Streaming on: Disney +
Episodes viewed: 1 of 7
“As you wish.”
“He’s no good to me dead.”
“What if he doesn’t survive?” He’s worth a lot to me.”
“Put Captain Solo in the cargo hold.”
Since his film debut in 1980, a lot of mythological scaffolding has been erected around bounty hunter Boba Fett, a character who, in the original trilogy, speaks four lines (five if you count “arrghhhhhh” in Episode VI) in a total of eleven scenes. Much of Fett’s appeal is built around his cool look and wicked ambiguity, coalescing to create the most unknowable character in the Star Wars galaxy. After George Lucas began to puncture the enigma in Attack Of The Clones (Get ‘im dad!”), now Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Robert Rodriguez (who directs this first episode) peek further behind the olive-green breast plate to sketch both the past and present of the mercenary’s mercenary. The result is a solid, always enjoyable, if slightly unremarkable start.
Whatever you say about The Book Of Boba Fett’s chapter one — ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ —Favreau, Filoni and Rodriguez go for it from the off. With Fett submerged in Bacta fluid, we see disturbed memories of his past life; the rain-swept Kamino, the battlefield of Geonosis and a (not particularly satisfactory) answer to the big question that has fascinated Fettishists for years. Most of the flashback picks up Fett as a prisoner of a band of Tusken Raiders, the bounty hunter sharing screen time with a pink Rodian and a particularly rabid watch dog: these Dune Sea sequences involve a lot of wandering around the desert (the word for water in Star Wars is…water), pesky youngling Sand People and a thrilling nod to Ray Harryhausen. What it doesn’t feel is essential.
The result is a solid, always enjoyable, if slightly unremarkable start.
The episode feels more interesting when it moves to the present tense. The showrunners have made no bones that The Book Of Boba Fett owes a h/t (helmet tip) to_The Godfather_ and, while no-one wakes up with a Bantha head in their bed (yet), the series opener is full of gangster business to make Michael Corleone feel at home. These sequences have fun with the newly minted “Lord” Fett trying to find his feet as a capo, realising he needs a protocol droid when he is holding court, coming to terms with lording it over people he used to work for and debating with Fennec Shand about being carried through the streets like Jabba as a mark of power.
It’s fun stuff. screenwriter Favreau finding a nice line in tough guy talk (“Even when a Tradoshan pays you a compliment, it sounds like a threat”) and early character set-ups show promise; a mayor who sends major-domo to welcome Fett rather than turn up himself (much to Boba’s annoyance), a Twi’lek bar owner (Jennifer Beals) who runs a palatial Mos Espa watering hole (it’s a bit All Bar One meets Sanctuary spa). As an episode, the connective tissue is about Fett’s search for respect; in one strand he finds it, in another he is yet to gain it.
As you might expect from director Rodriguez, who has his own lone wolf franchise in the El Mariachi films, the action is strong, a street fight — hello kick-ass Gamorrean guards — and a parkour chase being the pick of a bunch. It also moves along at a fair lick and is visually punchy; Tusken Raiders emerge from sandstorms, POV shots through Fett’s T-visor and a cool suiting up montage plays out to the most bombastic score. As an episode there is nothing to blow you away — no big twists or reveals — but the chemistry between Morrison and Wen is engaging and, it 100% feels like Star Wars. But, as to whether Fett is better to remain a galactic man of mystery, the jury is still out.
