The Book of Boba Fett season 1: The Rise Of A Space Crime Lord

Written by Mike

The Book Boba Fett series on Disney+, a spin-off from the hit Disney+ show The Mandalorian, takes place almost completely on the desert planet of Tatooine. Like its predecessor, the show has a gritty down-to-earth feeling to it (although to a lesser extent). It is a character study that brings back one of the most beloved bounty hunters from that galaxy far far away, but Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) will no longer be relegated to serving the powerful fools of the criminal underworld. From now on, he will be his own master.

The show tells the story of the fearsome bounty hunter carving out his own criminal empire amongst the sands of Tatooine after the fall of Jabba the Hutt. The criminal underworld is a dangerous place however, and the other factions of the desert planet will not so easily allow power to change hands without their chance at the throne. Boba Fett must gather his allies and prepare for nothing less than war. Can Fett change himself from a simple man making his way through the galaxy into the criminal kingpin of Tatooine or will he die at the hands of his enemies like his father before him?

The series has 7 episodes ranging from 39 to 61 minutes long. The episodes, for the most part, do not waste any time. There was only one time when I felt that an episode dragged on, but it was not too egregious in my opinion. The show is divided into three arcs; Boba Fett and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) building up their criminal organization, flashbacks of Boba Fett’s past, and the story of another character which I will omit to avoid spoilers. The flashbacks reveal the story of how Fett survived the sarlacc pit, and what happened afterward. These make up a good portion of the first half of the show, and it could be argued that they are some of the best parts of the story. These flashbacks not only bridge the gap for the time period in which Boba Fett was considered dead, but also serve as a way for the character to develop from a merciless and enigmatic figure into a stoic man of honor and respect.

Temuera Morrison does a great job reprising his role as Boba Fett especially considering his age and what he went through physically to prepare for the role. One thing that I do need to note is that this is a different Boba than people may be expecting. In this series Boba Fett has turned a new leaf and acts as a crime boss rather than an enforcer, this means that we see more of him using an intimidating presence and his negotiation skills rather than ruthless murder. Fennec Shand is Fett’s right hand man and serves very well as a skilled enforcer, quick witted negotiator, and friend and partner to our main protagonist. One of the coolest characters in the show is, of course, Black Krrsantan played by Carey Jones. If you love the badass alien race that is wookies, then this character is for you. Krrsantan is a champion pit fighter-turned-bounty hunter that is pulled into the underworld conflict on Tatooine. It was great to see this Star Wars comic character brought to live action where we finally get to see a wookie put fists to faces like never before. The last person that I want to mention is David Pasquesi who plays (the unnamed character) Mok Shaiz’s Majordomo and steals the show almost every time that he is on screen due to excellent acting and writing. The majordomo plays an interesting role being that he serves as both comic relief and minor antagonist, but at times is forced to help Boba Fett due to his cowardness, incompetence, and complete lack of martial skill.

I give Boba Fett a rating of Above Average on my five tiered scale (Bad, Below Average, Average, Above Average, Excellent). I understand that there are many people who wanted to see more action and less talking coming from Boba Fett himself, but given the nature of his story arc in the show I think that the writing for his character was appropriate. Being a crime lord would require more talking and less hands-on fighting for the character. I also want to add that we actually do get quite a bit of “badassery” from Mr. Fett especially in flashbacks and the climax. There were things that I didn’t like; such as the speeder bike chase scene that was shot in such a way that you could clearly see that the vehicles were moving at a snail’s pace, and I wasn’t a big fan of the gang of cyborg teenagers known as The Mods. Altogether, I think that the show was written and acted well, and has set up Boba Fett as a major player in the future of Star Wars. I cannot wait to see what they do with this character in the future.