Deadliest Warrior: Season 2 Review

Hey guys & gals!

We’re almost to the second half of my music festival, but before I continue that, I have two more things to post up. I’ve promised today’s post time after time, and have forgot to post it on numerous occasions. Finally, I thought that today was the perfect opportunity. So without further interruptions, here’s my long awaited review for the second season of Deadliest Warrior. Enjoy!
               
Setup
The premise of Season 2 is basically the same as Season 1: What would happen if Insert Name went up against Insert Name in a battle to the death. There’s testing of weapons, history, banter between the hosts & experts, etc. In the end, it all culminates into a final battle, where you see the two sides fight, with one fighter killing the other, proving why he/she deserves the title of Deadliest Warrior.

Apart from some of the testing (I’ll get to that in a bit), it’s all the same, and I don’t have a problem with that.

Setting
Season 2 takes place with the same studio (Known as “The Fight Club” on the show), as well as the outdoors for some of the more dangerous tests. I should point out that the outdoors areas this time around are different from those in Season 1, but that’s really more to do with when they went for the tests.

Characters
Just like Season 1, the primary cast is exactly the same, and they have the same “role” as before. What is new are the experts for the season: there’s relatives of mobsters, members of African tribes, etc. There’s a lot more personality among this set of people, but at the same time there are many experts that have fueled some nasty controversy (More on this below). Apart from that, there seems to be more of a interaction between the two sides, and thus there’s more reactions.

Content
Okay, so here’s where things get interesting. The format for this show has remained the same since Season 1. The warriors are introduced with their stats, the hosts come out, the experts are introduced, etc. For the most part things stay the same, but there are differences.

For example, the amount of weapons used by each warrior has been reduced. Where as the warriors in Season 1 had anywhere from 4 to 6 weapons, the warriors in this season have only 4 weapons. I find this to be a good change, as it narrows things down, and makes for even testing. There are certain episodes (I can’t remember which ones) where they do talk about other battle tactics, but the bulk of the information they use is the results of the weapon tests. Speaking of tests...

Many of the tests in Season 2 have considerably more depth added to them, making them feel more scientific that the previous season. They take more things into account, and they make most of the tests a little more in depth. For example, in the beginning episode, they did a test to determine which assault rifle lets a group go through a small building quicker. There was a target and a bystander at two points in the building, a rescue dummy in the main room, and a ambush target just outside. They took out the required targets, rescued the dummy, and got out. The difference between the two groups after the testing was only a matter of seconds, but it’s that kind of testing that gives the season more depth.

Sadly however, Season 2 of Deadliest Warrior has some problems. Most of them are the same as those within Season 1, but there are two of them that are especially damning, and the first of them is the infamous “America Always Wins” debacle. Boy oh boy, is this a mess of a story.

Okay, so here’s how this came to be. Supposedly after the airing of Green Berets vs Spetznas during Season 1's original run, vicious and angry letters were sent to Spike TV. The letters pretty much say that Spike was being “Unpatriotic & Un-American”, not to mention that they weren’t showing their support for the troops. Now, I still take this story with a grain of salt, but considering the kind of crazy bullshit that happens in our country, I would be surprised if there were a few grains of truth here & there. This controversy essentially means that any of the fights (Look for *** below) that have American groups in them, have had said groups win the matchup. While this seemed more like a coincidence in Season 2, it had leaked into Season 3, but I’ll get to that in the eventual review.

The next problem with Season 2 is with the experts, and I’m a little more forgiving in this area. Within Season 1, there were a couple experts for certain warriors that didn’t quite have as much knowledge, or they weren’t necessarily who they say they were, and I didn’t heavily mind. Season 1 was a trial season, and I can forgive a mistake or two. In Season 2, I can’t quite forgive this fault as much. Because of their push to trying to be more historically accurate, and having guests & experts that know their area of expertise, it’s really surprising to see more individuals who knew nowhere near as much as the viewers were led on to believe, or who weren’t who they said they were at all (This is especially true for one of the experts in episode 10. You know the one!)! I could forgive this much more in Season 1, but not so much in this one.

There’s definitely more obvious problems this time around, and while some of the small problems can be pushed to the side, the more obvious ones really can’t be avoided.

Length
In a change from Season 1, Season 2 of DW is much longer. 13 episodes, to be exact (Season 1 had only 9 episodes). As for the length of each episode, they run at about 1 hour with commercials (On TV), or 40 to 45 minutes without commercials. The list of episodes are:

1) SWAT vs GSG9 ***
2) Atilla the Hun vs Alexander the Great
3) Jesse James vs Al Capone
4) Aztec Jaguar vs Zande Warrior
5) Nazi Waffen SS vs Vietcong
6) Roman Centurion vs Rajput Warrior
7) Medellin Cartel vs Somali Pirates
8) Persian Immortal vs Celt
9) CIA vs KGB ***
10) Vlad the Impaler vs Sun Tzu
11) French Musketeers vs Ming Warriors
12) Comanche vs Mongol
13) Navy Seals vs Israeli Commandos ***

Availability & Pricing
Unlike Season 1, Season 2 (And subsequently Season 3) was never released on DVD. The only way you can acquire the show is through downloading it (I did this a while back), or through buying it on Amazon. You can buy an individual episode for just 2 dollars, or you can grab the entire season for 24 dollars.

Extras/Other
If Season 2 was put onto DVD, I would assume that it would have the same extras as the Season 1 DVD had.

General Impression & Rating
Despite some of the problems that went on, I sincerely believe that Season 2 of Deadliest Warrior is the best to date. It has enough of the components from Season 1 so older viewers won’t be turned off, but it feels a little fresher, thanks to the updated testing and such. Season 2 also feels a bit more substantial, due to having more episodes, in-depth testing, and the greater interaction between the hosts & experts. Overall, if you have to watch a season of Deadliest Warrior, make it this one!

Deadliest Warrior: Season 2 gets a 8 out of 10

See you all next week, and see you about 2 to 3 months from now when I’ll check out the final season of Deadliest Warrior. Until then, stay Otaku!