The Book Of Boba Fett introduces us to the man behind the mask
The galaxy’s most notorious bounty hunter decides it’s time to get another job
TV Reviews Boba Fett
The helmet so cool that over the course of forty years it has metastasized into one of the most ubiquitous avatars of the Star Wars universe, been the subject of comic and novel spin-offs, was incorporated into an instrumental part of Star Wars prequel plot, became an entire legion, nay an entire civilization, nay an entire planet, set the foundation for the events of one show and received a slight visual and thematic palette swap to star in another, has now, finally earned a series of its own.
But what about the person wearing that helmet? Boba Fett has never been entirely a person as much as a reliable, inexorable opponent. Like Judge Dredd or V from V For Vendetta, the facade is the character, and whatever is going on underneath the mask is irrelevant. The Book Of Boba Fett is banking on fans being invested in the rich inner life of a character previously known only for intense childhood trauma and lots of wrist-based weapons. And if some of the behaviors Boba Fett displays seem slightly incongruous to the ice cold hunter famously introduced with an admonishment to ease up on disintegrating people from the galaxy’s biggest murderer, they’re likely necessary tweaks in order to make the character a palatable protagonist.
“Stranger In A Strange Land” opens immediately following the coda from The Mandalorian where Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) walk into Jabba’s palace and casually murder former majordomo Bib Fortuna in order to take over the Outer Rim’s criminal enterprise. Fett’s later proclamation that he intended to rule by respect instead of fear must apparently have begun immediately following that act.
Fett has taken over the palace and keeps a bacta tank in his chambers where he sleeps, wracked by dreams of his past. He dreams of Kamino, the planet where his father Jango brokered a trade for his genetic code in exchange for a son, and Geonosis where he witnessed his father decapitated. But more importantly, for people who are bothered by such things not being made explicit, we get to witness how the famed bounty hunter escaped his ignoble fate of being swallowed by a big desert mouth.
The thing about the Sarlacc pit is it really plays into the fairy tale dimension of the Star Wars universe. A giant toothy maw in the middle of nowhere where you are eaten over the course of a thousand years doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t have to. It’s a weird, menacing idea and makes for a great set piece to frame some high adventure swashbuckling. As such, it feels as if escaping the thing should either be equally weird, or not depicted at all, and become another legend spoken in hushed tones about the indestructible Boba Fett. Here, it’s just a guy punching his way out of a meat cave. Like Gale and Evelle Snoats in Raising Arizona, Fett emerges, reborn, onto the surface.
The remaining flashbacks revolve around the tribe of Tusken Raiders that captured him.When we first met Fett in The Mandalorian, he was carrying the gaffi stick, their signature weapon. It’s likely that his time in their village is building towards him being accepted and learning their ways. The creature he and the youngling battle at the end is pure Ray Harryhausen; a spiritual successor to Clash Of The Titans’ Kraken.
Outside the flashbacks, Fett spends his time shoring up his burgeoning empire. The sole holdout is the mysterious mayor of Mos Espa. Whoever they are, they’re powerful enough to not fear an upstart laying claim to Jabba’s empire. Which, given his entourage consists of one lieutenant and a droid, seems like a safe hedge. Fett lets the emissary leave with his life, despite Fennec’s protestations. This Fett is no cold-blooded murderer, despite all his previous murders. We don’t know how long he was trapped inside the Sarlacc, but apparently it gave him some time to reflect.
The featured fight scene with the club-wielding assassins had a great setup, but the action was simply serviceable, and never quite found a rhythm, though we do get a delightful moment of Fett blowing up an escaping assassin with a wrist rocket, and Fennec participating in a very satisfying parkour chase across the Mos Espa rooftops. Notably, Fett must be returned to his bacta pod immediately in the wake of the battle. While it’s not made explicit, it appears that the damage he suffered from being in the Sarlacc has considerably weakened him.
So far, the biggest question is why Boba Fett even wants to be crime lord of the outer rim. So far, he’s always seemed content, inasmuch as he’s had any characterization at all, to be a gun for hire. It’s hard to imagine he wouldn’t want to get as far away from the planet he was eaten on as possible. Hopefully, the show will explore his reasoning.
Otherwise, this is an even safer outing for a Star Wars Disney+ show than The Mandalorian, filled exclusively with familiar locations, familiar aliens, and familiar themes. The Mandalorian, at least before season two became a series of cameos and backdoor pilots, took its serial-numbers-filed-off Boba Fett and put him in new locations with new characters. Not so here. The lesson, it seems from the flop sweat stained, falling down the stairs with a stack of pies mess of Rise Of Skywalker is not to offer up anything new, but to at least present the old in a fun, competent fashion.
And so far, that’s exactly what Book Of Boba Fett offers; solidly delivered and totally unambitious storytelling. And if that’s what you want from Star Wars—an experience that evokes the trilogy’s movie serial roots with gee-whiz action and adventure without being weighed down by any headier notions—this delivers admirably. And yet I can’t help but hope that this isn’t the new standard for all Star Wars entertainment going forward. But, like some whiney farm kid always looking to the horizon, I should be in the present. This was a solid first episode, and I’m curious to see where it’s headed.
Stray observations
- Hi! I’m Nick and I’ll be reviewing The Book Of Boba Fett. My qualifications are talking about Star Wars to the point of annoyance to anyone near me for the last 40 years.
- Unknown to me, it was America’s British sweetheart Matt Berry voicing the droid 8D8 in the palace. Though, in fairness, it was pretty much undetectable underneath all those layers of distortion. 8D8 was last seen torturing droids in the dungeons of Jabba’s palace. Let’s all congratulate them on their promotion.
- “Have your helmet cleaned and serviced” is my new favorite euphemism.
- It’s good to see that Max Rebo not only survived the explosion aboard Jabba’s barge, but was able to continue finding work afterwards. The Latin spin on the cantina song was a lovely little number.
- Ludwig Göransson’s score in general is very good.
- The Trandoshan delegate brings Fett a whole Wookie pelt as tribute. This is a callback to Fett’s original armor, which was adorned with epaulet-like braids said to be made of Wookie hair.
- Being strangled to death by a captive’s chains is an alarmingly common way to die on Tatooine.
- The Tusken Raiders are so frequently featured, I’m grateful for some of the design tweaks they applied to the tribe to keep them feeling at least a little fresh. The different textiles and color scheme displayed by the clan were super-cool.
374 Comments
Props for having a trans Tw’Lik in the bar, even if it was a brief shot.
Must have missed that.
The visual presentation of this episode was stunning, which made even more sense when I saw that it was directed by Rodriguez in the end credits. It also partially explained why the fight scenes in general didn’t have that flow as while Rodriguez is an incredible director, that kind of action has never been his strong suit.Still a really strong pilot episode for me. I think it leaning so much on the Western tone really helps as Fett here reall feels like a character from that kind of a movie, which helps rolling with some of the asks the show is making.
As a kind of a sidenote, I am curious if and how the show is going to introduce Omega at some point. It pretty much has to, right?
Assuming they’re planning for a S2, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Omega crop up as the last shot of the season or something as a cliffhanger for next time.
No. Because that other show hasn’t finished yet.
True and it is causing me hesitation on the matter. Yet at the same time, Boba and Omega are so fundamentally linked by their origin that it would feel weird to introduce her in to the universe and not have her appear on a Boba Fett show.
He’s also linked to millions of other clones. So what? There’s no reason whatsoever to have her on the show, she doesn’t belong in that universe and has no personal connection to Fett. It would be yet in a very long line of “small universe” gimmicks SW has done from almost the beginning. (Which means, yeah, it’ll probably happen at some point.)
But that’s not true? The whole point of the Bad Batch is how unique Omega is as a clone as she is the only one like Boba.
Also I don’t quite knwo what your objection here is as it can either be that she has her own story that hasn’t finished or she doesn’t matter at all from Boba’s point of view. It can’t really be both as either she matters or she doesn’t.
I mean, okay, but so what? Yes, it can be both. She has her own story. Boba has his. They have absolutely zip to do with one another. She matters in the context of her story, which is hers. Boba has nothing to do with her and vice versa. Their common origin matters nothing from a narrative point of view. It’s not like either character is pining for that “missing piece”, a person who totally “gets” them.
Oh, it was definitely helped by the stunt double, but from what I’ve seen Ming-Na does still have that level of mobility to help pulling stuff like that off.
I think he meet old bearded Rex first. Temuera looks older than Bobba Fett supposed to be. Just add some white facial hair and you can have a grumpy, dying Clone Trooper (they age faster).
The fights were totally screwed by COVID protocol. Remember this was filmed before vaccines were available to the general public. Notice there were a lot of masks in use in the episode. It picked up when Fennic fought the 2 people in the end.
To be honest, while I think it is a component, I don’t think that was the big reason. It doesn’t seem like Temuera Morrison has that mobility anymore, which is understandable as he is 61 years old, which made the choreography really awkward any time his face needed to be on screen.
While Fett is supposedly only in his forties at this point.
The sarrlacc is going to be the excuse as to how he looks older than he should be I guess.
Which is fine.
Hopefully the weak-ish action was Rodriguez and not the fact that it is two people around 60 years old performing the action. I thought the Parkour scene was the most fluid, but that was probably a stunt double and not Ming-Na Wen.
Yeah, Ming-Na blew out her knee at the end of season 4 of AoS. She was still rehabbing it at the beginning of season 5 when the show (hilariously, to me, because it was a brilliant solution to the problem) jammed a piece of rebar through Agent May’s thigh in the first episode to give Ming-Na an excuse to limp around in the first few episodes. I can attest to the fact that when you have knee surgery in your middle age that your parkour days are generally over.
It’s funny, as soon as I saw Rodriguez was the director I immediately understood why the coverage of the fight scenes looked like a rehearsal. The guy shoots everything like it’s a 3 camera sitcom, but with one camera, with complete disregard to making anything look convincing.
I still think they should have cast the young Boba from the prequels. Morrison is a great actor, but the character should be in his early forties at most.
I made the comment that it’s too bad they’re just getting around to this stuff now that all the actors are (understandably) older and fatter than when in their prime.
but even then you couldn’t touch each other. just a lot of poking with long sticks.
