The Book of Boba Fett works for me

Update: 

Having now seen 6 of the 7 shows, I'm back to wondering what TheBook of Boba Fett is supposed to be about. Judging by ep#5 and #6, not Boba Fett. I'll keep watching out of curiosity but I do wonder what the producers were smoking when they set this show up. It has morphed into The Mandalorian.

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Although I'm an unabashed Star Wars fan, I've found Disney's movie offerings in the franchise sadly lacking, most especially in originality. They were weak rehashes of the original trilogy and a meh attempt at Han Solo's backstory which flopped at the box office.I've had a lot to say about that in the past. 

The only really good movie was Rogue One, which took the instigating event for the very first Star Wars movie (that was the bit explained in the crawler rolling up the screen - see below) and expanded it into a real story - with brand new characters and no Force.

Disney seems to have learnt the lesson. The series The Mandalorian was a breath of fresh air. It lives in the Star Wars galaxy with many familiar references to ground fans like me but the story is fresh and interesting.

The Book of Boba Fett picks up on a minor chracter from the first trilogy, a bounty hunter who finds the Millennium Falcon and meets his 'death' in Return of The Jedi. In the prequel movie Attack of the Clones we learn that Boba is the cloned son of Jango Fett, the warrior whose DNA was used to clone all the storm troopers. Jango is killed in that film.

In the first chapter of The Book of Boba Fett, we see Boba reliving in flashback his escape from the Sarlacc (Return of the Jedi). Lying exhausted on the desert sand next to the remains of Jabba's sail barge, Jawas come along, steal his armor, and leave him to die. Then the Sand People arrive.

I'll leave it at that for those who haven't seen it yet.

The reviews indicate many people are less than impressed. Boba Fett became something of a cult hero in the fandom, so quite a few viewers of the new series will have had their own ideas of what the character should be and episode one did not deliver their expectations. I didn't see it that way.

The first episode is of necessity back story. Everybody wants to know how he escaped from the Almighty Sarlacc. That's not given a lot of screen time which didn't bother me, but apparently upset others.

As the episode progresses we learn a lot about the man who wears the (retrieved) armor. He's tough, a survivor, but like most humans, he's not invincible. This is not a super hero (or super villain) show. I particularly liked the way the writers evoked layers of character. No one is all good and noble. No one is simply evil. We also learn a lot about the Sand People and how they live in an unforgiving environment. That detail helps to give the setting depth.

What I thought was lacking in the first episode is where the story is taking us. In The Mandalorian we learnt very early that the show was all about The Child. But after seeing Episode 2, I think it's pretty clear. The Book of Boba Fett is all about Boba Fett. Each episode has two arcs: what Boba is doing now, having retrieved his armor in The Mandalorian, and another which shows what happened to him in his past life, in other words the events that made the man he now is. But now, having seen all but the last show, I'm back to that question - what is the show about? (See update at the star of this post)

Moving right along, I will be producing a monthly newsletter about books, writing, my current WIP, offers in the book world, and the like. If you think you'd be interested, here is my sign-up page.

If you're looking for new reading material for 2022, check out this bundle. As the poster says, these are romantic scifi novels. The 'blush free' bit means the sex scenes are non-explicit and infrequent. The romance is still there, but it's more about the action and adventure. Here's the link.

Better be quick - it finishes at the end of the month.