This review contains spoilers.
There is one consistent question I have been asking myself since rumors of a standalone Boba Fett series first began circulating in 2020: why? I’ve never grasped exactly how Boba Fett shot to popularity after his brief appearances in the original Star Wars trilogy. Beyond being a mysterious and menacing presence in Empire Strikes Back, what did his arc have to offer the story? His downfall in Return of the Jedi is laughable, accidentally knocked into the sarlacc pit by a blind Han Solo — the Star Wars equivalent of slipping on a banana peel. While Attack of the Clones offers a sufficient enough backstory to the character, I never imagined people would care enough to watch an entire series (or even a film). I was proven wrong however, as I often am by Star Wars fans, when there was a genuine excitement over the character’s return to live action in season two of The Mandalorian and subsequent spin-off, The Book of Boba Fett, announced in December 2020. Shockingly, I found myself actually interested in the character after his appearances in The Mandalorian. Maybe The Book of Boba Fett would finally allow the character to earn the mythological status he was saddled with after four decades. Once again, I was proven wrong.
I promise I’m not trying to be a hater for the sake of being a hater. Yes I did not understand the appeal of Boba Fett as a character. Yes I wanted the show to succeed, if only to spare me the embarrassment that Star Wars tends to cause me these days. People can be complex! And yet, I feel it is my duty to somberly report, The Book of Boba Fett was not good. The pacing, the story, the action, even the performances from Temuera Morrison (Boba Fett) and Ming-Na Wen (Fennec Shand), who I enjoyed in previous Star Wars appearances, all felt mediocre at best. While there were small moments, ideas, or even whole episodes (we’ll get to that later) that I enjoyed, the show as a whole does not work. Puzzling structure and narrative aside, The Book of Boba Fett’s biggest issue is that it is so deeply uninterested in its titular character.
In defense of creator and writer Jon Favreau, we really don’t learn anything about any of the new characters introduced in The Book of Boba Fett. We meet the Mayor of Tatooine’s majordomo (David Pasquesi), a Twi’lek who, relatively speaking, plays a large supporting role in the show. He is shown to be the primary source inhibiting Boba Fett’s progress as the new Daimyo, and later becomes a reluctant ally to Fett. He also doesn’t have a name. He’s one of the most important side characters, and he doesn’t have a name. I believe this fact deserves repetition because it is so bizarre to me. Jennifer Beals plays another Twi’lek, Garsa Fwip, the owner of a cantina called the Sanctuary. She does her best to give Boba useful advice, looks beautiful, and then is killed when the Pykes bomb the Sanctuary. Arc over! Even the Tusken tribe, which Fett becomes a part of, is killed off-screen during one of the show’s excruciatingly long flashbacks in episode 3, I guess to motivate Boba to take Jabba the Hutt’s old throne? So many of the choices in regards to new characters make no sense, led the story nowhere, and left me shrugging when they are never mentioned again.
When Fett employs a group of cyborgs led by Drash (Sophie Thatcher), the opportunity for the old bounty hunter to mentor a group of youths straight out of a Hot Topic ad made me perk up. Instead, we only see them in chase and fight scenes from that point on. The chase and fight scenes aren’t even exciting! The true definition of “go ahead girl, give us nothing.” Danny Trejo plays a rancor trainer for about two minutes and then simply disappears for the rest of the season! Even Fennec Shand is given so little to do throughout the show that I began to wonder why she was there other than to give Boba suggestions that he didn’t take. Like every other character mentioned before her, Shand is a character with loads of potential but no real depth or arc. In an episode detailing how she came to be Boba Fett’s right-hand woman we don’t even get a real motivation for staying with Boba once she fulfills her obligation to him for saving her life. I will say, the moment where she takes out the Pyke leader and other Tatooine crime lords was impressive — I just wish there were more moments like it.
Still, none of this compares to the disinterest the show shows Boba Fett. The lack of a true arc afforded to the character in both the original and prequel trilogy quite frankly should have been a blessing to Jon Favreau as writer. The opportunity to take one of the most enigmatic Star Wars characters of all time and finally give him a story worthy of his mythical reputation presents itself, you can take the character in any direction you want, and you barely even graze the surface of the potential depth that exists. Boba is as stoic as always, but that’s not really the problem. There is an absence of motivation for any of his actions in the present or in the flashbacks we are shown in the first half of the series. I’d go as far as to say that the flashbacks hinder any chance at Boba having a full and interesting story.
I’m not opposed to a split timeline, but the use of flashbacks in The Book of Boba Fett was almost maddening. The past follows Boba’s journey after escaping the sarlacc pit and subsequent meeting of the Tusken Raider tribe he eventually is accepted into, while the present shows Fett as he and Fennec work to fill the power vacuum left in the wake of Jabba the Hutt’s death. The lack of connection between the two narratives makes it feel like watching two different shows at the same time, both of them underdeveloped. The narrative in the present consists mostly of Boba walking around talking to characters with little significance as the “tensions” build with the “Pykes.” These are in quotations because while I know there is supposed to be tension regarding the show’s alleged antagonist the Pykes, that isn’t really reflected on screen. There’s a brief moment early on where I thought maybe the real antagonist was “The Twins,” two cousins of Jabba the Hutt who for some reason exist and want to take the throne until the next episode where they simply change their minds. In the first four episodes, present Boba gets almost zero development as a character — the small glimpses of growth or depth from him seem to be reserved for the flashbacks.
