This season actually reminded me of why I stopped reading Marvel and DC comics. I'd get invested in a story, in a specific arc, but once, maybe twice a year it would get completely derailed by making the series part of some big company-wide crossover event.
This comment really hit me hard. Plus the inconsistencies. It feels less like multiple writers playing in a singular sandbox but instead multiple sandboxes making for a mess.
My problem with the show was that it could have taken the Space Western of Star Wars and crossed it with a Mob Drama. A Man Called Horse mashed up with The Godfather. But there doesn't seem to be any commitment to concept. Din Djarin could have made an appearance and not have it turn into Mandalorian Season 2.5. This should have been Boba's and Fennec's stories. If they didn't want to focus on the underworld or the people of the Outer Rim, then why make this show?
@@aureum7479 except the good, the bad and the ugly had a standoff between 3 masterful gun slingers who all wanted to kill each other because they were coveting the same treasure. It was the climax of the film. Meanwhile, this stand off was cool without a doubt and a great introduction to Cade Bane but that's it. And then they wasted his character with the lamest stand off in star wars with an extremely unsatisfying death. Wtf
They were engrossed in telling the story they wanted to tell and focused less on fan's expectations on BF. They ruined BF (which I think is still recoverable maybe he can change) and injected their vision of Star Wars which hurt the show. I'm still in for the ride bcuz of how good Filoni/Favreau's vision of Star Wars is.
I absolutely agree with your analysis. I was so bummed to see Grogu return to Mando so quick. Wiping out all that was created in the previous two seasons with one swifts stroke.
Yeah. It reeks of “Disney wanted Grogu back for season 3 because they didn’t expect him to become popular” (you have to keep in mind that season 2 of The Mandalorian was already in production when season 1 was first released, so it was kinda too late to change the ending)
They did this before with Luke throwing away the lightsaber just for a Joke in the movie. The writing is the worst Thing in the History of storytelling. Because they have no artistic pretensions. They just follow a formula that repeats itself over and over again.
The crime boss story was a mess. They really needed to do a better job of setting up the criminal underground, who the players are, how they operate, how Boba was planning to take over and how he was planning to replace the worst criminal activities with legitimate businesses. It doesn't have to be super detailed like The Wire, where they showed every level of a criminal organization, but they should have done enough worldbuilding so that you at least had more than just vague guesses of how the criminal underground works.
This show would have made more sense if they showed bob's rise to power rather than him trying to maintain power. Would have made his motivation more clear
Exactly. It was just a bunch of words about doing things better but nothing was shown about why the gangs are so bad. I'm not even sure what businesses any of them had besides the one casino.
It was also weird that he was considered the main crime boss and in control of Mos Esba or all of Tattoine or something, but why? It was him, Fennec, and two pig dudes. Why did they pay tribute to him in the first episode or care about him at all? He had to recruit a bunch of hipster teenagers on Vespas just to have some kind of numbers.
I think you have hit it. The writers don't really know what goes on in a criminal underworld, so they couldn't write it well. Heck, what even is spice and how do they get it? The scene with the sheriff and the drug runners had me wondering why they were there. Was their manufacturing done nearby? Did a ship land and make a drop off? Is spice even illegal on a planet run by various syndicates? Why should Boba care whether it goes through or not? He wasn't the new crime boss, he was the new lawman come to clean up the town, and really, that was not the direction he should have gone. This is another example of Disney having to reform every anti-hero.
@@One.Zero.One101 Pretty much. This whole series was a Disneyfied promo for more shows and merch. I knew from the first episode they were going to ruin the Boba Fett lore.
Short answer: they wrote themselves into a corner by doing the mandalorian first. The larger proplem is two fold: the mandalorian already did the show that Boba fett should have been. And Fett is too popular for Disney to make a bad guy outright. So they tried their "they're a misunderstood anti hero" thing they do with all their antagonists now. There was nowhere for fett to go on his own. Unfortunately, this show was doomed to mediocrity from the start.
I don't think they thought mando would be this popular. It kinda screwed over boba fett. Mando is what boba fett should be in the eyes of the majority of fans.
Which to be is so stupid. It's clear they wanna take Din down the path of being Mand'Alor, so why not just leave Boba Fett as a bounty hunter? That's pathetic they couldn't think of anything to do for a simple character like Boba.
I don't think the problem is that they did The Mandalorian first; it's that The Mandalorian was a very specific solve for the problem "how do we make a Boba Fett show that isn't stupid and make the character worse in retrospect?". The fact that they then introduced Boba Fett into that very show was a bad choice. Giving him his own series was a *really* bad choice, and they had no clue how to do it or what to do with the idea at all, so they just made a big part of it The Mandalorian: Prelude to S3 - Ignore the Entire Point of the Previous Two Seasons.
