This often messy, sometimes great series has intriguing ideas for Boba's character, but ultimately only scratches the surface. So what went wrong? WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Note: this article is all my personal opinion, and I don't want to claim otherwise. If you are one of those lucky viewers who really enjoyed this show, I'm happy that you did! This is just a warning that I'm generally negative about it, but the last thing I want to do is rain on anyone's parade.
'STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND' AND 'TRIBES OF TATOOINE'
I have to be honest: I wasn't all that excited for this series. The very secretive trailers hadn't wowed me with great visuals, or a premise which grabbed my attention, and after two seasons of Star Wars television overloaded with cameos (The Mandalorian season 2 and The Bad Batch are the culprits here), I wasn't very optimistic. But it's safe to say, at the start, I was very pleasantly surprised.
The thing I look out for most in storytelling is what should arguably be the heart of every story: character development. In that respect, I think The Book of Boba Fett starts off very strong. We could have had a series premiere of a ruthless bounty hunter doing ruthless things, but instead we watch Boba get robbed by Jawas, dragged through the desert, beaten by Tusken Raider children (as well as some mysterious assassins) and eventually embroiled in a fight against a desert monster. Why?
Jon Favreau and Robert Rodriguez do not worship the idea of Boba Fett most people have in their heads; he is treated as a realistic human being at a low point in his life. And I loved it. In this first episode, we see how a near-death experience humbles him, violence fails him, but saving a life and gaining respect is what earns him freedom. This lays the groundwork for Boba's mentality in the present day. Flashbacks dominate this episode, with only a tease of a present day story; however, that tease is very effective. I enjoyed Boba and Fennec Shand's dynamic (Fennec's disappointment when Boba doesn't let her kill the majordomo is definitely a highlight of the series), and the promise of discovering the identity of the crimson assassins hooked me.
My newfound enthusiasm only increased with The Tribes of Tatooine. I admired Rodriguez's work on the premiere, but found Steph Green's direction to be a marked improvement. The main action set piece was thrilling (who doesn't love a good train fight scene? In STAR WARS?), the exploration of Tusken Raider culture was nuanced and fascinating, and the final few minutes are a truly special example of powerful visual storytelling. On top of that, a present day confrontation scene thick with tension and the live action debut of comic book character Black Krrsantan was thrown in. What wasn't to love?
Everything from the Pykes' speeder train being stopped to the end of the episode is pure gold. The sequence with the tree in particular is visually inventive, masterfully edited, and contains subtle visual metaphors about Boba's mentality. It is implied that he feels trapped in the bounty hunting life that he inherited from Jango Fett, and has to break free by forging a new identity for himself - which is symbolised when the branch he breaks to escape the tree becomes a gaffi stick. We then get a sequence where Tusken Raiders slowly put clothes on Boba, then guide him in slowly making a special stick weapon, and everything about it was gripping for me. Joseph Shirley's hauntingly beautiful track - 'The Ultimate Boon' - helps a lot! Steph Green uses every aspect of the onscreen medium to her advantage; this is storytelling at its very, very best.
'STREETS OF MOS ESPA' AND 'THE GATHERING STORM'
At this point, unfortunately, I felt The Book of Boba Fett began to go downhill. In The Streets of Mos Espa the Tusken Raider tribe which we had only just gotten to know is killed off, all for a cheap and arguably unnecessary revenge motivation for Boba; the present day conflict with the Hutt twins, which had only just been established in the previous episode, is ended and swapped for conflict with the Pyke syndicate; we are subjected to a strangely prolonged chase sequence packed full of every chase scene trope in the book, only for the outcome to not be hugely significant. The production design for Mos Espa was as great as ever, but it was here I really started to notice how flat and often dull the lighting was. The show I had fallen in love with a week prior was starting to lose me.
The Gathering Storm was an improvement - we got some interesting campfire discussions with Fennec Shand, as we see how Boba met and rescued her, and finally some solid and promising direction and momentum for the present day story. I was disappointed that the flashbacks came to an end - I had hoped that there might be a story behind how Boba came to know Cobb Vanth's name, or why he happened to be standing around as Din Djarin left with his armour in The Mandalorian season 2, because it's really a plot hole otherwise. I enjoyed Kevin Tancharoen's direction, but had come to feel more indifferent towards the series in general. At least the main story was finally getting going.
