So I went into this first episode with a certain amount of trepidation. Would this be The Mandalorian mark two, or just another Falcon and the Winter Soldier? And just what was The Book of Boba Fett hiding anyway?<\/p>\n
The answer, as it turned out? Not\u00a0that<\/em> much. There\u2019s no big Baby Yoda-style twist awaiting in episode one, changing the series as we knew it. Instead, most of the episode is left filling in the gaps in Boba\u2019s backstory, explaining how he got to where we find him today.<\/p> As a piece of blatant fan service, The Book of Boba Fett doesn\u2019t mess about. Within the opening four minutes we see flashbacks of Boba\u2019s time on Kamino, the death of his father Jango (who knew the much-maligned Attack of the Clones would be such a touchstone?) and, of course, fans\u2019 long-argued question \u2013 just how did Boba Fett escape the Sarlacc Pit he flew into during Return of the Jedi?<\/p>\n As it turns out, he does it fairly easily thanks to his trademark flamethrower \u2013 he gets more trouble from a gang of Jawas who steal his armour afterwards \u2013 before being captured by some Tusken Raiders, whose children hit him with sticks for fun. Truly, this was Boba Fett\u2019s Terrible, Horrible, no good, very bad day.<\/p>\n The first episode leans quite heavily on these flashbacks, experienced by Boba as dreams while he\u2019s snoozing in a bacta tank. They quite handily fill in the gaps between his last film (Return of the Jedi) appearance and his comeback last year in The Mandalorian, though at some point viewers might start wondering \u2013 are we actually going to tell some new story here?<\/p>\n Happily, we do eventually pick up in the \u201cpresent day\u201d of the series, where Boba is struggling to take control as the new crime lord of Tattooine. Surprisingly, this is where Boba Fett reveals its vein of\u2026comedy? Which is a slightly unusual development for a series based around the most taciturn, badass tertiary Star Wars character of all time, but it works. Morrison plays the older Boba as a slightly wry, pragmatic man trying to introduce a less violent method of criminal control.<\/p>\n \u201cJabba ruled with fear; I intend to rule with respect,\u201d he says, in what may be something of a tagline for the series. Obviously, it doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n Some of the wacky aliens who come to greet him are insolent; later, he\u2019s attacked in the street and brought to the ground, in an exciting if brief action sequence that shows Jabba the Hutt\u2019s iconic pig-guards (aka the Gamorreans) in a new, more formidable light. It\u2019s only the actions of his number-two Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen, another returning from the Mandalorian) that hint towards a brighter future, with her more ruthless instincts and penchant for impressive, high-flying martial arts.<\/p>\n Boba\u2019s new ethos is an interesting reworking of a character who, lest we forget, was a villain of the original Star Wars trilogy, who worked for the Empire and appeared to have a personal vendetta against Han Solo (Harrison Ford). This Boba, by contrast, is a gruff action hero type, a spacefaring John McClane able to fight off legendary monsters with only a bit of chain and reluctant to inflict violence on those who don\u2019t deserve it. It sort of holds together, though it\u2019s possible it\u2019ll slightly dilute the character\u2019s mystique going forward.<\/p>\n In more flashbacks, it\u2019s this fighting ability that finally earns him the respect of the Tusken Raiders, presumably explaining how he picked up a set of robes and one of their weapons by the time he met up with Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) in The Mandalorian. It\u2019s unclear whether that\u2019s it for the flashbacks, or whether there\u2019s more to be revealed \u2013 considering we saw him get his armour back onscreen, there\u2019s not that<\/em> much more that needs telling, but that might not stop this series from telling it.<\/p>\n Overall this is a solid, slightly unremarkable first episode that leans a little too much on the past, in a series that\u2019s arguably doing that with its entire concept. Nothing in the flashbacks particularly surprised me \u2013 who would have thought Boba could escape the Sarlacc by shooting it a bit? Not me! \u2013 and they were so long that we barely saw anything of the main plot. What actually happened in this opening episode? Boba is the new boss, and not everyone is going along with it. We\u2019re basically in the status we opened the episode with.<\/p>\n However. However, however. I do have to admit that like the Mandalorian before it, it\u2019s hard to deny how much fun this series is to watch anyway. The Star Wars world feels fully realised, the action and characterisation are strong, and generally speaking its muscular, old-fashioned storytelling that you don\u2019t see much on TV any more.<\/p>\n This is a pretty imperfect first episode, but maybe it had to be to get the series going. Certainly, I remember being a little underwhelmed by the first episode of The Mandalorian, and look where that took us in the end.<\/p>\n For now, I\u2019ll be watching the Book of Boba Fett carefully. Hopefully, it still has some secrets to reveal.<\/p>\n The Book of Boba Fett releases new episodes on Disney Plus on Wednesdays. For more, check out our dedicated Sci-Fi<\/a> page or our full TV Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Huw Fullerton Published: Wednesday, 29 December 2021 at 12:00 am It\u2019s fair to say that The Book of Boba Fett is one of the most mysterious Disney Plus TV shows. Initially held back from Lucasfilm\u2019s big announcement of Star Wars shows (so that it could be unveiled at the end of The Mandalorian season […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":9331,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/the-book-of-boba-fett-episode-1-review-boba-is-back-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/the-book-of-boba-fett-episode-1-review-boba-is-back-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/the-book-of-boba-fett-episode-1-review-boba-is-back-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/the-book-of-boba-fett-episode-1-review-boba-is-back-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/the-book-of-boba-fett-episode-1-review-boba-is-back-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/the-book-of-boba-fett-episode-1-review-boba-is-back-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/the-book-of-boba-fett-episode-1-review-boba-is-back-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Huw Fullerton Published: Wednesday, 29 December 2021 at 12:00 am It\u2019s fair to say that The Book of Boba Fett is one of the most mysterious Disney Plus TV shows. Initially held back from Lucasfilm\u2019s big announcement of Star Wars shows (so that it could be unveiled at the end of The Mandalorian season…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/9330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""Temuera\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/book_of_boba_fett_ming_na_wen_temuera_morrison-4aeb613.jpeg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"book_of_boba_fett_ming_na_wen_temuera_morrison\"\\"\/")
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