I think the problem with this show was that it was marketed as "being it's own show" but then Disney went and made it about the Mandalorian. So Boba got his own show but it's more about Mando than about Boba
There were a few fun moments in this finale. However I wasn't satisfied with the ending overall. I thought alot of opportunities were missed and it could have been so much more. I actually felt the artwork at the end was more powerful than the show itself.
@The Bass Connection, see right there is an opinion i can get behind. she was concise without being whinny which is about how I felt about the episode personally
It was filled with cliches. There was a part where the mod biker guy with one robot eye did a spin to shoot his gun for absolutely no reason. Just to do a spin. At one point the final episode felt like a Star Wars parody it was so bad
Its been a strange run. I never felt all that emotionally invested in Boba's present storyline and the flashbacks felt like they held all my interest. Then Mandalorian season 3 took over and I just don't understand why they felt like they needed to put all that here. Like I enjoyed it very much but it feels entirely out of place. That reunion that happened in this finale, I almost felt no emotion at all, it felt entirely underwhelming to be placed here at all. Mando being in the show is completely fine but I don't know why they decided he should bring half of his show with him too. I have seen a lot of people say things like "how could you not like seeing Luke & Ashoka & Grogu etc." the thing is that I liked it a lot but they completely sacrificed this show for those things when they could have just had it all in Mando S3 and it would have fit in completely fine. It didn't need to be HERE at all.
I totally agree, and if the writers felt like the Grogu/Mando reunion would be awkward in mandalorian S3 then why not make that season all about Mando and Grogu feeling lost without eachother and reunite as a satisfying S3 finale?
Correct. They rushed and botched Din and Grogu's reunion - which has the effect of rendering the first two seasons of The Mandalorian (the best SW content since the OT, btw) entirely moot. It also takes away the great driving emotional subtext behind the series - the bond between father and son, and the pain of separation and drive for reunion - and trivializes it. They really couldn't let this story build legs and lead to incredible reunion in S3?? It had to be done THIS quickly? And THIS awkwardly?
I totally agree with you here. It would’ve been a fun side mission for just Mando. They had Grogu (almost immediately) give up the Jedi path and then turned around and kept on using his force abilities as the “deux ex machina”. “Is he gonna do the hand thing? Is he gonna do the hand thing? He did the hand thing!!” It just doesn’t work for me anymore.
And even then, they further assassinated Luke by making him just like the old Jedi and desiring for Grogu to break his attachments to be trained. Luke would NEVER follow that idea that a jedi must give up personal attachments. It was so bad that I just want them to leave Luke alone. And Askoha was completely pointless, just there for fan service and exposition. No actual stake in the story. This show was really bad.
@@SefniVinalonn I’m gonna piggyback off you to add that the choice actually made me lose respect for Grogu too… he gave up on being a Jedi after JUST meeting up with Luke just… because? (edit: sure because he missed Mando sooooo much, lame!) And then they’re gonna showcase his force abilities in the finale still like it’s still supposed to wow us.
It felt like The Book of Boba Fett should've been a two-parter within a season of The Mandalorian. Just narratively all over the place. Setting up the Pike Syndicate to be this big bad but apparently all you needed was a Rancor and Fennec being an assassin (i.e. herself) to take out this sinister organisation that's been running this illegal spice trade for many years. It's absolutely baffling how many plotholes there were and how quick things were resolved without any explanation. Also, what's happened with Robert Rodriguez and shootouts? He used to be awesome and clever with those sequences (see Desperado and Once upon a time in Mexico), but all the episodes he's directed and has had action in them have been so poor and boring!
This was the same thought I had watching this. There was no reason to be its own series, should’ve just been a story arc in Mandalorian season 3. The story would’ve been better off and a lot of fat could’ve been trimmed.
Actually I think that was a great idea to have "The Book of Boba Fett" be a two part episode arc within the Mandalorian Season 3 show. The first episode of Mando3 could have been this shows Episode 5 then episodes two and three be "The Book of Boba Fett" Part 1 and Part 2. That and have the episodes be a more linear format and not flashbacks. Personally, I had no issue with the flashbacks for the show in fact I liked them more then the current events but when you look at the season as a whole it didn't really payoff for me using that structure. I was hoping to see the female tusken that trained Boba show up at some point still alive to tie back to his past with them but it didn't happen. And I totally agree with the Rodriguez thing, his episodes were my least favorite of the show. The last episode was his best episode and far better then his previous but I still didn't like his episodes compared to all other episodes. Episode 2 was one of my favorites focusing on Boba & episodes 5 and 6 were some of the best episodes in star wars television. I agree that the focus was a little all over the place, I really wanted more of a focus on Cad Bane with the showdown and less about the robots & mods. I think it would be interesting to get more lore mentioned or discussed on his past with Boba. I know many who watched clone wars & other shows had all that deep backstory but for anyone who hadn't watched those shows they needed just a bit more to up the emotional stakes of these two facing off.
