll get to that soon). The bad messages would be the fact that sometimes the announcer and the experts seem to glorify brutal murder. There is a disclaimer for this at the beginning of the show, but its not up long enough to read it. The other part is that not all of the experts show a healthy sense of competition. The one pair that really seemed to hate each other were the Spetznaz and the Green Beret. These two were trained to kill one another and there seemed to be true ire and bitterness between them. Overall, however, this show is fantastic. I recommend that everyone watch it. It's gory, its violent, and I absolutely love it.

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Adult
November 13, 2011
 
it's good

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Parent
June 8, 2011
 
11 years+
Bloody but scientific and good show for when your bored.

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Kid, 11 years old
December 10, 2010
 
A good show for older kids
The testing parts of the show are violent, with dead pig carcasses and gel/styrafoam fake blood-filled figures being decimated, and the simulations are even more graphic, with people being shot point-blank in the head and being burnt to a crisp with a flamethrower, overall, this is a very mature show.

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Parent of 14 year old
August 4, 2010
 
Great for kids that love action! :)
Love it! I like how some of the shows just keep you on the edge of your seat! I like to record them and watch them over and over again.(Navy seal vs. Israeli commando.)

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Adult
June 15, 2010
 
Perfect for teens and older
The greatest show I've ever seen. Educational and its perfect for anyone mature enough to see violence. I highly recommend watching this awesome show!

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This review was written by Will Wade
TV rating:TV-14
Network:Spike
Cast:Armand Dorian, David Wenham, Geoff Desmoulin
Genre:Reality TV

This review was written by Will Wade
 

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About our rating system
ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.
OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
Learning ratings
BEST: Really engaging, great learning approach.
GOOD: Pretty engaging, good learning approach.
FAIR: Somewhat engaging, OK learning approach.
NOT FOR LEARNING: Not recommended for learning.

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