I actually recognized Matt Berry’s voice instantly but convinced myself it couldn’t be him only to be stoked to see his name at the end. Hopefully he gets a real Star Wars role eventually but I’ll take a golden-voiced droid for now.Loved the new Tusken designs, although does that mean every Raider we’ve seen so far before this has been part of the same tribe or something?Ludwig outdid himself on the score. This guy’s been a real find for the franchise.
The letter grade says, “This is good,” and the recap says, “Hope you enjoy being spoon-fed recycled pap.” And they can both be right. I’m sure fans will love this. And if, like me, you thought that The Mandalorian was aggressively mediocre in almost every way, this is sure to be another forgettable meal from the The Cheesecake Factory of pop cultural entertainment.
The Mandalorian was aggressively mediocre
lmao this is unfathomable
The first season was very, very good. S2 was a series of backdoor pilots for the Disney Content Factory that forgot to tell a compelling story beyond remember this???
The first season was merely okay, but you’re spot on with Season 2.
The Ahsoka Tano episode was really the only episode that felt like a backdoor pilot to me, and honestly that was one of my favorite episodes of the series. Though I think the greater point – that Mandalorian S2 became, to its detriment, more Star Wars-franchise based instead of dedicated to telling its own story – is absolutely true, even though I largely still enjoyed S2 overall.
Au contraire: S1 was filled with as many hits as duds while S2 tightened the narrative and had some very engaging moments.
I am sure you very sincerely can’t fathom this notion. This unfortunately is probably why these shows aren’t very good. They don’t need to be. They are hitting the mark they are aiming at very well.
The Mandalorian is objectively the highest production quality and writing quality Star Wars property that has been put to film so far since 1977. If you don’t like it you just don’t like the whole thing. Which is cool, but that’s a personal issue, not Mando.
The Mandalorian is objectively the highest production quality and writing quality Star Wars property that has been put to film so far since 1977. Implying not even Empire Strikes Back could stand up to A New Hope is…a bold strategy. Let’s see how it pays off, Cotton.
You misunderstand, I meant New Hope as well. Saying “since 1977″ was meant to invoke the entire franchise, not place New Hope outside the statement.
Ah, my mistake. I thought you were only slightly out of your gourd.
No I’m fully out of my gourd, but that’s a different matter.
No, it’s really, really not.
No, it’s really, really notReally? I’m not “in” the SW fandom per say, but I read their spaces, memes, subreddits, etc. The general consensus is that Rogue One and The Mandalorian are the highest quality entries to the franchise. The OT has the power of origination and nostalgia, but anything 45 years old is… 45 years old. It has hokey production and choreography. When you set them aside to their special place as the OT, tell me Laurence Q what the community thinks is better than Mando?
Who the fuck cares what “the community” thinks? I certainly don’t and I hope you don’t, either. That’s not even what you said. You said, “objectively Mando is the best.” Which is, of course, your opinion. I’m not quibbly with your phrasing your opinion as objective fact because, hey, it’s the internet, I’m sure I’ve done that, too.But you said “Mando is best since 1977.” Which is dumb, absurd and wrong. I think you clarified to say you meant the entire OT, not sure. But just because a movie is 45 years old doesn’t mean it’s not great or that other, subsequent productions are better simply because they’re “new.”While I’m not a huge fan of the show, as many SW fans are, even based on my limited knowledge, I’d easily put “The Clone Wars” as being a much more thoughtful, sophisticated piece of storytelling than “Mando” is by a country mile.To say nothing of Rogue One and the Last Jedi, which are both excellent. “Mando” is a safe, unambitious bit of professional fan fic. Entertaining, mostly, but forgettable and safe and lacking in imagination and vision. That’s just an objective fact.
that’s fandom, lol
So, something being “objectively” the best now means that most of the people on the specific online community you read think it is the best. OK, but then I want a new word for what “objectively” used to mean.
I actually think this could be true. It’s just not saying a whole hell of a lot. The production quality of The Mandolorian is indeed top notch. You can practically smell the money that was spent on it. I have zero criticisms of the production quality. If high production quality alone makes a show worth watching, then Mando is one of the most watchable things every put to screen.The writing of Mando is…inoffensive. Star Wars has never really been distinguished by great writing. It has sort of varied between serviceable and execrable over the years. If I understand what you’re saying below, you think The Mandalorian has the best writing of any Star Wars property, including the original movies. This seems very far from “objectively” true to me. The original movies do have some classic lines, whereas Mando does not have any classic anything. But still…low bar.I like the original movies very much, and for a very good reason: they were original. The Mandalorian is extremely unoriginal, which means it needs something more than good looks to make it really compelling as a standalone entity.But look, I used the word mediocre deliberately. The show was neither terribly good nor terribly bad. Just terribly disappointing.
At its best, SW movies actually have great and memorable dialogue. While ANH contains some clunkers, it also has wit to spare and dozens of lines that have become pop cultural staples. ESB has crackling dialogue basically throughout. The whole, “SW movies are badly written” nonsense has been wildly overstated from the get-go. As I said, the films are not without some bad lines here and there, but that’s more than made up for by the lines that are good.The Mandalorian has some of the flattest, dullest dialogue I can remember. It honestly feels like a first draft most of the time, like Favreau wanted to just get down the story beats, only he forgot to circle back and punch up the dialogue with anything remotely resembling wit, humor or human dimension. The fact that the production quality is so high while the writing remains so unbelievably bland is a huge let down. It costs nothing to change the words, Jon. Do better, please!
The Blandalorian
Let’s be honest, Star Wars has never been good from a writing or directing or acting sense. It’s a phenomena sprung from a huge box office hit over 40 years ago. The original trilogy also had the benefit of actors coming out the late 70s scene that at least tried to inject a more immediate emotion into their scenes. Aside, from Hamill. I mean, he tried, but good lord was he was awful. As to Mando being the best writing? Yeah, I’d say that it was better than any other SW property for most of its run. Hell, side characters were better developed than most main characters in the movies. That’s a low bar, but I feel it was crossed.
Y’all know writing means more than just dialogue, right?
I don’t think you know what “objectively” means.In fact, I’d think even most Star Wars fans (and I am one) would agree with your assessment. You implicitly rank the original film (the one that came out in 1977) over The Empire Strikes Back. That’s a perfectly valid opinion, but it’s probably a minority opinion, and certainly not an “objective” one.
I love that you think you are some kind of “evolved” Star Wars connoisseur. LMFAO at the sheer levels of annoyance you must cause your friends and loved ones.
Yes, you’ve nailed it. I live in a world in which all of my friends and loved ones are both devoted fans of all the various Star Wars properties and also enraged by people who have different opinions than they do. I’ve actually been estranged from my parents ever since Solo came out. Also, it is a true thing that I consider myself a connoisseur of Star Wars. Your LYFAO cuts me to the very quick, dear sir.
There’s always one
Idk, I felt similarly and I’ve loved Star Wars my whole life. Perhaps it speaks to me personally that I preferred season 2 (Ahsoka Tano played by the hottest actress alive Rosario Dawson… okay!).
But tell me, without Baby Yoda, how many people would have cared about The Mandalorian? Aggressively mediocre / borderline boring does seem apt.
I enjoyed most of the Mandalorian. This first episode of Book of Boba Fett was not entertaining. At all. We may watch episode 2 just in case.
Smear some pap on a cracker!
Sounds a bit rude, doesn’t it?!
We should probably be friends. Mando is a mediocre story that was supposed to expand the universe beyond the Skywalker friends and family, and instead was just a vehicle for fan service. Why explore new planets when you can hit up Tatooine several times? Why create new creatures when you can have Kowakian monkey-lizards (Salacious B Crumb species), sand people, Jawas, and Krayt Dragons?
The show dies in season 3 without Baby Yoda. The show is okay, but it’s not the eff you to JJ Abrams that sequel trilogy haters think it is.
It works, though. I haven’t really watched it but I know about the show mainly through the online world and I know that whenever something from a pre-existing movie or cartoon shows up, there’s links and stories about it everywhere. I rarely hear anything about it when they do an episode that has nothing to do with previous Star Wars IP. If people want more original Star Wars content, don’t lose your crap everytime someone like Mon Calamari shows up for a brief cameo.
We can all agree on one thing: there aren’t nearly enough Star Wars stories about Tattooine. Also, based on the recap, the mayor of Most Eisley is going to be Darth Maul, right? There’s no way it’s going to be a new character, Obi Wan is getting his own series, and I feel like Darth Maul is the default answer when they need a character to fill in a plot point.
Also, based on the recap, the mayor of Most Eisley is going to be Darth Maul, right?But of course! And because of COVID, they’ll need to recycle footage to complete the episode.“I’m sorry, Mr. Mayor—the Jedi Party is here to split the vote.”
Maul is dead at this point, otherwise you’d be spot on.
But what about clone Maul or his twin brother Dumptruck?
Spoiler: they’re on deck for episode 3 and then they’re own follow-up series next year!
Pretty sure he was alive and kicking (well maybe not kicking) in the post credits tease after ‘Solo.’
Solo is set like 15-20 years before this. Maul is killed by Kenobi sometime between the end of the Clone Wars and a New Hope. This is set a few years after ROTJ.
Maul is ‘killed’ by Obi Wan at the end of The Phantom Menace back when Anakin Skywalker is still a little kid. The Clone Wars had yet to happen. Solo is set during the height of The Empire, long after the Clone Wars and at a guess maybe 10 years before A New Hope. The whole point of that ‘Solo’ scene was the Big Reveal (to non-cartoon watchers at least) that Maul had survived
I was referring to Maul having survived (albeit ridiculously) being bifurcated in Phantom Menace but is certainly dead (again) by the time of the Book of Boba Fett.
How certain is certainly? There has been no in-universe reference to his 2nd death whatsoever, only to that of his survival and new-found position as a intergalactic crime boss. It seems pretty weird to go to that effort and then mysteriously kill him off again with no explanation or reference especially when they are making a series specifically based on an intergalactic crime boss.
Well I guess IP and nostalgia rule all so I guess they could reverse his clear death in Rebels. They’ve stated multiple times Rebels and Clone Wars are canon. He was a crime boss 15-20 years and is killed 5-10 years a 2nd time by Kenobi before the events of this series. He was being set up as a heavy in the canceled Solo series. It would make more sense for him to be in the upcoming Kenobi series as it seems set in that Rebels timeline. I mean eventually they will have to stop reversing deaths or their audience might finally get bored or get whiplash for the last second turns on what is and isn’t canon as it suits their last minute “needs”.