I was just commenting that CowBoy Bebop on Netflix was allowed to show infinitely more love to Robert Rodriguez than the scifi show actually directed by Robert Rodriguez was allowed to
I also think that narratively, re-introducing Grogu and his choice would have more weight if they had left it hanging and not produced an answer until Mando season 3. They realized they had some weakness in Boba Fett's story, and tried to glaze some of it over with an, "awwww" moment. And the whole Mando story suffers for it.
@@phoenixrising8231 why you say that like its a good thing now people who go from mandalorian season 2 to season 3 are going to feel very confused and kinda dumb because before watching season 3 they now have to watch this shitshow. We spent 2 seasons trying to find a fucking jedi to take grogu only for season 3 to start from scratch and honestly ruining a great ending.
This episode certainly had some great moments, but overall it was a major let down. Robert Rodriguez has to stay away from Star Wars in the future. All 3 episodes of this show he has directed are by far the worst, mostly look terrible and dont feel very Star Wars at all. This one again focused far too much on characters we hate. The 'mods' and the twi'lek get far too much screen time. Also Cad Bane was under used and the drawn out action sequences with the droids got kinda boring. Hate to say it again, but most of the good stuff revolved around Mando. It was nice to see Boba actually do some stuff for once but even still it was underwhelming. p.s the conclusion to Grogu's choice was a bit underwhelming too. Just drops Luke Skywalker like a bad habit? Kinda nullifies the finale to Mando season 2 and ep 6 of this and everything they promised.
I don't think Robert Rodriguez is rhe issue here. Yeah his episodes could have been better but with so many cooks in the kitchen he was probably given a list of things they were doing in the show and didn't leave him much room to do his own thing.
@@mercurialfunk Looking at episode 3 I think that was entirely down to RR. That tone is present often again here and it couldnt be more out of place. Ep 3 was an absolute disgrace. After that he doesnt deserve another shot.
Honestly depressed after this show haha. Not bc of the story, even though that was disappointing but finding out a filmmaking legend like Rodriguez either phoned it in or lost his touch. The acting and action was so poorly done in his episodes. His action has always been fun and kinetic, but the last episode was just so boring, slow, and made no sense. Krssantan hobbling down the street had me laughing in frustration. Let’s see BD Howard get her own Star War film to direct please!
Felt that Grogu going back to Mando pushed the story back. I could see Disney execs greedy with that Grogu merch money , forcing creators to add Grogu in the story.
I think it's kind of the heart of Mandolorian that he is a bounty hunter ronin type with a kid. There are alot of samurai stories like this like wolf and cub.
It works as a series of cool and fun Star Wars moments. It also works as a prologue to Mandalorian Season 3. It doesn’t, however, work very well as it’s own show. It speaks volumes that some of the best episodes felt like a different show entirely. The issue is that the characters in the main plot - basically all of Boba’s new allies - have almost no time to develop. Why should any of us care about the rebellious teens/mods joining Boba? Outside of the extended lore, why should we care about Krrsantan? Even Fennec didn’t get explored all that much. Everyone felt like they were just there to shoot blasters when needed. Then there is our protagonist - Boba. One minute he’s trying to be ruthless. Next he’s trying to be kind. His leadership never felt competent since he almost always just followed the advise of others. Episode 2 was great stuff for him, but beyond that it just wasn’t compelling. I’m very excited for Mandalorian season 3, but this show is a cautionary example of the brains behind this tv universe not entirely knowing how to tell a gripping story. Mandalorian works due to an episodic structure with a steadily advancing overarching narrative in the background. But that same style doesn’t work for a more condensed story. It felt like a lot of episodes were just the story on a treadmill. It makes me somewhat cautious about upcoming series like Kenobi and Ahsoka. And while I like all these shows being connected. They need to be careful not to be too dependant on The Mandalorian to keep people invested. If the only way to tell the story is to turn it into episodes of the Mandalorian, then why bother with another show?
They dropped the ball. It was fun, but the story was a mess. Tons of great setup, with absolutely no resolution. I just pray Kenobi does not suffer the same fate. I think the fact that they’re calling it a mini-series means there should be no narrative jerking around
Honestly, I am not sure why we need a kenobi series. Kenobi was keeping a really low profile after the fall of the republic, he can't have been doing something that impactful or noticeable. Also using his lightsaber would be a no no since jedi were being hunted and he was probably the second most wanted jedi after yoda
I'm just gonna say it, Kenobi has no business of being a mini series or even existing. We don't need it. Even if the show provides quality entertainment, it's still going to be bad for the overall narrative of Star Wars. Obi Wan and Vader shouldn't meet before A New Hope. And apparently they're going to be fighting twice. WTF? Also, if they have Obi Wan leave Tatooine, then he's failing as Luke's protector, and if they have him stay on Tatooine, then there's only so much they can do with him other than maybe having the stories all be flashbacks.
