'Warrior' is not deadly for fighting fans

SEASON PREMIERE "Deadliest Warrior"

WHEN | WHERE Wednesday night at 10 on Spike

REASON TO WATCH George Washington vs. Napoleon! It doesn't get any better than that.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Two "titans of war" face off in the third-season return of Spike's what-if warfest, which has previously pitted yakuza vs. Mafia, Jesse James vs. Al Capone, and Vlad the Impaler vs. Sun Tzu. Admit it. That last one sounds too cool. Who needs to care about war to watch?

There's a lot more to "Deadliest Warrior," including medicine (what weapons do to people's bodies), technology (how fast/accurate/effective those weapons are), logistics, tactics, leadership and ultimately -- of course -- the computer.

Three host-experts introduce concise bios of our combatants with lots of on-screen infographics. They bring in historians, bladesmiths and other specialists to run battlefield recreations, with musket, rifle, sword, saber and long-range cannon. Their judgments of the preliminary rounds' winners are programmed into the show's new "digital combat engine" along with historic facts and figures. That computer's 5,000 simulated battles result Wednesday night in "one of the closest contests in 'Deadliest Warrior' history." And the winner is . . .

MY SAY Lots of fun to find, if you ask me. I'm no military fan -- I've been known to call History "the Hitler Channel," and not in a good way -- but this briskly edited smackdown holds my interest. Especially when the lively hosts are assessing fascinating historic figures rather than generic fighting styles (viking vs. samurai).

The show is, however, squarely aimed at guys who enjoy this sort of thing. So the preliminary dummies being shot at and/or sliced up are filled with red fluid to make the "instant kills" look more bloody. "This guy's just completely obliterated!" is something the hosts squeal in delight at all the gushing "blood," flying "limbs" and exploded "heads."

BOTTOM LINE Simultaneously nerdy and bloodthirsty. Edifying violence.

GRADE B