You know this series takes place decades later, right?
You do know that Sith Lords have life-spans longer than that of a hamster? BOBF is set just a few years after ROTJ so if Han Solo is at best the age of a youthful detective going undercover in an Amish community or maybe an adventurous, grail seeking archaeologist then Darth Maul is likely to have no more than a touch of grey around the horns.
Seriously though, Disney not only brought him back for a classic Marvel style teaser, they also established that he went on to immerse himself in the whole organised crime game – the subject matter of the very show we are discussing. At no point have Disney ever said – “no wait, he actually died ‘again’ on his way back to his home planet” so it’s pretty good odds that he will crop up as an antagonist for Boba Bacala
hate to break it to you, but Maul is canonically long dead at this point. It’s perfectly fine if you’re not up on all the goings-on in the animated series, but you seem extremely adamant about this point, so it does seem funny you haven’t at least heard that Maul died.
I’m not sure how how you can be confident that any death of Maul is “canonical.” Like, is his death in Clone Wars somehow more irreversible than his death in Phantom Menace, when we saw him get cut in half?
Sure…..
He died again in Rebels, not Clone Wars. I guess that death isn’t any more irreversible, but possibly resurrecting him yet again seems even more ludicrous than bringing him back the first time.
Thanks for the correction.To your broader point, bear in mind that the audience for Rebels was a lot smaller than the audience for the movies, and less valuable to Disney than the audience for the streaming shows (especially now that streaming supremacy is so important). The expected audience for Rebels viewers was also different than the adult audience Disney is seeking for its streaming shows. Regardless of what Disney says about canon, in practice that probably means the studio feels less locked-in to the events in Rebels. If Disney was truly convinced that Maul’s return would be a great storyline for Book of Boba Fett, I’m skeptical that it would hesitate to tell that story because it would conflict with a show that the vast majority of Boba Fett viewers have never seen. Maul’s return won’t seem “ludicrous” to these viewers, at least not any more than his return from the dead seemed ludicrous to Rebels viewers. As far as most viewers know, Maul just came back once.
I get what you’re saying re: the audience, but from the way The Mandalorian is treating Clone Wars and Rebels content it seems like they are making an effort to maintain continuity with those animated shows. Disney Plus is also making a concerted push to new animated content like Bad Batch and the last season of Clone Wars, so I think they are actually trying harder than ever to be respectful of this stuff- which makes sense since Filoni is part of the team behind this new live action stuff. Not to mention that Ashoka in particular seems to be pivoting heavily on stuff from Rebels, so while they may bring Maul back again, I doubt it will be via a retcon. So if he returns, ludicrous speed it is!
1000% this. “The Mandalorian” is somewhat good at its best moments, deeply forgettable at its worst. And yet it remains, as the article alluded to, completely and safe and utterly unambitious.
I liked The Mandalorian well enough, and I’d be a little more charitable and say it’s slightly above average, but it’s pretty overrated. I got Disney+ about a year ago and expected to be blown away by season 1 after everything I heard about it, but it was more, “eh, this is enjoyable enough to watch at 2:00 am while I’m dealing with a newborn who won’t sleep.” My theory is that:1) The first season 1 came out a few weeks before The Rise of Skywalker and looked like The Wire in comparison to that flaming turd. So, people primed for a big Star Wars experience glommed onto The Mandalorian instead of the movie.2) Baby Yoda is some Don Draper-level marketing genius. I bet season 3 will be less well-received as it will be more distanced from the sequels, and presumably, it won’t have Baby Yoda.
I’m putting all of my chips on #2. Whoever came up with Baby Yoda deserves some sort of brand extension Nobel Prize. But just wait to see how much you love the adorable antics of Baby Chewie in season 3! Scrappy Chew gets up to all sorts of mischief, but you can’t stay mad long when he breaks out his fan-favorite catch phrase!(Seriously, though, what are the odds they are going to find a way to bring back Baby Yoda?)
he’ll be a deus ex machina for sure. mando will look like all is lost and then he’ll show up and move a rock or something.
Lift with your legs, Baby Yoda.
It’s really, really bad
AV Club is notorious for the incongruency to letter grade and recap.
By contrast, I absolutely loved the reintroduction of Boba Fett episode in the Mandalorian, also directed by Rob Rod, and thought this one was pretty perfunctory and boring.
I liked the mediocre but I didn’t like this very much
Succinct and accurate description of All the Disney Star wars properties..Personally i would throw the Marvel shows on this exact definition also.
Star Wars always was recycled crap. And I still love it.
Thrill as our hero ponders a career change!
Not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed when this wasn’t the restaurant comedy I was hoping.
The most notorious hash slinger in the galaxy!
“Jabba ruled by fear. I intend to rule through the best selection of comfort food in the galaxy.”
“I flash freeze all my produce in carbonite to lock in the freshness.”
I think I’m gonna have the ‘cantina lobster’.
This is easily the best comment I’ve seen today.
“They can take our lives…but they can’t take…our MEATLOAF!!!”
The guy already owns a chain of Taiwanese tea shops.
This week, Boba attends bar tending school! Can he learn to mix the perfect Mos Eisley Iced Tea while juggling the attentions of several cute Twi’leks?
forget Gordon Ramsey, here’s Chef Fett!
“Put fucking Capt. Solo in the fucking cah-go hold!”
Patience. Dexter Jettster will have his moment. It’s only a matter of time.
I kind of appreciate this and Mando taking time to…humanize the Tusken Raiders, who are most likely the indigenous inhabitants of Tatooine before it became a crime hub. Ok, yes, they are also slave traders and killed Anakin’s mom, but they can just make that be a specific tribe that does that, not all Tuskens.While I agree that Star Wars needs to get out of this OT hole they’re stuck in, seemingly scared to do anything new and different (the one new hope, as it were, being Acolyte, the only project right now that isn’t relying on it’s relation to the OT or Skywalker in general, at least as far as we know right now), it is still a big deal that so far the shows have been far more diverse than the movies ever were. A person of Maori descent and a Asian woman headlining a big name property show? Hell yea.(Which, on a similar note, is there a higher place on the Disney scale we can put Ming-Na? Like, Disney Queen? Surely she’s risen above Disney Princess with her work in Disney Animation, Marvel AND Star Wars. Respect.)
“Not all Tuskens”
Some of them are like Jehovah’s Witnesses. They’re aggressively annoying.
Watch the big reveal being that Boba becomes a Tusken youth pastor.
Gee, now I’m picturing him like Mr. T., encouraging the kids to drink milk and spend time at the youth center.
I pity the Tusken who don’t drink his blue milk!!!Mr B!
Sentenced to the Sarlacc Pit
for a crime he didn’t commit, Fett promptly escaped. Today, still wanted by the
government, he survives as a soldier of fortune (and still smells a bit of Sarlacc
Ass)
In this time period there is no longer any jibba from Jabba.
Drink your drugs, stay in milk, and don’t do school!
Hard swerve into Footloose territory.
Can’t wait for “Let’s Hear It For The Boba” to give Deniece Williams a Christopher Lee-like comeback single.
A cool one who can do extreme trampolining.
A The Book of Boba Fett/The Book Of Mormon crossover? Sure, why not? Sounds fun!
Anti-Tuskite
The people of sand have many denominations.
And I’m sure they have different accents and mean names for each other.
Ok, yes, they are also slave traders and killed Anakin’s mom, but they can just make that be a specific tribe that does that, not all Tuskens.Or most Tuskens can be slave traders and they can also be portrayed as an intelligent race with their own customs and value system. We don’t have to like them for them to be humanized. Agree that it’s good the shows are giving them more detail and nuance.
Ming-Na is quite literally a “Disney Legend” which is their hall of fame.
I think The Empress of Disney is more appropriate.
I remember the Knights of the Old Republic game had a whole section where you had to deal with a tribe of Tuskan Raiders, and you could negotiate with them and get a bit more of their point of view of things. It was neat!
“When the Tuskens send us their people, they’re not sending us their best. They’re sending slavers, and murderers … and some, I assume, are good people.”
Ming-Na Wen is cool, and I can still buy her as a bad-ass, partly because she looks about 20 years younger than she is. Temeura Morrison, not so much.Really, this show is going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting just to convince me why Fennec isn’t the boss.
Morrison is bringing big Dad Bod Badass energy to it. Fennec can be the nimble one, he’s going to be tanky and shooty.And Boba saved Fennec from death by putting robot parts in her, so she has some sort of life debt to him, so that’s why she’s not the boss.
Possibly for the same reasons that Tony Soprano was the boss when the likes of Christopher Moltisanti and Furio Giunta were either younger and/or fitter and more physically capable.
Speaking of people who look 20 years younger than they are: Jennifer Beals! She’s 58 years old, and she definitely looks younger than that.
it’s disney. you know they will moichendise the shit out of this just like they did Mandolorian
The proper term is “People of the Sand”, you philistine.
Some derogatory terms include “Rag
head”, “Sanders” and “Dune Sea pedestrians”
Plus, AARP-eligibility.
I was thinking that if Tusken or even Jawa culture maybe were ever portrayed in any depth they might be similar to Fremen maybe?
Through all that Ming na Wen remains ageless. I wish more people had seen her work on Agents of Shield.
AoS trended pretty much immediately in every new country that got access to it when Disney+ launched. The small-but-vocal fanbase is growing.
Still wont get the recognition it deserves because its not ‘canon’ and does not have big characters or align with events from the latest marvel phases. Many look down on it while hyping up the new Disney Marvel shows and Star wars shows when neither hold a candle to AoS in terms of storytelling and character. Over 22 episode seasons i might add. These new series cant even do it across 6-8.
It is still canon though, officially. Anyone who says otherwise either swallowed some lying clickbait or has their own personal grudge.
My hunch is that, as soon as it’s about to come off of Netflix US like the Defenders shows, something from AoS will show up again in the Marvel Studios content.
Hopefully. Still want to be surprised and see Daisy magically show up in Secret invasion. I’ve even head canoned a scene where she is captured and the Kree use that device they used on Captain Marvel to look into her memories as a way to catch the audience up/advertise Aos. and a riveting Fury speech to go along with it.
Hows about God Empress?
