Second Thoughts | The Book of Boba Fett
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Not only did this Disney+ series not live up to expectations but it devolved into grownups playing with action figures
by Dennis Burger
February 21, 2022
Rarely have I seen a series launch with so much potential and squander it so spectacularly as did The Book of Boba Fett. Reflecting on the show now that it has run its course, I still stand by my review of the first episode. It was a great slow-burn setup for what promised to be a fascinating character study and a rumination on how cultural forces shape the individual.
But by the third episode, that promise was broken as the show devolved into a silly and chaotic biker-gang/cowboy/sci-fi mash-up action romp devoid of any real meaning or cohesion. And by the fifth of its seven episodes, it took a hard right turn and became the very thing I said it wasn’t in my review: The Mandalorian Season 2.5.
Oddly, that episode was one of the best of the series, but only taken in isolation. Why it wasn’t simply the first episode of The Mandalorian Season Three is beyond me, as plopping it into the middle of this spinoff rendered the entire affair narratively and thematically incoherent. And things only get worse from there. By the seventh episode, The Book of Boba Fett came across as a bunch of middle-aged men playing with Star Wars action figures more so than any attempt at creating something compelling or comprehensible. And it became so bogged down by fan service that it’s nearly impossible to take it seriously.
It’s borderline impossible to make any sense out of what this series is about, what we’re supposed to take from it, or how it in any way advances the post-Return of the Jedi storyline that continues to unfold on Disney+. Because, in the end, Boba Fett himself sort of meanders, and The Mandalorian’s storyline lazily reverts to the status quo ante, undoing all of the gripping character progression that happened in the second season of his own series. I honestly haven’t seen this concerted an effort to undo what came before since J.J. Abrams’ ham-fisted attempt at erasing The Last Jedi from existence with the hatchet-job whose name I will not utter here.
If you’re a hardcore Star Wars fan, it’s a safe bet you’ve already slogged through this mess and my warning is too late. If, though, you’re a more casual fan who enjoyed The Mandalorian and want to stay abreast of what’s going on in that narrative thread, my recommendation would be to peruse the episode recaps on Wookieepedia and save yourself some time. None of it will make a lick of sense, but none of it made any sense in real-time, either.
Dennis Burger is an avid Star Wars scholar, Tolkien fanatic, and Corvette enthusiast who somehow also manages to find time for technological passions including high-end audio, home automation, and video gaming. He lives in the armpit of Alabama with his wife Bethany and their four-legged child Bruno, a 75-pound American Staffordshire Terrier who thinks he’s a Pomeranian.
Why “Second Thoughts”?
Reviewing series is always a challenge. If you weigh in after everything’s wrapped up, you run the risk of being late to the party and offering up your insights when the world has already moved on to pastures new. Ideally, you want to go on the record early enough to give the reader a sense of whether they should commit to something for its duration—but then the show might blindside you in a big way, for the good or the bad. So we’re launching this department to give our writers a chance to offer some sometimes badly needed additional perspective when a series doesn’t turn out quite how they expected.
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