My 14-year-old son is not only big into history, he's also big into warriors. So watching Spike's Deadliest Warrior has become a family affair in our house. I guess they've been playing a lot of marathons lately, because I'm seeing one ferocious battle after the next, each pitting one fierce historical warrior against another. I am learning so much!

I'd never heard of William Wallace or Shaka Zulu, but last night, I got a primer on both of these tough warriors. William Wallace was a 13th century Scottish Knight who had an epic poem written about him and inspired films like Braveheart. Shaka Zulu was a Zulu king who reigned during the first half of the 19th century and was eventually assassinated by his half-brothers. That's tough!

Deadliest Warrior is beautifully violent and pulls no punches in telling us exactly how to lop someone's head off with a sword or pierce a vital organ with an axe. We get step-by-step instructions on how a Shaolin Monk uses twin hooks or how the Italian Mafia wields a Tommy gun. From brain matter to entrails to gut spillage, it's all there.