Yeah, the movies somewhat treat them as savages and nothing more, so it was cool to see another side of them. I think the EU books went the same direction, getting into their warrior culture and the complex geopolitics with the settlers on Tattooine. They’re definitely mining some stuff from there.Also I love what Temura has done for Maori representation. Sadly, most Americans thought he was Hispanic.
Sorry but once you show Boba Fett wearing galactic long underwear, he loses any shred of danger or mystique.
Mystqiue returns when a few minutes later he’s kicking ass with said long underwear AND chained to a rock in the middle of nowhere. Seriously his two fights w/o the armor were awesome.
Where exactly did he “kick ass?” He kicked ass in the Mandalorian. Here he can’t even handle some guys with shields and is reliant on a healing chamber suddenly? Even though this is right after the events of that show where he was a supreme badass?
Really? I thought they were painfully bad.
Mystique? Is this Oswalt’s long-awaited Marvel/Star Wars crossover event?
I feel like that was a very deliberate choice. The episode may as well have been called “convincing you guys on Tameura Morrison”.
His final fight what did he actually do action wise besides appear holding chains to that things neck? They’re definitely aware they have work to do to make audiences like tuby fett.
Have you ever seen a pair of long underwear? They usually don’t have cargo pockets. He was wearing a jumpsuit.
Sure, if that helps
If it quacks like long underwear….
…you should probably launder it!
Yep. Strong Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes vibes.
Speedsuit
gesundheit!
but they should have pockets.
I’m still wrapping my head around the slanket he’s wearing when he shows up in the Mandalorian.
The minute you make the mysterious, shadowy assassin the titular character in a series is when he loses mystique.
looks like the only Planet Boba won’t go to is Planet Fitness
looks like the only Planet Boba won’t go to is Planet Fitness
The dude is in shape. Working out for core strength and working out to be a ripped Hollywood pretty boy are two totally different things resulting in totally different body types. I’ll bet you diamonds to doughnuts that Temuera has way better endurance and stamina than your average muscle builder.
Plus, the guy just turned 61!
Yeah I don’t get all these fat jokes. He doesn’t look fat by any normal human standard
Boba Fett really is one of those more is less characters, you could argue the rot set in once they took the helmet off for starters.
We were all expecting a magnificent shag worthy of David Cassidy to come tumbling out; instead we get Smooth Operator here…
I kept thinking why are they dressing him like the Penguin in Batman Returns
So Matt Berry and Richard Ayoade have both voiced Star Wars droids now, huh?
When do we get Chris O’Dowd and Katherine Parkinson robots? And hell, throw in a gloomy Noel Fielding droid while we’re at it.
And Sharlto Copley can voice one too.
Nobody ever thinks of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.
I do, but that’s because I’ve written more books than I’ve read.
I know writers who use droids, and they’re all cowards!
Noel?
God, I love Darkplace. I wish they had done more episodes.
There’s two stage shows that are worth a listen. Mp3s used to circulate.
You and it were,,,,, buddies?
Matt Berry needs to be in a SW show in live action, not a mere VO.
I was delighted to find he’s done another series of Toast (with a Kayvan Novak cameo in episode 1!)
I thought exactly that.Also Chris Morris( which is pretty unlikely )
Chris Morris was made to be an imperial officer
Can we have one with Peter Serafinowicz’s voice? Or would that be too risque? His voice does tend to….do things to people…
If they can talk him into doing it, since they hired him for Solo and then replaced him with the cartoon guy.
Sorry, all we got is a Noel Coward droid. Will that work?
I still think there was a missed opportunity that they didn’t name it Bet On Fett or That’s So Boba!
Fett-ish
that’s my…?
Stop trying to make Fett happen!
How I Fett Your Boba
Better Off FettBreaking BobaFett SmartFettwoodFett And The CityThe BobanosA-Fett-ed DevelopmentAnd there’s so much more!
Jake and The Fett Man
My Father The Bounty Hunter (and Clone Template)
Too Many Fetts
Hey, Boba: I know you need a protocol droid but maybe think about investing in a Rancor as well. That trap door ain’t there for nothing.
Why bother with the care and feeding of a rancor when a nice set of spikes will do?
Sure, get some spikes. Anything. Waste of a trap door.
I vote for robo-piranhas.
Space sharks with lasers on their heads. Go big or go home.
Now we’re talking.
Plan B: Ill-tempered bass
FEED HIM TO THE SHARKTICONS!!!
If that trap door isn’t used by the end of the season it’ll be a damn shame. Chekov’s gun and whatnot.
It’s more of a psychological trap door.
.
This did nothing to persuade me we particularly need this in addition to The Mandalorian. Tem Morrison has seemed a serviceable actor at best since the prequels, and seems physically cumbersome and awkward with the action.
+1 for the ease of fighting out of a Sarlacc pit too, it was like he’d fallen in that morning and got out by lunchtime.
Oh cmon. He’s been a subpar actor at best and a block of wood at his worst.
It was… fine. I will, of course, watch it all. Never really been into the whole Boba Fett mythos thing, but I’ll go along with it.Speaking of, I agree Nick, they should have not actually depicted his escape from the sarlacc pit. It should have remained a legend.Oh well. Still, very watchable.One thing that stood out for some reason… the top half of that desert creature at the end was like a spitting image of Ray Harryhausen’s Kraken!
You’ll probably enjoy it more if Boba Fett never appealed to you. I think this was a perfectly fine Star Wars show in general but as far as giving Fett a fleshed-out identity it feels like fan fiction.
It’s identical to countless pieces of fan fic which have depicted Fett’s escape in an identical manner. Zzzzz.
Considering Fett’s escape is exactly as it’s been envisioned by fan fic writers and fan film makers for 4 decades, showing it in the unbelievably boring, straightforward fashion they did was a complete waste of time.
They should have had Fett tell a different story about how he escaped the Sarlacc Pit every episode, each one more outlandish than the last.
YES. “So, my personal friend Darth Vader showed up, jammed a thermal detonator into a jawa’s ass and threw him into the sarlaac!”
Boba Fett: “Do you wanna know how I got these scars?”
That wasn’t “fan fic.” It was a mashup of the 30 year old EU novels and Marvel comics that were “canon” at the time. Although I would’ve loved if the did the Boba gets picked up by Jawas while Han is there and then inadvertently runs the sand crawler right back into the pit. In the space of one comic Boba gets out of the pit and then tumbles right back into it. The EU stuff continues from there and he gets out again, but his left leg is already digested at that point.
…which was a spitting image of Ray Harryhausen’s 20 Million Miles To Earth creature! That’s a face that keeps on giving.
A four armed Kraken! I thought the same thing. Plus, it’s pretty obvious from Spy Kids 2 that Rodriguez is a huge Harryhausen fan, so it was a delight seeing him indulge again. Just another grown up kid with the world’s best funded toy store to have fun in.
Honestly all of the flashback bits feel unnecessary for me. I think once Boba Fett showed up in The Mandalorian, viewers basically papered over what had happened to him since Return of the Jedi – he managed to escape the sarlaac, he lost his armor, he lived some sort of nomadic lifestyle for a few years, yada yada yada. I don’t find the “how” of that story terribly interesting, and I certainly find it much less interesting than the idea of “Boba Fett: Desert Crime Lord.” But yeah, like you I will of course watch it all, and I’ll be pleasantly surprised if I turn out to be wrong.
The lesson, it seems from the flop sweat stained, falling down the stairs with a stack of pies mess of Rise Of Skywalker is not to offer up anything new, but to at least present the old in a fun, competent fashion.I don’t think Rise of Skywalker’s issues are that it tried (and failed) to do new things…That said, I agree with wanting Star Wars to do something other than riffs on the OT. It’s always had potential to be one of the best fantasy world sandboxes out there, and all its storytellers seem to be able to do is hang out on desert planets with orphans whose sidekicks have bad feelings about stuff.
It was a pretty basic pilot. Here’s hoping things get weirder from here.
Considering how flat and unimaginative Favreau’s SW outings have been so far, I wouldn’t hold your breath.
I was intrigued by the portrayl of Tusken raiders. There’s hints that Jawas may be a juvenile form of Tuskens but that junior Tusken seems to indicate they’re separate cultures.I’m guessing that slightly smaller Tusken that kicked his ass was a female, she was careful to use the blunt parts of her weapon, I think she was trying to do him a favor and hoping he’d stay down.I’m torn between losing the mystery and actually finding out what’s under those protective masks.
I was absolutely certain that was Matt Frewer as the smary Twi’lek majordomo, but it turns out it’s actually Andrew from Veep. Nice to see him get a showy role like this out of that rather thankless one.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought that. It’s been a bit since I’ve seen Frewer in anything (I think it was Orphan Black, honestly).
I cut the mention from my final review, but I thought it was Matt Frewer too! Same exact wheedling energy.
Oh come on, it was so obviously Jeff from Superstore!
David Pasquesi is a genuine delight who needs to be in more things way more often. And I’d say that him on Veep wasn’t necessarily thankless as it was really dependent on being used sparingly enough and in the right places. Andrew is a smarmy smug little dick cheese, but I felt like he was there just often enough to make him utterly fabulous. Especially in contrast to Selina.
I’ve loved Pasquesi since he showed up in “Groundhog Day.”
He was also Jerri’s stepdad/butcher in Strangers With Candy.
He had a great part on Lodge 49 and was great in it.
I honestly thought thats who it was too.
It looked like Frewer was in one of the D+ sizzle-clip promos too. So, either it was him & maybe he plays Pasquesi’s character’s father … like Dad is the mayor and the envoy is his son. Which would be wonderful. Or it was Pasquesi in another scene from Boba, yet unaired.Or it was Frewer just cast in a different D+ show … Mighty Ducks in Space, or something perhaps.
He’ll always be Stu the Meat Man from Strangers With Candy to me.
I thought it was Owen Wilson again, until there was a closeup where you could see his nose.
This is the kind of world building Star Wars needs. If they want to keep going back to the OT, then they need to do more to add to the lore like this show does. If they had only gone back to Tatooine without contributing anything new, I would drop the show. But they’re showing more of Tusksan culture and how things work on Tatooine, and it makes the universe more interesting and alive.
That sounds so sad and empty
There’s a real Jack Sparrow vibe to how he got out. The Sparrow legend of how he escaped a lonely island with one bullet turned out to be that he managed to flag down a passing ship.
I’m fine with this, especially how it shows him barely alive, easy prey for the Jawas and Tuskens and still needing to recover after a fairly ordinary scrap.
