It’s certainly not the Mandalorian (except for two episodes when it’s completely the Mandalorian), but it’s definitely a big-budget ‘Star War’ that both delights and frustrates fans. Spoilers ahead!
I went in expecting big things for a number of reasons. Jon Favreau, the mind behind Iron Man and The Mandalorian, created this show – and after two amazing seasons of Mando, it makes sense to put your trust in him for this similar project. We also had Robert Rodriguez involved, the director behind the Mandalorian episode that initially featured Boba’s return. Add to that the idea of a show revolving around such an iconic character, played by Temeura Morrison with the fan-favourite Ming-Na Wen at his side. This show had a lot going for it.
Sadly, this show had a few missteps that lingered from episode to episode. The budget definitely allowed enough eye candy to help us gloss over some of these problems, and the final three episodes were undeniably a blast – but it’s the story itself that just didn’t rise to the levels of what had come before.
Boba Fett is legendary for Star Wars fans. With only a handful of minutes of screen time and even less lines of dialogue, his commanding silent presence has ignited the imagination of millions. In fact, a big part of the mythos of The Mandalorian comes from him. Mando starts off as a quiet bounty hunter who never takes off his helmet. That’s Boba. And maybe that’s what made making The Book of Boba Fett such a problem. Mando’s stolen Boba’s shtick, so now Boba has to reinvent himself. That in and of itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just that the route they took to get there felt a little meandering – and uncharacteristic.
The show doesn’t waste much time in showing us what we all came to see – Boba Fett emerging from the Sarlacc, as everyone has dreamed he would for decades. It does this via flashback, which makes sense given that we already knew the show was going to be set in the same time as The Mandalorian. At least one flashback was inevitable. But to have flashbacks take up so much space – and at times it felt like it was the majority of space – in the first four episodes felt off. It felt like the plot we all came to see (Boba being the new crime lord of Tatooine) kept getting sidelined by his season with the Tuskens.
To be clear, I loved the Tuskens. In fact, I think we needed more of them. Ever since 1977, our vision of the Tusken Raiders has become more and clear. They were initially depicted as savages, but they’re starting to bear more in common with First Nations people. While everyone else on Tatooine is a guest, they’re the ones who have been around since the beginning. But because of their aversion to the technologies used by most everyone else in the galaxy, they’ve been pushed to the sideline. The way their narrative has shifted to become more sympathetic initially made me think that this show was going to be about Boba helping them reclaim their power or homeland. Instead, the Tuskens taught Boba how to use a gaffi stick, and then they all died. And because they all died, they’re really nothing more than a side quest for Boba. I don’t really understand what they taught him. There’s a line or two about how Boba’s learned to trust in a tribe, but Boba’s climactic moment isn’t him being saved by friends. It’s him riding into town on a rancor – not exactly a picture of teamwork, if you ask me.
The fact that modern-day Boba kept getting interrupted by Tusken-era Boba was a big frustrating, for sure. And I didn’t love how the Tusken arc didn’t really lead to much. But my main complaint with this show is that Boba’s characterization never really makes much sense. Sure, we never knew much about Boba to begin with – he’s always been a mysterious figure. Yes, his back story was fleshed out in the prequels and then a bit more in the Clone Wars animated series. But a lot of fans have never seen the animated stuff – myself included at the time of this review. The general consensus is that Boba is a total boss and one of the ultimate bounty hunters in the galaxy. So to make him a guy who seems committed to doing the right thing regardless of the cost just doesn’t line up with what we know about him. I’m not saying you can’t turn him into that guy – but I don’t think we were given a compelling enough reason for him to make that change. Killing the Tuskens off may have earned a story about revenge, but why would it convince Boba to get everyone to band together? If anything, the death of the Tuskens would be proof that their sort of unity doesn’t work. It just didn’t feel like a believable interpretation of the character.
I’m still glad we got this show – particularly the Mandalorian-centric episodes. Boba riding a rancor was cool, no way around it. But I do wonder if Boba’s arc could’ve been a side story arc within The Mandalorian Season 3 instead of turning this show into essentially a Mandalorian Season 2.5.
One more thing - Luke Skywalker was drop-dead amazing here. Not only did they leap forward in terms of the movie magic required to make his face look lifelike, but we got to spend more time with the original Jedi. Wow. What a time to be alive.