TV Review: The Book of Boba Fett – Season 1

The Book of Boba Fett

Creator: Jon Favreau

Starring: Temuera Morrison, Ming-Na Wen, Pedro Pascal

Rating: TV-14

Runtime: 7 Episodes

The Book of Boba Fett spins out of one of my favorite ongoing television shows, The Mandalorian. That show was a lesson to us all; never lose faith in Star Wars — Disney can course correct! After all, it came around right when people needed help getting over the collective disappointment of The Rise of Skywalker. The Book of Boba Fett, however, elects to teach a different lesson: “We’re going to be making so much Star Wars and some of it is going to be bad because you’ll watch regardless.” Which, as is true of most tough pills, was not easy to swallow.

In the interest of being fair and judging the show as objectively as I’m capable of, I gave it a rewatch once all the episodes were out. I hoped it would assist me in connecting some dots in my brain that I couldn’t without seeing the entire picture. Unfortunately, it seems The Book of Boba Fett is just boring for many reasons, the most glaring of which is a lack of any sense of identity. It is said that your story is only as good as your main character, and this show features a main character so boring that he’s practically booted off it halfway through the season.

Boba Fett in The Book of Boba Fett is perhaps the most perplexing thing about the show. His characterization is close to nonexistent, and there is no arc to follow. The show spends four episodes exploring Fett’s new role as crime lord of Mos Espa, often interrupting with flashbacks with the intent to provide context for Boba’s new passion for being a crime lord. The problem is that the flashbacks are not only the most boring scenes in the show, they also ultimately provide very thin motivation for Boba Fett. His connection to the Tusken Raiders feels superficial, and their demise seems to weigh very little on him despite the show’s attempts to convince us that they were close and that he learned so much from his time with them. The only lesson Boba seemed to learn from them was “working as a team is good”, which is not enough, frankly.

I’m hesitant to blame the dullness of Boba Fett on Temuera Morrison’s acting, as I know he’s a fan favorite for many and wouldn’t want to question his ability when I’m so unfamiliar with his other work, but he doesn’t do much with the character here. I think this is likely due to how thin of a script he was working with, and perhaps a sign of poor direction as well, but it does not speak well to the show’s quality that not even the lead delivers a memorable performance.

The uninspiring characterization doesn’t just hurt the character of Boba Fett– it hurts every character who is supposed to bounce off of him. I’m mostly referring to Ming-Na Wen’s character; Fennec Shand. She was introduced back in the first season of The Mandalorian, and I’ve been nothing but thrilled at her inclusion in this franchise. However, she is asked to perform the impossible task of pulling something interesting out of a character who we are told nothing about. This is a character who is expected to play off of our titular character and form some sort of dynamic that the audience finds compelling. Unfortunately, this is nearly impossible when the titular character has nothing going on himself and drags down the other characters who share the screen with him. In fact, episode four is specifically meant to establish the origin of the duo’s relationship, and ideally should display the early hints of that fun dynamic they’ll surely develop over time. Unfortunately, it does neither. The audience learns nothing more than they already knew, which leads to another dull episode, in a series of dull episodes.

After that, something happens. The Book of Boba Fett becomes a different show with episode 5; literally. The fifth episode “Return of the Mandalorian” is exactly what the title promises. It features zero percent Boba Fett, and one hundred percent Din Djarin— and right away it is so much better. The shift from a protagonist with zero motivation or personality to one who does is instantly noticeable. The action has weight and is well shot, Din has an ever-evolving internal conflict, and his story isn’t restricted to the boring desert that Boba’s is. The quality of the show flips so quickly, and it never goes back to the way it was. It stops being about Boba Fett specifically at this point, and it benefits the quality tremendously.

There has been much chatter online about the CGI used to recreate Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker in episode six. There are a few different reasons; for instance, there’s a grander ethical point to be made about how Disney now has the power to reanimate corpses for our entertainment, endlessly. To their credit, Mark Hamill seems to be completely on board for this use of his likeness (he’s also very much still alive), so they are technically in the clear on that. It’s more about the future implications by way of getting a glimpse of what is potentially the beginning of something scarier. I do wonder how long before this kind of thing becomes very not cool. I’m guessing that time will come very soon.

That’s my cynical take, but I tend to prefer my initial reaction to Luke’s role in the show, which was more along the lines of “This show rules”. From an entertainment standpoint it is amazing the level of pinpoint detail these artists were able to achieve. It does not look like a computer program chatting lifelessly with a mute puppet on a soundstage — it looks like a real man talking to a little green alien and teaching it actual magic. It also looks exactly like what my teenage-self used to imagine all those old Timothy Zahn novels would look like on the screen. As a fan, it made for a special episode of television, and I don’t want to downplay that side of it.

So, the last three episodes are very strong. Yes, it’s just a literal copy and paste from another show, but it’s my job to review The Book of Boba Fett, which just so happens to have three Mandalorian episodes stapled onto the back half of the season – so it gets credit for them.

There is so much more to discuss and criticize and praise (I haven’t even touched on the Millennial Power Ranger Biker Gang), but it’s just too odd of a show to boil down to it’s essential elements. After all, I’m not entirely sure even the creators knew what those elements would be before starting production, so why should I be expected to now?

I wish I came out of this admitting I was wrong about the first four episodes feeling directionless and boring, but I know I’m not. The final stretch of episodes are undeniably exciting, but the lack of any sort of emotional thread to connect these two stories make the show (and viewer) feel dissonant rather than satisfying. I can’t deny that I had fun with The Book of Boba Fett, especially towards the end, but I feel we should expect better than a show comprised almost entirely of the leftover scraps from the Mandalorian’s production.