Every single time Star Wars has attempted to broaden its horizons, you fucknuts slap them back. “We want new!” “Not that way!”
I don’t blame them now.
So far, the biggest question is why Boba Fett even wants to be crime lord of the outer rim.A simple likely reason is that in Return Of The Jedi he was on Jabba’s payroll. Boba was at the palace, jumped into combat with Luke and company, and ended up in the Sarlacc not out of loyalty to Jabba but because he was being paid handsomely (or, knowing Jabba, being blackmailed.)After the Sarlacc he’s got nothing, Jabba’s dead, and no one came looking for him. So he’s collecting Jabba’s remaining assets as compensation for services rendered.
“Hi Bib, just circling back …”
An even simpler reason is that they have all these desert set pieces lying around from Mandolorian.
Following the flashback sequences, my proposal is that he’s Big Mad at the shit this godforsaken planet’s put him through and he’s gonna play a long game of revenge against it.
It could be simple, but there is potentially still a long path between him first gaining the respect of the Tuskens (as seen here) to rescuing Shand and getting his armor back (as seen in The Mandalorian), and then finally killing Fortuna and sitting on the throne (as seen in the mid-credits). As I recall, that is something on the order of a four year gap.As I suggested in another post, one of my current hopes for the season is they keep unwinding that “past” story line in parallel with the “present” story line, and then it arrives at a conflict. But anyway, along the way in that “past” story line, it could be clarified why Fett and Shand decide to kill Fortuna and take over Jabba’s former empire.Indeed, Fortuna says to Fett, “Boba, I thought you were dead,” right before Fett shoots him. Which could just be a reference to the sarlacc, but I have thought it would be cool if there is actually more to that story that we will eventually see. And supposedly, Boba Fett’s name is actually carved on the throne in Sith runes. Again, that might never be explained, but possibly this is not the first time Fett has sat on that throne, with Fortuna being some sort of usurper.
That’s not a bad explanation, and one that could probably could have been offered with a line or two of dialog while talking w/the Mos Espa mayor’s flunkie, followed by kicking his ass.
Oh wow, another redeemed villain with a secret good side.
I enjoyed the hell out of this, but I’m not difficult to please. I’m hoping that this takes more of a Scorsese organized crime angle to differentiate it from The Mandalorian, but I think I’m going to enjoy it no matter what.
in what universe does Robert Rodriguez ever get close to Scorsese
Boba Fett needs to think about his whole life before he takes over the galactic underworld.
“The wrong Hutt died!”
Unambitious storytelling? Dude, it’s the first episode, they haven’t had time to even established the story yet.
You realize it’s possible to write a good pilot, though? Like some of the best shows have hit the ground running with amazing pilots. No one ever said, “Just give The Sopranos a season or two to hit its stride.”
Few shows hit the ground running.
Mad Men, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Succession, Game of Thrones, Better Call Saul, Deadwood, The Shield, The Wire, Black Mirror, Homeland, the Americans…..need I go on?
These shows are quality dramas, not glorified fan fic.
Well, you sort of do need to go on. Because, yes, of course all of those shows hit the ground running, no question, but surely you can also recognize that that still makes it rare, and a lot of other amazing and influential shows also had terrible pilots, ESPECIALLY in genre television and comedy.
That this pilot is merely “eh, fine” instead of amazing still puts it ahead of, say, almost every Star Trek pilot (save MAYBE for Deep Space 9), or the X-Files. Many of those took entire SEASONS to even be palatable, much less something inoffensive that you could immediately watch with your young kids.
Which, as an aside, is literally impossible to do with the pilots to most of the shows in your list, hehe. I love Deadwood, think it’s up there for best TV show ever made, but maybe Xmas is a time I’d rather spend vegging with family in front of “Just Fine Space Crime Grandpa” than explain all the nuances of the line “God rest the souls of that poor family… and pussy’s half price next fifteen minutes!” to my little cousin, know what I mean, hehe?
You’re talking about shows from decade ago, when 20+ episodes was the model (and when most of those shows were entirely episodic.)There’s a reason why I picked only shows from the 21st Century, as I felt that was a more fair point of comparison, as all those shows have shorter seasons (usually 13 episodes or less a season) and a more modern approach overall.
BoBF is SEVEN episodes long. It’s unforgivable that one episode is a complete throwaway where we don’t even bother establishing the stakes, the nemesis or even the main character’s motivation. When you don’t even know if the parade of characters with exactly 30 seconds of screentime are throw aways or if they’re going to be part of the show’s fabric going forward. This episode tells us basically nothing of value that couldn’t have been accomplished in a pre-credit teaser.
Yes, lots of shows got better overtime and did, in fact, “find themselves.” Sometimes that took years. No one has the patience for that anymore. There are infinite choices out there. When you have half-dozen episodes, this kind of crappy storytelling is unforgivable. Strip away the SW trappings and no one would ever give this show an episode 2.
If all you want is inoffensive content to watch with every member of the family, fine. But even in the context of that kind of show, BoBF (and, for that matter, the Mandalorian) can be, nay, SHOULD be, much, much better.
I am always bemused by people who insist an episode of something is filler or throwaway when they haven’t seen the rest of the story yet. It’s a seven episode story. You don’t know where it’s going yet, or how the pieces are going to tie together. Slow your roll.
I’m always bemused by people who seem perfectly content with lousy content because “it’s going somewhere!” The best shows make every episode count. Every episode in a good series should have urgency, import and entertainment value, not just be placeholders for something later or “set up.” This show has none of that. And in a series with a total of a mere 7 episodes, wasting one is unforgivable.
Oh come on. A show can be okay. A pilot can be okay. It doesn’t either have to be brilliant or abhorrent, and so far this show is neither. It’s okay! It’ll probably get better! Shows usually do, even those bastions of brilliance you’re weirdly comparing every single new show to.
It’s less than okay and it should be much more than okay. There’s no excuse for writing a first episode this unfocused, especially when you’re (supposedly) telling a tight story over a mere 7 episodes.
Indeed.I am pretty sure, in fact, the scenes with the Tuskens were very important, given how we first saw Fett in The Mandalorian, and the fact that story line seems to just be getting started. And I personally thought all of that was a really strong show.In contrast, I agree the story line set in the “present” was relatively weak in isolation, but clearly a lot is just being set up in that story line. Parts of it could have been executed better (like the first part of the street fight), and I definitely found his approach of abandoning the Hutts’ aristocratic trappings, wanting to command through respect and not fear, and so on to be rather implausible for a would-be crime lord.
But that is just the sort of thing which could be setting up an ongoing conflict this season, say as Boba increasingly faces a choice between being an effective crime boss and whatever personal code he is trying to follow.In fact, it seems likely to me that his current personal code was heavily influenced by his time with the Tuskens. And it would be pretty interesting if at some point he had an internal conflict that was manifested in some external way involving the Tuskens.
So as many have pointed out over time, a modern streaming series is often more like a mini-series from the broadcast era than an episodic series. And in terms of structure, they are in turn more like movies than episodic series, or for that matter more like novels—and in fact, these episodes are being called “chapters”.In that context, while I would never suggest the first chapter of a novel, or first act of a movie, or so on should be actually bad, it definitely does not have to be representative of the novel/movie’s peak.Indeed, if this season has a classic three-act structure (TBD, but it might), we are probably just part of the way into Act One, typically known as the “Setup”. And that first part of Act One is typically devoted mostly to exposition—establishing the main characters, the main setting, and so on. Part way through Act One would usually be the “Catalyst” incident. This is an incident which causes the protagonist to react in a way that leads to the actual first major plot point at the end of the Act One, the one which actually raises the central dramatic question of the story for the first time.At a guess, the street fight was the catalyst, and in the next episode/chapter we will see Fett reacting in a way that leads to the actual first major plot point, and the end of Act One with new clarity about the central dramatic question. Leaving plenty more chapters for Acts Two and Three.Of course I’m just guessing, but it is an informed guess. And in a story with this classic structure, what would you expect people to say if they were looking at the first part of Act One in isolation rather than as part of this overall structure?Well, it would have way too much exposition. The central conflict would not be clearly established. The plot elements so far would seem relatively inconsequential. And so on. All that is a predictable consequence of adopting this sort of story structure.
That’s a shitty excuse people make all the time for doing a piss-poor job at writing TELEVISION.It’s a TV show. It’s not a seven-hour movie. It’s released in episodes once a week. That makes it a show. Full stop.Let’s use your analogy. Hey, a great movie just came out! Let’s go rush out and watch the first fifteen minutes. That’ll be fun, right! Then we can wait and watch 15 more minutes a week until the movies done!Fucking. Stupid. I know the justifications and the excuses and it’s idiotic and it’s just a way for writers to take an easy way out. Writing TV is hard. Writing serialized TV is hard. Good shows are able to do it well, to thread the needle between having an episode that actually works on its own terms while also being part of a greater narrative.Stuff like “Picard” doesn’t even bother to try. This show clearly hasn’t bothered to try, either.
This show hasn’t done any of the work in justifying its existence in the first episode. Why does Boba Fett want to be a gangster? What are his motivations? Why should we care at all about his machinations? What are the important relationships we’re going to be tracking (beyond what is basically a respectful employer/employee relationship with him and Shand.) Who are the other important characters in the show? Are any of the other faces we meet briefly even going to keep being in the show? It’s impossible to say. What will be the show’s primary conflicts? Who is even the central antagonist working against Fett?It’s downright laughable that a first episode of a TV doesn’t get around to even touching on what should otherwise be the absolute fundamental building blocks of a series.
If you want to make a movie, make a fucking movie. If you want to make a show, learn how to actually write a damn show.
OK, you personally do not like streaming mini-series structured like movies.I personally have no problem with it.You are irritated that the first episode/chapter of this series has left many questions about the ultimate narrative unanswered, and you personally do not have the patience for those questions to be answered gradually over time. I personally have no problem with it. Obviously there is some uncertainty about whether they will do a good job developing the story, but I am intrigued and content to keep watching to find out.
I would call that a difference of taste, with you in no way being compelled to like all the same things that I might like.You want to claim anything which does not fit your personal preferences is “stupid”, “shitty”, “idiotic”, and so on.That is the nature of Internet discussions of film and TV, but unfortunate nonetheless.
