TV SHOW REVIEW - The Book Of Boba Fett: Season 1
By The Masked Medic
Part of the disadvantage of having this backlog of TV shows to watch is that sometimes I’ll be sitting somewhere and people will go, ‘Have you watched that show yet? It’s so good!’. The majority of the time, it’s a show that I’ve most certainly got on my list but just haven’t got round to watching, because I’ll be re-watching one of the CW shows from ages ago! But I would be an absolute fool not to have made my way back into the Star Wars universe given that I’m up to date with it! So without further ado, I present to you, my review of Season 1 of ‘The Book of Boba Fett’.
Season 1 tells the story of what happened to Boba Fett between the events of ‘Return of the Jedi’ and the second season of ‘The Mandalorian. The first few episodes switch between the present and the past, so for the sake of this review, it’ll be easier if I deal with each individually. The story in the past starts with Boba waking up in the Sarlacc Pit in which he was left following the events of ‘The Return of the Jedi’. Evidently, his armour made from Beskar has saved him. He pulls himself out but in the attempt, exhausts himself. His gear and armour are raided by a group of Jawas and he’s left in the sand, only to be found by a tribe of Tuskens who capture him. Initially their prisoner, he soon gains their respect and begins to live alongside them. One day, when they are attacked, by mysterious gunmen on a mechanical train, Boba decides to take the train down, whilst training the Tuskens in a new kind of warfare. The trains belong to an organization called the ‘Pike Syndicate’ who are defeated and Boba makes them agree to pay the Tuskens for mining in their territory. Following a deal gone wrong, however, Boba returns to find his new family decimated by an unknown enemy. Cut to present day, and Boba, along with a rescued Fennec Shand has taken over Jabba the Hutt’s old territory. Boba wants to bring order to his patch of Tatooine however finds that enemies lurk everywhere. Initially believing that Jabba’s nephew and niece are responsible for messing with him, he soon learns that it’s not always the obvious suspect. He begins to have run-ins with the mayor of Mos Eisley and is never satisfied with the meetings. Despite his best efforts to recruit allies to his cause, a familiar enemy steps out of the shadows and Boba must look to old friends to answer his call and protect his new home!
Having watched the first two seasons of ‘The Mandalorian’ I’ve repeatedly commented that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni have done a tremendous job of solidifying the Star Wars lore whilst bringing in a whole new host of fans. ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ does much of the same. Here we have a mysterious character and despite the best efforts of the original screenwriters, rather obsolete in the original trilogy that now has a new lease of life and we stay tuned to see what it is. I became invested in Boba’s story pretty quickly and found myself really enjoying the character development. The addition of Fennec to his team was also fun to watch because she’s clearly the pragmatist and he’s got all these dreams of essentially having his own family. The flashback scenes served the show well and were a little reminiscent of those I’d seen in ‘Arrow’ all those years ago. These scenes were also done well given that there can be a little confusion when watching flashback scenes as to the chronology of events. I couldn’t talk about this show without mentioning The Mandalorian. He returns in episode 5 and to be honest it was one of the best episodes despite not having anything to do with Boba’s story. It does however make me wonder as to the longevity of interest that Boba can inspire given that the majority of people watching, including The Meticulous Marauder, were only talking about Din Djarin.
Temura Morrison returns as Boba Fett and given that he’d played Jango Fett all those years ago, there clearly wasn’t anyone else who was right for the job. He bought real depth and a range of emotions to Boba. I also have to point out that I saw his Instagram post in which he showed his training for the role and that there was a lot of body shaming being done, which made me very sad. It’s awesome that actors train meticulously for their roles, but shaming them based on what they look like is not on. Temura. Doubt you’ll see this, but you did an awesome job! His right-hand man, or should I say, woman, Fennec Shand was played by Ming-Na Wen. As pointed out to me several times whilst we were watching the last few episodes of this, she voiced the iconic Disney character Mulan and there are numerous moments when we can hear those recognizable tones! Pedro Pascal returns as The Mandalorian, Din Djarin and something which I always find remarkable is that even though I can’t see his face, you know exactly what emotion is under that helmet with the quality of acting. The only characters I didn’t particularly connect with were the Mod Squad who for some reason were all British. I mean I’m not saying in the vastness of the Star Wars universe there aren’t characters that have a British accent, it’s just that these guys seemed well out of place, aha!
The budgets for these shows must only increase every time the directors and writers want to make another season and with the quality of cinematography seen, I’d pay whatever they wanted if I was Disney. The sets were incredible, the costumes were perfect, and even the aliens looked amazing. But there was one clear highlight of the cinematography in this show and that was the extremely impressive CGI. Without giving away any spoilers there were two characters in particular where I was just blown away with how good the special effects were. There may well come a time when other characters of old, including Leia and Han Solo, could appear in these shows and they could manage with CGI. Finally touching on the music. Ludwig Gorannson returns as composer of the music and he creates another fantastic theme song. I’m definitely going to be blasting that on my evening drives home.
Overall, Favreau, Filoni and the rest of Lucasfilm have done a tremendous job at breathing some life into an old and somewhat forgotten character. The story was on point. The acting was on point. The action was on point. The CGI was on point. The music, you guessed it, on point. And the finale set up the next season of ‘The Mandalorian’ so well! This may well be some of the only Star Wars property out there that has not been divisive for fans. We all love it!
Rating:
Story: ★★★★
Acting: ★★★★
Filmography: ★★★★½
Integral vs Filler Episodes: ★★★½
Enjoyability: ★★★½