Book of Boba Fett Fails to Live up to Expectations in Season One
WARNING! SPOILERS FOLLOW
The Book of Boba Fett had the potential to restore the faith of so many fans. After years of mismanaging the Star Wars franchise, there was a hope Micky and Co. learned from their mistakes and had begun to turn the corner. Season two of The Mandalorian delivered a number of great moments using mostly new characters and a new story. It was promising because it was so different from the flawed sequel trilogy. Perhaps there was a new hope…
It is now clear that hope was horribly misplaced. The Book of Boba Fett struggled to develop its titular character, seemingly eager to reduce him to a weak protagonist dependent on everyone else. The most popular episodes did not feature him hardly at all. Din Djarin, Grogu, Ahsoka Tano, and a fellow by the name of Luke Skywalker were at the center of the two best episodes of the season (Return of the Mandalorian and From the Desert Comes a Stranger). Not a good sign for any show.
How does overshadowing your titular character with more popular characters from the SW Universe promote your show? For many viewers, all it did was remind them how great The Mandolorian was and maybe added a little more anticipation for season 3. If that was the intent of Boba’s show, it was one of the most expensive promotional videos ever made.
Boba Fett begins with flashbacks of his escape from the Sarlacc pit on Tatooine just after the events of Return of the Jedi to his return to Tatooine after recovering his armor years later. Star Wars has always had a bit of western in it, blended with its Eastern philosophical influences. The desert world of Tatooine is one of the most familiar locations in the SW Universe. Here was the story of a bounty hunter, one of the cooler professions portrayed in TV and film.
Boba goes through a transformation after being enslaved at first but eventually joining a Tusken raider tribe. They are not the vicious barbarians of the movies. The tribal leader admits some of them are murderers but not all. These flashbacks play out just like Dances with Wolves. I’d call it Dances with Wolves in space but that moniker belongs to Avatar.
The point is, this is a well-known and compelling plot. It isn’t original but it has a strong track record. The difference here is the Dances with Wolves plot line is just the flashback, not the main plot.
Boba meets another damned soul by the name of Fennec Shand, a former imperial assassin and bounty hunter. Two cool characters possibly looking for some kind of redemption. This is another good angle. An antihero’s story, in a way. Only it is explored for a few minutes at the most in a 5+ hour season.
Eventually Boba returns from the desert and seeks to replace Jabba as crime lord but with a new ruling philosophy. He intends to rule with respect and tolerance rather than fear and violence. His time with the Tusken raiders taught him that being part of the tribe is a powerful thing, more powerful than the blunt violence-wielding of his former employers. In one episode he confesses he thought many of his employers were monsters or idiots. He thought he could do better.
Boba aspires to be a crime lord, not a governor or mayor or any kind of heroic savior of the people. He is no Zorro or Batman. He wants to be a better Jabba, which isn’t aiming that high from a moral standpoint. Yet, Boba lacks foot soldiers and legitimacy. His approach to mafia politics is hopelessly naive with most of his decisions failing miserably. The whole enterprise was never credible to me and just didn’t make sense.
His victory in the final battle was almost entirely attributed to coincidences and a few deus ex machinas. The people of freetown join the fight at just the right time. Then there’s the rancor riding, the Mandalorian and Grogu battle sequence. Boba is victorious over the big bad Cad Bane thanks to his Tusken staff, which he somehow managed to swing while lying on his back. The good guys win… somehow.
In the end, what was it all for? Boba accomplished nothing that one could really consider all that “good.” Many people were killed with their homes and businesses destroyed during the battle with the Pykes. A lot of the town destroyed by his rancor. The other crime lords were killed, so that is something. The Pykes and the corrupt mayor were wiped out as well. A lot of bad guys did indeed die, but is Mos Espa really any better off? Do we really think that no other crime lords will seek to fill the vacuum? Say, Jabba’s cousins?
Despite some cool moments, the battle scenes in this show were underwhelming. In some cases just silly, more on the level of CW or low-budget superhero TV shows. Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen look the parts (when not fighting) and do reasonably well despite their ages but just aren’t that credible as martial artists. Both are far more credible as marksman or gunfighters, something they seldom demonstrated in the season.
It is also difficult to understand who the target audience was for this show. Some of the dialogue and action suggests it is aimed at a family-oriented crowd. The low-intensity violence and lack of murders until the final episodes all suggested a more PG approach to organized crime. Trying to be inclusive of kids while telling the story of a bounty hunter and his assassin friend is hard to comprehend. Both are supposed to be ruthless killers, and Tatooine is supposed to be a terrible place.The rise of a new crime lord is also not something that you expect to see in a PG-rated plot.
For young adult fans and OGs, the creators had to know this would disappoint. This version of Boba Fett is a sad shadow of the legendary character. It is as if they didn’t even try to deliver the Boba Fett fans imagined in their heads. They raised the white flag before the first season aired.
To be positive, some of the costumes were cool and there were some high moments. The rancor versus scorpion droids was pretty cool. The wookiee bounty hunter costume was pretty cool, although apparently he is invincible. On the other side, the mod gang of street urchins was laughable. From the color coded power ranger hover bikes that could not exceed 20 mph to the out of place costumes. Someone also needs to explain how a woman could remain so pale while living on a desert planet. Is there a mod for that? Why are there raver kids with cheap cybernetic implants hanging out on Tatooine at all? They looked nothing like the other residents of the dusty desert city.
The civilians were equally weak, even stereotypical. These are people who have lived under harsh rulers for their entire lives. How is that they seem so comically befuddled? The mayor’s advisor being a prime example, along with the water seller. With these stereotypes it was nearly impossible to take Mos Espa seriously.
The show definitely drank from the fan service well, which Disney should know by now is giving out diminishing returns. The Mandalorian executed it well because the primary drivers of that show were the new characters and the new story. Ahsoka, Boba, and Luke Skywalker all became involved to help Din Djarin but it is his story they’re advancing, not their own.
In this case, Din Djarin and Grogu advance their own story, setting up the next season of their show. The same goes for Luke and Grogu’s interaction, which really had a lot more to do with Din Djarin than Boba. Ahsoka and Luke have an all too brief moment, which I personally was dying for but understand why it didn’t carry long. There’s is a different story. Cad Bane was a good addition and a good main boss, so he is an exception. Still, most of the other cameos distracted from Boba’s story rather than supporting it.
In the end, I don’t know if a new season can save this deeply troubled show. At minimum, Boba needs to level up and there needs to be a lot more character development of Fennec Shand. The action and political maneuvering need serious upgrades as well. Drop the mod hover bike gang, maybe rethink the music, and decide whether you want to be a family show or a PG-13 action show for the full 18-49 demographic.
That is a tall order and given Disney’s track record, I am not optimistic.