Wrong. I like limited series just fine. Mare of Easttown? Good show. One narrative. What happens in the pilot of that show? A ton. It’s full of character development, conflict, mystery. You know what the show is going to be about, who the players are, what their issues are, what their personalities, are, etc. etc.
Boba Fett has NONE of that. Literally none. We have no idea why Boba Fett cares about becoming a gangster, what his larger goals are, who is antagonists are going to be, what important relationships and conflicts will drive the story. It’s a total waste of time. You learn almost zero, there’s no rooting interest in anything and the story is completely vague.Some shows can actually do it right. This one has utterly failed to do anything of consequence in its first episode.
Literally every comment I’ve read praising this show has boiled down to, “cool! There’s that thing I recognize!” “Whoo! Boba Fett is back! He’s cool!” Not a single person who’s liked it has apparently actually engaged with it as a piece of narrative storytelling. Because there’s nothing there.
Unfortunately with a pilot this sloppy and unformed, the answer to whether they will do a good job developing the story is almost certainly no, they will not. I love that it seems like they are keeping the executive team lean so there arent too many fingers in the pie, but Jon Faverau is clearly not a good writer, and he needs to bring someone who understands how to write engaging characters.
“You’re talking about shows from decades ago,”
Sorry to inform you that time keeps on slipping, but most of the shows you mention ALSO premiered over a decade ago, many concurrent with several Star Trek series. That’s not that pertinent to the topic at hand, just to point out how old we all are, hehe. But it does go to show that several “golden era” TV shows existed at the same time as shows that you seem to think should be seen as “bad”. And that goes to this:“No one has the patience for that anymore.”
There’s the rub. Clearly many folks here do, and it ain’t necessarily because you understand the Muppets on a level we don’t, hehe. We all understand exactly that this is low-stakes genre television and are happy to watch it, because we just aren’t put-off by a single introductory episode being more character/backstory development than heavy plot. Yes, that makes it less thematically complex than the best shows of our era, but it’s not CRAPPY storytelling, it’s just DIFFERENT storytelling. That just rubs you the wrong way in a way that it doesn’t for much of the rest of us. But that’s fine! Just as long as it doesn’t get into you thinking we’re philistines.
I mean, really, a LOT of first episodes say “nothing” that couldn’t be explained in a teaser. Here’s the first episode of Deadwood, diminished as you have Book of Boba Fett:
“Seth is a lawman trying to make a new life as a good man in a place with no law!
Al is a kingpin trying to keep control and scam the hooples!
And they’re about to butt heads over rent, gold, and an orphan that knows too much, as a legend of the Old West rides into town.
All that, and full frontal nudity, on the series premiere of DEADWOOD!”
Now, here’s the thing: I’m not saying this show is Deadwood. I’m just saying it doesn’t HAVE to be. Comfort food serves a different purpose than fine or boundary-pushing dining. Just because your mom’s meatloaf isn’t a steak doesn’t make it equivalent to a cold burger from Hardees. There’s room for King of the Hill next to Veep without calling it Two and Half Men. And there’s room for the first episode of The Book of Boba Fett next to (to pull from your examples) Game of Thrones Season 1 without calling it Game of Thrones Season 8.
I get that the show is comfort food and seemingly the vast majority of SW fans, casual or diehard, just want easily-digestible, non-challenging SW content that goes down easy. And, to date, both shows certainly fit that bill.my point is the show can and should be better. Like, it’s seriously bare minimum writing. Like the script would earn a failing grade in a television writing class. No characters, no stakes, no real story. I mean, it really seems like the fan of the live action SW shows literally don’t give a shit about any of that. They just want things that look and feel like the SW they used to know. Are we really all that easily satisfied?The first episode wasn’t even “character heavy” as you suggest. We know next to nothing about Fett’s motivations or his goals or interests and his personality remains a virtually blank slate beyond just the trope-y, “stoic badass” type.
Two and A Half Men, while execrable, has more clearly defined characters, stakes and plot structure in every single episode than BoBF has so far.
To use the comfort food analogy, this is like comfort food left out overnight and you realize how bland and tasteless it really is. McDonalds tastes good when it is fresh, but biting into that bun a day later is… not good. He is using the best of the best as examples but his core argument is correct unfortunately. There was nothing in this episode to sink your teeth into. No memorable dialogue, barely any memorable action. The creatures were cool, but this show is so high budget that money has to go somewhere. I wish it had a narrative hook to get me to care more in spite of the lazy writing. I want to like this show too. But in the first episode they couldn’t even tell us the direction the show is heading. We don’t know why Fett took over as crime lord. In fact till he said that he was a crime lord it wasn’t obvious that was what his role was. I don’t need this to be revolutionary, but there is enough talent and enough money that it should be better than this.
That this pilot is merely “eh, fine” instead of amazing still puts it ahead of, say, almost every Star Trek pilot (save MAYBE for Deep Space 9), I’m thinking someone needs to go back and watch the early days of TNG for an example of what shit television looks like.A couple of months ago, youtube was nice enough to throw some TNG clips into my time line, and I found the bite-sized chunks pleasurable enough that I went “I should totally go back and watch some actual episodes”, so I started at season 1.Holy maceral, the first two seasons of that show are un-fucking-watchable. Wow, one or two good episodes and the rest of it, I’m thinking “How did this make it for seven seasons?!?”So yeah, if you ever want to calibrate your meter on what really bad television looks like, there you go.
Out of tens of thousands of TV shows in history. Glad you want to compare a new show to some television classics and get disappointed when it doesn’t hold up to them after one episode.
Those are shows from the past 20 years. And, yes, it’s a fair comparison, since we live in an age of riches in the world of television ,with the best stuff in the medium having come out in the past two decades.
All those shows (and many, MANY more) were able to do a far better job in “hitting the ground running” than this one. In such a landscape, having such a flat, lifeless premiere is a crime. Again, if this show had no SW trappings at all, it would be shrugged off instantly by the entire world.
I’m sorry you seem to have no standards.
Lost was another show that hit the ground running. One of the best pilot episodes ever.
Yes it was and I nearly put it on my list, but the show eventually crapped the bed so hard that I left it off. Then again, I listed Game of Thrones, which also started out great before falling apart. I’m nothing if not inconsistent.
Do go on…
Mad Men: quality drama with cigarettes
The Sopranos: quality drama with gabagool
Breaking Bad: quality drama with meth
Succession: quality drama with the latest in my long line of
ginger crushes
Game of Thrones: quality drama with…thrones
Better
Call Saul: Bah Bodenkirk
It’s kind of unfair to just name a lot of the best shows of the last 20 years or so though
Why? The point is the show is very, VERY far away from actually good TV. And there is PLENTY of good TV out there. It’s not even in the most “okay” shows of the past 20 years.
Because it’s kind of like saying “so and so isn’t a good Elizabethan playwright because he’s not as good as Shakespeare” or something
The conversation grew out of one poster saying, “Hey, it’s the first episode, give it a break!” And THEN I listed a group of shows that were excellent series that started out with great pilots. It’s perfectly fair to compare BoBF to good, contemporary series to illustrate the myriad ways in which it doesn’t stack up.The comparison invites people to remember good shows and good pilots and all the ingredients that go in them. Ingredients which are utterly absent from BoBF.
No it’s really not. It’s fairly rare for a series to be brilliant right from the pilot and the shows you listed are exceptions to the rule. They’re basically all all-time classics that are thought of as such partially because they were brilliant from the jump which is not the norm and not at all common. You seem to be confused as to what Star Wars ever was and what to expect out of these Disney Plus shows. Just because these are streaming shows with a high budget doesn’t mean that they’re even trying to be prestige TV. Dark antiheroes, complex character development, that’s just not Star Wars and that’s why Favreau and co clearly aren’t going for that template at all
It’s a completely fair comparison. That was an extremely small list. I could easily list dozens more shows, all within the past few years, that have started out better than BoBF. BoBF is SEVEN friggin’ episodes long. They should have figured it out ahead of time. If you want to have a tight, limited series with a single overall narrative, fine. But you don’t do it by totally pissing away your first episode.It’s inexcusable that it was this bad. And “waiting for it to get better” is a pretty shitty argument, particularly when the series is so damn short. It should have been planned and executed better so that EVERY episode counts. EVERY episode is good. It’s not just shitty wheel-spinning and shrugging, “well, wait until the show’s 2/3 over, then it’ll really be something!”There are countless shows that are also not “dark character dramas” that also manage to be entertaining and well-written and full of interesting characters and stories worth telling. Many shows in the damn damn genre as BoBF that put it to shame.
What argument are you actually making? That it’s okay for a show to be bad, because only a few shows are actually good? In fact, many, many, many shows are good. I’m asking “too much” because it’s just impossible for Star Wars to be good?? It’s actually not. It should be MUCH easier than this.
This show was so badly written, if you submitted that script for a college-level screenwriting course, you would have gotten a failing grade.
okay buddy
Reading through this thread I have to say that I appreciate the way you’ve replied to everyone coming at your opinions so hard – comments which happen to make a lot of sense to me. I’m reading through and thinking, “c’mon, you dopes!” You can ultimately disagree but you have to allow that this is a reasonable discussion. This is TV. Why can’t you compare it to other TV SHOWS? It’s written, performed, filmed, edited, shown. An episode each week. Why does it have to be “Well things are different now, so deal with it?” I would also agree with the point that with only seven episodes, you have to figure this was all fleshed out ahead of time. The writers aren’t figuring things out as they go. Discussions are great, but, man, it’s unfortunate that so much of it feels like arguing for the sake of arguing.
Side note: if the back story really needed to be done (re: escape from Sarlacc), it would have nice to have an episode dedicated to ONLY that, instead of all the time jumping flashbacks by way of lazy “dreams”
I think a good example of this would be the show “the Great” on hulu, which I love. The first episode is not amazing. It is not a perfect pilot, but it is so damn interesting. It knows who it’s characters are, and what they want, and has a lot of fun a long the way. I think it’s not till episode 2 or 3 where the show becomes a masterpiece in my eyes, but episode 1 is still so full of love and character that it is more than excusable. This episode is unfortunately the opposite. We know nothing about who Boba Fett is as a man, what his goals are in life and for the season, or Ming-Na Wen’s character either. Too many of the fight scenes were just poorly shot, unimaginative fisticuffs on a flat patch of sand too. I really hope it does improve but they have not planted any promising seeds.
