“The Book of Boba Fett,” the latest Disney+ “Star Wars” series, it follows Boba Fett, played by Temuera Morrison, after his appearance in the earlier Disney+ show “The Mandalorian.” Fans of Star Wars will recognize the character from the movies as the silent Bounty Hunter who stood in the background and looked intimidating.
Following the surprise popularity of season 1 of “The Mandalorian,” Disney was quick to create as many spinoffs as they could. One such spinoff was to bring back the fan-favorite character Boba Fett, who seemingly died in 1983’s “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.” In that movie, Boba was working for the space crime slug Jabba the Hutt. Boba Fett made his first appearance during the finale for the second season of “The Mandalorian.” Now Boba has his own show in which he tries to stop the drug trade on the sand planet of Tatooine.
Right off the bat, the show is painfully dull and boring. There’s not much distinct visual style or flair, action scenes are poorly shot and edited and the pacing is very janky. The present storyline involves Boba Fett trying to rule over Jabba the Hutt’s former territory and stopping the drug trade of a rival crime organization called “The Pyke Syndicate.”
The previous storyline is intercut with the present and shows how Boba survived his brush with death in the belly of a sarlacc during “Return of the Jedi.” Boba bonds with a tribe of Tusken Raiders and learns their ways. When the tribe is murdered by the Pyke Syndicate, Boba starts a quest to save the people of Tatooine. The cutting between the past and present makes the pacing strange, as episodes will seemingly decide which storyline to focus on at random.
The biggest problem with “The Book of Boba Fett” is the main character himself. Boba is not a compelling main character. He is rather passive, as most of the time he just stands around as the plot happens. It is rather comical how there are several scenes where Boba is trying to negotiate and be a good leader yet gives in to all his opponents’ demands. The show treats it as Boba being reserved and reasonable, but it just makes him look weak when he’s supposed to be a “badass” character.
His characterization also doesn’t make sense when considering the appearances in other “Star Wars” movies. In the original trilogy, Boba was a cold and dangerous bounty hunter who only cared about money. Yet, in the new show, he’s a man of the people. It’s great to have characters go through arcs and redeem themselves, but “The Book of Boba Fett” barely even shows that transition as he’s basically a good guy from the first episode.
By episode 5, the show finally gets good. The only problem is that the show stops being about Boba Fett. Episodes 5 and 6 are entirely about characters from “The Mandalorian” and feature what has to be less than 30 seconds of Boba himself. Two episodes out of this seven-episode show were hijacked by a different show, and yet they somehow are the best episodes of “The Book of Boba Fett.”
These two episodes actually follow interesting characters and have emotional weight. Yet, at the same time, it’s unfair to fans of “The Mandalorian” that a lot of essential plot details happen in a show which they might not care about. It’s also unfair to people genuinely interested in Boba Fett that halfway through the show, it becomes about Baby Yoda.
By the end, we are left wondering what the point of all this was. Boba stayed a static character throughout without seemingly growing that much. The show itself was so uninterested in Boba Fett’s story that it gave up halfway through. The finale had a cool fight scene or two, but overall was underwhelming.
“The Book of Boba Fett” perfectly represents what “Star Wars” really is at this point: mediocre content that shoves in nostalgic characters as often as possible.