The storyline that follows Boba Fett directly after Return of the Jedi is the richest we see the character in the entire show. In fact, part of me wishes the entire show had focused on these events; letting the show exist as a bridge between his “death” in Return of the Jedi and his comeback in The Mandalorian season two. His struggle for survival in the sarlacc pit, imprisonment by the Tuskens, and subsequent joining of their tribe proved to be at least interesting, only sometimes repetitive. The scene where Boba teaches the Tuskens how to ride the speeders showed a humorous side to the character. It’s here where you can see him begin to change from someone who operated alone to someone who contributes as part of a community. These parts are genuinely fascinating, and probably one of the only things you can see carried through to the present day narrative. However, his character seems to flatline there. As previously mentioned the Tuskens are killed offscreen by the Pykes, and Boba moves on to eventually save and team up with Fennec. The argument that the murder of the Tuskens is what motivates Boba to defend Mos Espa and surrounding areas from the Pykes doesn’t make sense as Boba believes that a different gang was responsible for killing them. It’s also a lazy and overused trope. It’s disappointing to watch the character kind of fall flat after that, simply existing in a world that seems to be barely affected by his presence at all.
And then, Boba Fett disappears from the show completely.
Episode 5 of The Book of Boba Fett doesn’t feature Boba Fett at all. In fact, it doesn’t center around either of the narratives we have been watching at all. And the worst part of it? It’s the best episode in the entire show. It’s been stated plenty at this point, but “Return of the Mandalorian” isn’t an episode of The Book of Boba Fett — it’s an episode of The Mandalorian. After teasing the return of Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) at the end of episode 4, the fifth episode takes a sharp turn, pivoting to focus solely on what Djarin has been up to since we saw him bid farewell to the child Grogu. The episode is great, Bryce Dallas Howard further proving that she is a great Star Wars director. The fight scenes are exciting to watch, with the Mandalorian finally wielding the Darksaber (albeit clumsily). I’m continually impressed by the depth provided to Djarin’s character, one of the shining points of The Mandalorian for me. The other shining point of that show, Amy Sedaris as the wacky mechanic friend to the bounty hunter, also makes a return in the episode. I was over the moon.
“Return of the Mandalorian” is an excellent continuation — of The Mandalorian. When Fennec arrives at the end of the episode to ask Djarin for his help on behalf of Fett, I stopped in my tracks. This was the first mention of the titular character of the show in the entire episode. Well surely we’ll get back on track in the next episode, right? Nope! Instead we continue to focus on the Mandalorian as he tries to reunite with Grogu, but meets resistance in the form of Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and my sworn enemy, CGI Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, I guess).
I know there are plenty of people out there who enjoyed watching CGI Luke train Grogu (with the most unsettling computer generated voice) and speak with Ahsoka. I am not one of those people. First of all, how do those two know each other? Second, this is another episode where the main character of the show is pushed aside in favor of pandering to fans with cameo after cameo. In two of the seven episodes of The Book of Boba Fett, Boba Fett doesn’t say a single word. He appears on screen for less than a minute, silently looking around the room while Fennec and the Mandalorian make a defense plan for the territory that Boba Fett is in charge of. The show’s finale, while finally returning to the storyline and main character that had been abandoned, still failed as an episode about Boba Fett. The big emotional beats were primarily given to the reunion between Djarin and Grogu. Fett using the stick given to him by the Tuskens to kill Cad Bane lacked the punch it could have had, sort of providing him with a full circle moment that mainly resulted in me saying, “Sure that works.” Introducing Cad Bane as some sort of final boss in the final moments of the penultimate episode just to have him be pretty easily defeated felt utterly pointless. An earlier introduction, more time dedicated to interactions between him and Boba, could have provided the show with an antagonist that posed a real threat, and opened the door to explore Boba’s past while allowing him to grow and change from the solitary bounty hunter to a real leader. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
It feels as though the creators behind the show got bored halfway through telling a story about Boba Fett. If that’s the case, if the show needed these two episodes to keep audiences tuned in and excited, it begs the question; why did we need this show? Boba Fett himself should have been enough to keep people tuning in without resorting to an onslaught of cameos of characters that don’t really have a place in this particular story. The screen time dedicated to the Mandalorian, or Grogu, or Luke, or Ahsoka, could have been used to actually develop the new characters the show introduced, or diving deeper into a character that has been lacking depth for the last forty years.
At the end of the day, the show represented everything that has bothered me about Star Wars for the last five years or so; it’s a whole lot of wasted opportunity. It refused to take risks, falling back into the safety net of fan favorite cameos and pandering to people who don’t seem to want Star Wars to change. Could the series have worked as a more condensed standalone film? Or with the omission of The Mandalorian season 2.5? We’ll never know. It seems that Star Wars never learns. And if the series is an indicator of the future of Star Wars television, I have a bad feeling about it.
