The premiere of The Book of Boba Fett was underwhelming. It was cloudy, muddled, and gave no real indication of why Boba Fett was trying to become a crime lord or why we should care. It was an exercise in low stakes and a scenario I could not care less about.
Episode two comes along, provides some context, and suddenly it makes sense. Suddenly, I actually care. I’m wondering why no one bothered to put any of this stuff in episode one, but at least we have some reason to care about what Boba Fett is doing now.
As a result, it’s a much more entertaining experience and there is a lot more for Boba to lose and, while I admit that I’m not crazy about the beats that the show is borrowing from westerns — now we’ve moved on to the white savior trope – I’m at least invested in what’s going on.
Not to say that the series has become perfect because it most certainly is not. I find that I’m a lot more interested in what happens in the flashbacks than I am in what is happening in the so-called present as the flashbacks and Boba clawing his way back from the brink are just more interesting than watching him parade around Mos Espa and trade civil quips with other crime lords.
The action setting of raiding the train — another Western throwback – was a lot of fun and a very exciting and well-staged action piece. Probably one of the better action pieces in all of Star Wars if you want to know my opinion.
The trouble is, with Boba Fett borrowing beats from westerns that we already know, there’s very little surprise in where it goes meaning that I’m reasonably certain what Boba Fett’s ultimate plan to combat the crime lords already is and it’s only the second episode.
I could be wrong, but given this series love affair with the familiar, I’m pretty sure I’m not.
However, can I fangirl a bit about Black Krrsantan from the comics showing up right out of the blue? I want more of this guy already!
Jason Gaston 