Tom Jolliffe looks at a major reason why Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett is underwhelming: its title character…
Some folk have that shining moment in the sun. There’s something they’ve done and they can dine out on it forever. You could be an average football player, but score a winning goal in a cup final and you’re destined for cult hero-dom. Then there’s Boba Fett, the iconic bounty hunter whose fleeting, near silent appearances in two of the original Star Wars trilogy films transformed him into a mythical figure of lore. Fett’s cool costume and jet back dazzled young audiences and his total ambiguity lead to much playground conjecture on the subject of ‘the Fett.’
Breaking down Fett’s contribution in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and one thing becomes clear… his reputation is built on fans filling in the gaps. It’s built on his toy being one of the cooler in the OG toy lines. The reality was, Fett did little to prove he was much of a hunter. In Empire Strikes Back, the job of retrieving Han Solo on behalf of Jabba the Hut was made simple by the intervention of Darth Vader. Solo, was handed to Fett on a frozen carbonite plate. In Return of the Jedi, he’s thoroughly bested by Luke Skywalker before being unceremoniously dumped inside a Sarlacc Pit. The prequels, as well as the vast array of spinoff stories/comics etc, have fleshed out the Fett lineage, from Daddy Jango, to Boba as a boy. Step forward to 2020 and Boba returned to screens inside the home, with a significant guest spot on The Mandalorian. We were seeing under the helmet, in a show centered around the lore behind the armour Fett wears and its significance, even if he wasn’t a genuine Mando. Still, it was a pleasing guest spot in a great show which set Disney Plus off in good stead for their IP production lines.
Naturally, a Boba solo show was always going to be one of the key headliners for the vast array of Star Wars shows being fired out for Disney. Maybe the success of Mandalorian set a bar too high to hit consistently. Maybe Mando was coming from different angles, which made those nostalgic nods to the original trilogy all the more pleasing. Maybe we were a little blinded to filler episodes by Baby Yoda. The result though… Mando was great and The Book of Boba Fett is kind of mundane. It’s just as polished and nicely put together as Mando, but it lacks something. The perpetual time jumps and slightly tiresome diversions have also hamstrung a show that is weighted by the cult fandom of Fett, which again was originally based on little more than a cool costume. Book of Boba though, is as rambunctiously jumpy as a sugar addled toddler. It has an inability to focus, to make sense. It tells a story, much like my 5 year old retells stories from her school day (some entertainment sure, but narratively confused let’s say). If this has an overriding arc (and just over half way in, we’ll undoubtedly see strands beginning to find closure), it’s getting lost somewhat by scattershot timeline jumps, a needless episode showing the introduction of the now well established Fennec Shand, and the Mando episode.
Here’s the biggest issue so far with Boba’s debut season. The best episodes by a long way, featured very little of Fett himself. In fact, it’s been dubbed the Mando season 3 warm up act. Yes, Disney+’s poster boy launcher Mando returned with his own little diversion episode, linking in his reconnection with Fett, as well as tying off one of his story arcs from season 2. There is something Mando has had throughout two seasons, that Fett’s legacy was always built on (but has been left behind now). It’s mystique. Part of that is the suit, the costume, that iconic look (and almost never taking off the helmet). Boba Fett has suffered a lot from Stallone/Judge Dredd syndrome. When Stallone delivered his big budget comic book adaptation of the cult graphic novel series it had an array of issues. For one, it was pretty shit (I guiltily admit, I enjoy it a lot though). Second, it was far more a Sly Stallone movie than a Dredd movie and Stallone all but dumps his helmet in the trash after the opening scene. Third… Rob Schneider. Mando almost covered a big chunk of what many fans might have expected to see from a Fett show. By the time Book of Boba came around, the helmet almost had to come off, if only to avoid repeating Mando too much.
There is still plenty to like about The Book of Boba Fett. Some of the better elements have still allowed some enjoyable spectacle. There have been some pleasing guest stars too, with Jennifer Beals and Danny Trejo. Additionally, Fennec Shand is great. Hang on…what? Ming-Na Wen is how old? No way. Does not compute. Wen in fact is the lynchpin, just about holding the show together (and yeah, aside from looking astonishing for 58, she also kicks ass). Temuera Morrison is usually great. Usually, but not particularly in the Star Wars universe. He’s a little stiff here, a bit laboured. Fett is played with a staunch stoicism you’d expect as the character becomes almost an Eastwoodian archetype (on Tatooine). It’s not entirely down to Morrison mind you. His arcs haven’t been that enthralling. Becoming part of the sand people was spread thin, and now that’s played out, there’s not been much to replace that. Then his ascent and grip on power feels like its edging slowly to a point, but laboriously so. Filler episodes or jumps to what is essentially a Mando episode don’t particularly help. The trouble is, when you’re creating a lot of lore, without much material to run off, but a weight of fan expectation, it can be difficult. Mando came from the ground up to an extent, a newer mythology. As such, it worked (and it retained an alluring mystique).
All this points to though, is a problem no show should have. A boring protagonist. I’ve oft wondered now whether we live in a time of passable entertainment and films. Where something just needs to be a place setter before the next thing. Is this merely adequately holding court whilst Mando season 3 or Obi-Wan season 1 are being put through the spit and shine? If you take Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi for example, it will be a show that can expand upon some Jedi lore, whilst also bringing back an iconic character with far more rounded and fleshed out arcs already cemented in celluloid. You would hope that Obi-Wan’s journey from Revenge of the Sith to A New Hope offers plenty of interesting caveats to delve into. It’s just hoped the show won’t feel like it’s been churned out to fill another gap until the next entity is churned out. The Book of Boba Fett, sadly, feels a little bit filler. It has fans, but there can’t be many who feel it reaches the great height of The Mandalorian. We might well say the same about a lot of the Marvel shows too, that some feel laboured and uninteresting. That perpetual need to wring out every possible IP of every last drop, is going to load the channel with a lot of filler, and perhaps a dearth of killer. In truth though, the Disney era of Star Wars has ranged from dire to passably forgettable, with the exception of The Mandalorian. This is the way (I guess).
In the end, we have the Boba Fett Paradox. A character so inherently cool during 5 minute cameo walk-ons in the early 80’s, but the more we see of him and the more we learn, the less interesting he appears to be. Fans wanted it, they’ve craved more and more for years. For me, if there’s one character here far more deserving of a solo show, it’s Shand. So tell me, are you happy with how the Boba Fett series has turned out? Let us know your thoughts on our social channels @flickeringmyth…
Tom Jolliffe is an award winning screenwriter and passionate cinephile. He has a number of films out on DVD/VOD around the world and several releases due out in 2021/2022, including, Renegades (Lee Majors, Danny Trejo, Michael Pare, Tiny Lister, Nick Moran, Patsy Kensit, Ian Ogilvy and Billy Murray), Crackdown, When Darkness Falls and War of The Worlds: The Attack (Vincent Regan). Find more info at the best personal site you’ll ever see here.
