By: Daniel Laney
Hello, Mizzou! This is Daniel Laney with MUTV Entertainment news. On February 9th, Disney+ wrapped up this season of their latest Star Wars show, The Book of Boba Fett. It’s essentially an interlude to their hit series The Mandalorian, but the audience and critics alike found this show to be not up to par with its sibling show. Rotten Tomatoes displays drastically different audience scores, with The Mandalorian sitting at 91% and The Book of Boba Fett at a dismaying 60%. Fair warning, I will be mentioning slight spoilers throughout this piece.
The Mandalorian hinted at the return of Boba Fett throughout its first two seasons. At the end of season 2, we finally saw Temuera Morrison return on screen as the iconic character. When the season finished, fans were excited to learn that he would be getting his own show the following year, watching him take the place of Jabba the Hutt as the big league space gangster. But during its release, some fans were disappointed to find Boba Fett as more of a local hero rather than the crime lord the teasers hinted at. The show explains this change of character by flashing back to Boba escaping near death and finding home in a Tusken raider tribe shortly after his appearance in Return of the Jedi.
These flashbacks hardly aid the narrative. In fact, they hold back the show from progressing at a natural pace. These time jumps only go back as far as what would be called the “character rebirth” from his near-death experience. And there’s so little of his character throughout the movies and shows, so the audience is essentially denied any real character growth. Furthermore, the flashbacks interrupt the present-day narrative, leaving very little actual tension or excitement presented towards the overall plot.
But surely, once the flashbacks are over and there’s one timeline, The Book of Boba Fett has a singular, clean story to follow. Well, that’s where the show fumbles the most. Episodes five and six out of seven instead follow Din Djarin from The Mandalorian, essentially picking up from that show’s story for two straight episodes, with the titular character making almost no appearances.
Episode seven was released with mixed reviews. It had some decent action, some lackluster villains, and the open-ended death of an underused side character. There are a lot of other complaints I won’t get into. There’s certainly still plenty to get from the show. The Book of Boba Fett is full of great cameos, lines, and beats that people can look back and rewatch. There’s no word yet on a season 2, but Star Wars fans have plenty of shows and games to look forward to this year.
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