I hold the opinion that “May I Destroy You” has one of the most compelling pilots I’ve ever seen.
You are spot on. Really disappointing how absolutely bland and directionless this was. I am on the same wavelength that the only thing that makes Mandolorian interesting is baby yoda and high production value, and this only has high production value. I don’t think there was one single memorable moment in this pilot.
Especially since they needed to get all the housekeeping out of the way for the fanboys, like the sarlac trip and that sort of thing. Next episode we’ll start getting to the meat of the story.
You didn’t really, though. Besides, the sarlaac “housekeeping” was about a minute of screentime. The rest should have been much better.
“And yet I can’t help but hope that this isn’t the new standard for all Star Wars entertainment going forward.”Considering how you accurately point out the lack of ambition in both this show and its parent show AND the fact that all but one of the upcoming announced SW shows are yet more spinoffs featuring legacy characters, I can’t imagine that it won’t continue to be the future of SW for a good long while, if not forever.Lack of ambition was what made “The Mandalorian” a hit and I can’t imagine anyone wants to mess with that formula now. What’s particularly disappointing is that Favreau really should be trying harder.
There are a lot of similarities in the two shows but I think the Mandalorian was way better than this premier of BOBF was
Not a huge “Mando” fan, but I agree.
“And if that’s what you want from Star Wars—an experience that evokes the trilogy’s movie serial roots with gee-whiz action and adventure without being weighed down by any headier notions—this delivers admirably.”This is not what I want. I’ll check it out, but holy crap in a stormtrooper helmet did Mandalorian bore the hell out of me.YMMV, but I like it when Star Wars takes a chance at something new… gimme the Last Jedi of TV shows.
– more like “stranger in a very familiar land”
– Does a crime boss call himself as a crime boss? is that a thing? It’s kind of like “hero”.. if you have to call yourself it, you ain’t it.
I’d like to see Boba and his fiefdom become a home for rogue clones. They could wrap in Bad Batch and maybe Boba turns out to be the same line as Omega? The mythology of a Yoda carried Mando as a show not the “Western” premise. If they stick with the criminal underworld as a central theme I think I’m going to walk away asking why do I care like this episode left me feeling.
it feels as if escaping the thing should either be equally weird, or not
depicted at all, and become another legend spoken in hushed tones about
the indestructible Boba Fett. Here, it’s just a guy punching his way
out of a meat cave.
So… weird then.
Considering the show is called The Book of Boba Fett, actually showing significant moments in his life (like escaping the Sarlacc pit) is a welcome use of “show, don’t tell” and dare I say a nice pay-off to fans of the original Star Wars trilogy.
I also liked the use of prequel footage, which surprised me since I’m not a prequel fan, but I appreciate how they’re tying the story strands together.
Some Star Wars fans want to see every single thing that was ever implied or referenced depicted. I’m not one of those people. But if you are going to depict something it should be an interesting scene in its own regard and this wasn’t. He just did pretty much what you’d expect him to have done
Fair enough. I thought the brevity of the scene and Fett’s actions contributed to depicting his badassness. Cool under pressure, got the job done on his own, and onto the next challenge. Not the most interesting scene, but a quick insight into his character before the story begins proper.
Hi! I’m Nick and I’ll be reviewing The Book Of Boba Fett. My qualifications are talking about Star Wars to the point of annoyance to anyone near me for the last 40 years.
Hi Star Wars Dr. Nick!
SPOILER things I noticed and liked:……..- The sand creature is a clear and direct homage to Harryhausen.- I love that they show the fight that Fett has with the Tusken leader, a subtle but strong callback in explaining how he learned to kick major stormtrooper ass on Tython in the Mandalorian S2, E6- The fantastic rooftop chase scene not only looked beautiful, but also reminded me of both numerous similar scenes on SW Rebels, but a similar scene from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon- Mos Espa grew big time, from when we last saw it roughly 35 years earlier in AOTC…but I suspect one of the reasons why it was never truly shown in it’s entirety in the PT was because of technological limitations even in the early 2000s. Or perhaps that valley portion of the City was just where gentrification had encroached on the former Podrace arena. I love the difference in size between Mos Espa, and Mos Eisley (slight aside: I always wondered what the third settlement was that Maul sends his three spy droids in TPM. Anchorhead, maybe?)
Overall, a fun episode, I just wish it was about 10 minutes longer.
Literally the first time in 10 years I scrolled down past the dots and don’t see “of cock” posted. The AV Club is truly dead
(I’m only responding since I have the image handy)From what we see in E1, the city is pretty damn big already:
Yeah that image I remember well (from the six times I saw TPM in the theater :/ lol), but again, it’s such a limited view/not as expansive as what was shown in the first episode of BOBF. Also, the relationship between Mos Espa and the podrace arena was never clearly understood to me, but perhaps that was deliberate (disclosure: my career is related to urban planning/design stuff, so I tend to gravitate towards production design-related things in film and tv, to get my proverbial bearings when I watch a film)
I can only imagine how difficult Matt Berry’s VO sessions must have been for this.
“Yes I can hear you, Clem Fandango!”
“How do you feel about a ‘no’?”
If the trailer for the new season of Toast is to be believed, it isn’t Matt Berry voicing that character it’s Steven Toast.
Am I crazy or did the fight make almost no sense and the baddies inexplicably all turned off their shields at the same time for no reason?
That’s not what happened. The shield people used the shields to form a circular phalanx that enclosed Boba and Fennec. As soon as the bodyguard monsters started attacking from behind, they had to necessarily drop the perimeter and the formation.
No, what they did was drop nearly invulnerable personal protection, which made them susceptible to further attack. Dumb.
Except they were still totally using the shields. Did you not notice the one assassin land on the other’s?
Yeah, that was a “let’s all attack him one at a time” moment of fight choreography dumbness and the directing/editing didn’t do enough to cover for it.
Given the shields are apparently weaponized as well as defensive, and don’t seem to limit mobility like a true phalanx shield did, there really was no reason to drop them when changing tactics.
The fight seemed to make no sense to me as it was unfolding.
well happy to see everyone’s response seems to be equally muted. it was fine, hoping it gets closer to good. couldn’t help but feel like ‘here’s your slop’ but i’ve been feeling that way about a lot of the disney content lately, and i think it’s more a me thing.
Wait, so was Max Rebo on the sail barge? Honestly don’t remember. And if it’s supposed to be him AND he survived the barge….then, how the hell did all these goons get off the barge before it went kablooey? Did Fortuna and Rebo secretly sneak off to a lovers’ escape pod while everyone else went down in flames??
I think they just jumped out of the sail barge before it blew.
As usual, Robot Chicken’s fan fiction does the best job filling in the (non-canonical) gaps.
I’m sure there is a poorly written EU trilogy about this.
Nah, just a poorly-written live action series.
Oh there are many, Tales From the Cantina and Tales From Jabba’s Palace. Not sure if they cover Rebo’s fate but I’d bet they do.
Since when is Mos Espa in a large crater?
Since Disney bought the right from George Lucas
Seems like an utterly pointless change.
Why not? The times we see the skyline, Mos Espa is in the distance and is plenty big enough to have topography we’re not aware of. The huge section fo the skyline right above our three pretty much vanishes – that could easily be our crater
Because the very picture you posted depicts a wide, flat plain with the city resting on top of it. There’s no “hidden topography” here. (Did you think the buildings were so tall they were poking up from the crater? They aren’t!)
In the next scene, the characters are strolling ridge up to the edge of the city still from the flat plain. There’s no way to reconcile the two.
You see the buildings on the very left? Then look at the very right? See those buildings? Now go find a picture of any real-world sprawling metroplex. Pretty even and uniform, right? Why then is there a large building free area in the Mos Espa skyline? It could be a suburb with no tall buildings, sure – but since we don’t know what’s there, it could just as easily be a large crater with tall buildings in it. And now that we have new data, that large section without buildings is a just crater with buildings in it. QED.
Fine. I just re-watched the clip in BoBF. There’s plenty of the city that surrounds the crater.
Do you even geography? The two pictures above are from not very long ago in a galaxy not very far away. They both show the city of La Paz in Bolivia. 2.0 million people live there with the downtown area and more desirable real estate being down in the valley (1st pic). Urban expansion however has led to the city spreading far out on the plateau above (2nd pic). If you are driving into town from the west you would have no idea there was a vast city with skyscrapers and the coolest public transport system in the planet beyond and below the immediate flat plain of residential buildings.
Excellent CGI!
Surely someone must answer for this blunder! Heads must roll, Disney!
And there’s clearly Mos Espa that expands beyond the crater in the establishing scene.
Yes. I recognized my error. There’s plenty of room for both versions to be true.
Is it me or the Tusken that fight Bobba Fett is female Tusken. Did they end up sleeping together? And yes Fett’s cloth and gaffi stick definitely belongs to that Tusken Raider.
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Ludwig Göransson’s score in general is very good.
Göransson only did the themes. Joseph Shirley did the score.
I enjoyed the episode but was pretty meh on the theme at the end. Nowhere near as catchy as Mando’s theme.
In a better universe, John Williams wrote and conducted Boba Fett’s theme.
I found that jarringly meh. I was hoping for a bit of Star Sopranos, not the inexplicably honorable bounty hunter trope. Who yet is still collecting bribes and casually murdered the last time we saw him but now is above that.The healing chamber thing is also out of left field. There was no indication in The Mandalorian that he needed that. He was a killing machine and showed no hints of physically breaking down. Which leads to the pedestrian action set piece. The same guy who annihilated squads of troopers, mainly with melee combat, keeps getting repeatedly hit by dudes jabbing at him from behind shields? He never bothers to even pull his gun out? I had also forgotten that Rodriguez was directing some of these episodes and when I saw his name at the end that explained a lot about how badly that fight scene was shot. There were wide shots that looked like a ‘making of’ documentary where you see how silly it looks when you see nobody is close to hitting anyone with their rubber weapons.
I loved this episode, except for the lacklustre, not very exciting ambush by those guys with energy shields. Could have been more exciting.
For all the talk of Westerns, what I see here is a Biblical epic. So far, Boba’s backstory is pure Joseph—he’s left to die in a desert pit, but escapes, is stripped of his Amazing Technicolor armor, enslaved by a nomadic tribe and eventually proves his worth to a chieftain. Couple all that with the episode title from Exodus (and Heinlein) and the biblically-flavored series title, and you’ve got something very different from a Western.