'RETURN OF THE MANDALORIAN' (AND FRIENDS)
And at this point, we switched to something completely different.
Yes, unless you hid under a rock to avoid all the debate around these two episodes, you're probably tired of endlessly hearing this complaint - perhaps even making it yourself. But I have to talk about it, because it still baffles me.
Boba Fett has under a minute of screen time and zero lines of dialogue in two 50-minute episodes of The Book of Boba Fett. He and Fennec Shand are sidelined, in their own show, to make room for a different story which is shoehorned in for the sake of connectivity. Episode 5 is yet another fantastic episode from Bryce Dallas Howard, and Dave Filoni made hundreds of thousands of fans happy with his portrayal of Luke's Jedi Academy; it is hard for me to make peace with episodes which contain great stuff but are so fundamentally terrible at the same time.
We spend an episode following Din Djarin after he is forced to leave the cult that raised him, building a cool new ride for himself and finally agreeing to do a favour for Boba and Fennec. At this point I thought we could return to following Boba Fett, but the next episode mostly takes place in a different setting with unrelated characters, much like the last - except now it feels disjointed and tonally inconsistent as well. Jon Favreau attempted to make room for two stories in a clumsy, unnatural way which only damaged both. I wanted to enjoy seeing Luke and Ahsoka interact on screen for the first time, but it only felt cheap, unearned and confusing. Why was it here? Who thought this was a good idea?
People have argued that The Book of Boba Fett was technically always meant to be "the next chapter" of The Mandalorian, to quote Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy at the 2020 Disney Investor's Day. It's also been argued that since Star Wars is so much about connectivity and fan service, this should be expected. None of this invalidates the fact that not only did the title and marketing promise us a Boba-focused story about a gang war on Tatooine, but that's actually what we got for the first four episodes - before the series switched priorities. It is without a doubt the worst structure for a TV season I have ever seen.
THE GRAND FINALE
Hot on the heels of being such a complete downer about the previous two episodes, I have to say: I really enjoyed the finale. It may have been almost non-stop action, but it touched on Boba's character development once again, featured an unlikely and chaotic team-up (a trope I am a complete sucker for) and I had a blast watching it.
With intimidating forces and a new battle droid design (taken from some Attack of the Clones concept art, which is a nice touch), I found myself somewhat invested as the Pykes as villains for the first time. The threat they posed to Tatooine had been set up as far back as episode 2, but I previously hadn't been interested in keeping them as the main antagonists. I think Jon Favreau knew that disinterest might be a problem too, since he had them blow up not one but two of the series' very few interesting new characters - Boba's black-clothed Tusken mentor, and Garsa Fwip - just so we could dislike them. It felt incredibly cheap, and in the end pure spectacle was all it took for me to enjoy the Pykes as the bad guys.
A crucial element I haven't touched on yet was the live action debut of fan favourite Clone Wars character, Cad Bane. I thought his animatronic face was done very well, I'm glad they kept Corey Burton as his voice actor, and I really liked his death scene. Cad tells Boba that his father's blood is in his veins, and he will never escape the life of a selfish bounty hunter that was laid out for him - returning to that line of thought that was so promisingly established in The Tribes of Tatooine. It's also fitting that Cad Bane was one of the people who helped get Boba into the bounty hunter business in the first place. Boba then overpowers him, and symbolically kills his old mentor with his Tusken gaffi stick. It's a perfect resolution to his character arc - but in my view, that arc only has a beginning and an end, with so many gaps in between.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The premise of Boba Fett wanting to break free of the unfulfilling life he fell into by reinventing himself and becoming an honourable leader, with new skills and principles taught to him by Tusken Raiders, is great. The premise of including Cad Bane, who has such an important connection to Boba's past self, is great. These two ideas needed to meet in the middle. I wanted to see Boba face more obvious challenges to his new principles. I wanted the Tusken Raiders to live, so that they could aid him in the finale, perhaps bringing about a new age of peaceful co-existence between Sand People and off-world settlers. I wanted Cad Bane's importance to be set up early in the series, with flashbacks or otherwise, so he doesn't feel shoved in at the last minute.
The Book of Boba Fett has the spark of a bold and brilliant character-driven story, but it never fully ignites. It also takes a detour to give us essential Mandalorian season 3 content which simply should have been saved for The Mandalorian season 3. Ultimately, I think it's messy, confusing and lacking in focus - but I'll always treasure the wonderful things it still brought us.
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