Huh, that’s interesting. I think we just got a transgendered twi’lek.For those of you who never paid attention – because I didn’t until just a couple of years ago; thanks, RPG – males have human-ish looking ears and ladies have ear bumps. But the green “Let me polish your helmet” dude? He’s clearly a (quite jacked) dude, but he’s got the ear bumps.Now producing a show on a TV time crunch, details like that can easily get overlooked – so at the end of the day this is probably just a continuity error. But if it was indeed intentional? Well, that’s a cool way of doing that without being in your face about it.Going back and checking the other twi’leks who got lines in the show, he has the correct ears. So, my money is on intentional.
But why would there be a Stormtrooper in the Sarlaac near where Boba Fett apparently fell in? There weren’t any Stormtroopers in the ROTJ scene where Boba slapsticks his way into the Sarlaac.God I hate being the kind of person who would notice that and make a post about it on a message board.
Who knows how long the Stormtrooper was in there? It’s supposed to take 1000 years for the Sarlacc to digest someone.
The way I figure it, the show needed to demonstrate the lethality of being in the Sarlacc, but weren’t going to festoon the creatures innards with aliens in various state of decomposition.Stormtroopers are well-established and dehumanized by their armor, making them a perfect amoral victim for the the creature. I guess if you want to return to Threepio’s line about a thousand years and all that, that particular one could have been in there since falling off his Dewback looking for droids ten years ago. But it was a visual decision, not a plot decision.
It was a Sandtrooper, you can tell by the pauldron, which fits the locale. It seems like Jabba might enjoy feeding to the Sarlacc those who want to bring Imperial rule to his lands.
Probably because Fett wasn’t the Sarlaac’s first meal ever. He might not have been the first thing it ate that day. There were probably plenty of other meals in there if Fett went further down its gullet.
Storm troopers are certainly on Tatooine during this time, whats to say one didn’t take a stumble somewhere or maybe one of Jabba’s crew killed a few and disposed of the bodies in the pit. Also since the Sarlacc supposedly takes a thousand years to kill its food that trooper could have been there for a while.
They must’ve lost one in the first movie
Fett: The dreams are backFennec: Don’t worry. They’ll go away once the backstory is established.
I was sad to see the poor R-3X droid from the original Star Tours being repurposed for other jobs like a card dealer now. I hope it gets used to its programming.
I’m with you. Why do there have to be so many familiar locations, familiar aliens, and familiar themes from Star Wars movies in every Star Wars thing? I call that “fan service.” It’s always all about the world established in the original trilogy just because people like those movies. Why can’t there be more references to movies people don’t like? And I’m not even talking about the prequel or sequel trilogies. That would just be more fan service. Why can’t there be references to other movies people don’t like, like ‘Myra Breckenridge’ or ‘Nothing but Trouble’? And why does every new Star Wars thing have to have stars and wars? Why is there so much fighting in space? Fan service. Why can’t the next Star Wars be set where I live: Jersey City. There’s always a lot of construction going on in Jersey City. The next Star Wars should be about construction workers in Jersey City. It’s what the real fans want.
Does Boba Fett know that he has a jetpack?
It was out of fuel and that shit is expensive. He’d need to collect three more tributes to fill ‘er up.
I loved all the flashback stuff about how Boba made his escape from the sarlaac pit and the Tusken Raiders. The crime lord Fett stuff didn’t work for me at all. Not sure it was the best decision to have him take over Jabba’s operation and become a gangster and the execution of those scenes wasn’t that great, both in the writing and directing.
These recaps should be called The Boba Tea. You’re welcome for that, that one’s free.Also, if you find yourself commenting, oh, more than a dozen times in these things – take a step back. It’s gonna be okay.
I won’t rest until I have saved my childhood with my adult opinions on corporate media!
I was hooked by this episode, and the key element is Temuera Morrison. He’s got the sort of screen presence that calls to mind someone like Mifune Toshiro. So long as they keep him and Ming-Na Wen front and center, this show should remain watchable.
He really, really doesn’t. Otherwise he would’ve had an amazing career the past 20 years instead of just being “that guy.”
Sure. Because racism isn’t a thing and New Zealand wasn’t until recently an obscure backwater and Mifune (in addition to his gigantic talent and range) didn’t benefit from starring roles with one of the great directors of all time.
I had thought getting the shit kicked out of him every episode was purely a Mando thing, meant to be an ironic counterpoint to his fearsome reputation and appearance. But if all of the spin-offs are going to do the same thing, it just makes all these characters look inept. (Which may be fair in Boba Fett’s case, whose big moment in the OT was accidentally flying into a Sarlacc’s mouth.)
You must like “so far” since you used it to start successive sentences.You need to use it at least three times to be considered a writing style, otherwise it’s just lazy composition.
The premier sucked. Mando-Lite.
“Driver, do you have Mando-lite in that limo-speeder?”
“I do.”
“Then I’m Mr. . . . Eve-uh-zhan!”
“You’re . . . Dr. Evazan?”
“YES I AM!”
Boy, Boba sure got his ass handed to him by those parkour dudes, huh? The fight scene with the parkour baddies was over-shot and kind of silly—why didn’t Boba just use his jetpack to get away? Why did he try to rocket them at point-blank range? Why on earth did we need so many shots of Boba and Fennec using their gauntlets like Batman to fight back? Like so many other sequences, it felt like they padded everything because they didn’t have a lot to do in this episode. I truly love Star Wars and I’m optimistic for this, but I hope the creative teams start to deliver a bit more on the promise of this new expanded universe.
I actually thought it was a pretty good action sequence but I seem to be in the minority
I find it hard to believe that a guy who used to hunt and kill people for money would need to avert his eyes from some rando being killed.
All I took from this is that Anakin was justified in killing those Tusken brats, and that Ming is a queen. There’s more, obviously, but that’s my pithy shit.
Disney Boba Fett is an elderly overweight has-been. From lone wolf mercenary and bounty hunter to a wannabe Samurai chieftain who is hesitant to kill. Pedestrian and yet another by the numbers entertainment from Mickey Mouse.
“And in the 1980’s I was a ninja master. What’s your problem?”
I’m not sure what standard you’re using if you classify the dude as “overweight”
WWDITS: Disney-Adjacent Six Degrees Edition:
Mark Hamill (Jim The Vampire) is Luke Skywalker, of course
Matt Berry (Laszlo) is 8D8 in The Book of Boba Fett
Kayvan Novak (Nandor) will be in Cruella 2
Harvey Guillén (Guillermo) is Funny (The Clubhouse) in Mickey’s Clubhouse
Kristen Schaal (The Guide) was Mabel Pines in Gravity Falls
Topher (Haley Joel Osment) is Sora in Kingdom Hearts
We just need Mark Prosch and Natasia Demitriou in there somewhere.
Robert Rodriguez is bringing his flavor to the show…the flamenco cantina tune, the Harryhausen-style battle with the 4-armed monster (very much shown in his Spy Kids franchise). Apparently he also voiced Dokk Sharik, the first tribute guest: ”May you stay a long time in Mos Espa”. This is fun. Clever reveals and easter eggs have been hinted at.
So we’re in for a lot of nepotism with his talentless family cast in lots of roles soon?
Question from a casual SW fan: now that I learned Tuskens grow in childhood, I am deathly curious…are they born with a burlap sack-covered head, goggle-covered eyes and a vocoder mouthpiece?
Ludwig Göransson only got a theme credit. The score was written by Joseph Shirley. Göransson’s intimate understanding of music as an elemental part of Star Wars was badly missed, like the patchwork score from Rogue One.
Temuera Morrison’s shiny new Hollywood teeth sure were something.
“’Have your helmet cleaned and serviced’ is my new favorite euphemism.”It certainly brings Spaceballs to mind. “I bet she gives great helmet…”.
Minor correction, while Ludwig Göransson composed the main theme, principal scoring for this episode at least was handled by Joseph Shirley.
I’m a casual Star Wars fan so Bobas origins are lost on me and 96% of the plot and history goes over my head
Does being in the Sarlacc for any more than a few minutes somehow change your entire body shape? They could have done a better job of digitally changing the shape of Boba at that point. Modern day scenes are fine as he could have put a bit of girth on since leaving the Sarlacc but during the scenes with the Raiders he should still be in the same shape as he was in Jedi.
The lack of grammatical parallelism in the opening paragraph almost put me off finishing the review.
Oof, tell me about it man. I know we all have to accept that editorial standards will dip because journalism on the whole has lower budgets than it used to, but I still maintain that a website with paid writers (as distinct from say, a blog or similar) ought to aspire to a slightly higher standard.
I’m getting sleepy just thinking about it.
My stray observations:I found the actual escape from the Sarlacc underwhelming and very matter of fact for such a storied plot point (without preexisting knowledge of the Expanded Universe events).
I thought the design of the Tusken Raiders intentionally picked up on some of the tribal-meets-Mad Max aesthetic of the Cloud-Riders from Solo.The Gamorrean Guards were a little too nimble as hand-to-hand combatants.I thought the exact same thing about that four-armed creature looking like something out of Clash of the Titans—in a very lame, 1981 way. I was already a bit irked by design of the dog thing but this seems so out of place and and the design was silly, unimaginative, and did not seem like a creature who just waits under a top layer of sand for unsuspecting victims (don’t get me started on how large creatures are meant to travel below the sand in popular sci-fi).I’m also confused about the why of Boba taking over the syndicate. I didn’t need much to be entertained with the first part of this reintroduction but I hope it makes a bit more sense if this is where the drama is going to come from. I trust it’s not going to just be this but dealing with who isn’t full on their tributes or encroaching on his turf would get boring fast.
So the epic tale of the escape from the Sarlacc.. basically walked out in 10 minutes.
The only way this works is if the last shot of the season is Fett still inside the Sarlacc having a coma fantasy.
Was it just me or was the Tusken night scene really poorly light. I had to up the brightness just to see the fight scene.
“it was America’s British sweetheart Matt Berry voicing the droid 8D8 in
the palace. Though, in fairness, it was pretty much undetectable
underneath all those layers of distortion”
Really? I recognized his voice immediately, and hoped at one point he’d shout “yes Boba Fett I can hear you”.The episode itself was alright, nothing special, tho the fight scene with the assassins was poor. The music was fantastic and the best part of the episode.