Just for fun, I think the show would've benefitted from this timeline. Boba Escapes Sarlacc Boba loses armor Tuskens take him and train him (with a four years later reference to know how long it's been since Return of the Jedi) Train action sequence to prove his new found worth and way of doing things Tuskens are lost to the "biker gang" and now Boba has a new outlook Boba saves Shand, steals Slave 1, and gets revenge on biker gang/looks for armor Brief callback to Mando season 2 getting his armor back (this gives us a better idea of the timeline during Mando season 2) Boba takes Jabba's palace Boba finally heals in Bacta so we don't have to see the tank again (no flashback) Boba starts demanding respect from town etc. Boba rarely takes off helmet to be more intimidating. Deals with the Hutt's and gets the Rancor. Boba hires the mods (maybe the speeder bikes aren't so colorful and out of place) Boba visits the Sanctuary Boom. Rest of the show stays mostly the same. Great story, just the early parts needed some help pacing.
The show would have benefited a lot if they had done a better job of portraying the passage of time. Boba was supposed to be with the Tuskens for 4-5 years but they made it seem like it was only a few weeks or months. Boba wore the same thing for most of the flashbacks and that Tusken kid didn't grow. Same thing with Mando and Grogu. They made it seem like Mando just gave Grogu to Luke like a week ago. And Luke only trained Grogu for what? A day? That really undercuts the emotional farewell between Mando and Grogu. It also makes Luke's choice to Grogu meaningless. Grogu was with Mando for months and he's been with Luke for a few days, of course he'll choose Mando.
Totally agree, the full arc and character development, as well as the progression of the story would have worked waaay better by telling the story in chronological order, the choise of flashbacks was very damaging, I wonder if that format was forced by executives worring that people woul get bored with the first episodes in the chronological order...
Ten years from now someone who didn't watch these shows week to week will watch mandalorian season 3 and be so confused about why Din and Grogu are together and not know that they needed to watch Boba Fett first.
When I first saw that Boba was getting a show I hoped that each episode would be an adventure from Boba's life. So, the framing device would be Boba is sitting on Jabba's throne like Conan the Barbarian and telling stories from his past. Each episode we would see him collecting bounties as a younger man. Interacting with the empire, flying Slave I around Star Destroyers. Battling other bounty hunters like Cad Bane or Bossk. That would have been so much cooler than what we got.
I heard someone compare this to Iron Man 2 and I thought that was right on the money. The actors are good and there's some good moments and concepts, but they are so distracted with what else is happening elsewhere in the universe that they don't concentrate on the story they should be telling. As a result the narrative turns into a muddled mess. Lots of great moments here, but they lack focus and are dragged down by missed opportunities.
I guess the big thing for me that I need maybe more clarity on was the shifting motivations for boba fett. He wanted to enter the criminal space and did it in a flashy way but seemed to balk at the concept of doing actual real crime. When fennec mentioned that the spice trade was lucrative I felt like Boba Fett’s heart wasn’t really into being a crime boss. Crime is all about incomes( theft, drugs, protections and other rackets) without lucrative illegal stuff at best Boba is running a benevolent protection racket at the end of this series. He wanted to get paid by making better decisions than the people he worked for and seemed to do nothing but make bad decisions throughout. If the point of the series is that boba realizes he’s not cut out for the crime boss life then maybe that’s okay but I don’t get that vibe from him in the final scenes. I feel like fennec shand would have actually made a more effective crime lord with boba as her chief enforcer.
Very much agree with you Dan. I summarize this as: -Boba = Setup without enough Payoff -Mando = Payoff without enough setup The reunion with Grogu happened in a 'wtf you're here!?' moment in the middle of a chase and this was only 1 episode after Mando made the hard decision to leave Grogu with Luke. That heaviness, along with the Mandalorian S2 finale goodbye, is greatly diminished by the too-soon reunion... that smells of corporate desperation to get casual Baby Yoda fans back on board. Guess they weren't confident they could compel audiences with other characters and subplots.
The weird thing is: there was never even an attempt to have a STAR wars streaming season without Grogu. Do you think that the show was being written, then Kennedy et al. Inisisted on bringing back Grogu, and the writers just didnt want to do massive rewrites?
@@jaustill237 Oh, it was definitely Kennedy and/or Chapek who demanded "Baby Yoda" be back ASAP. (Same for the - supposed - protagonist of the show being a really swell guy with nary any gray to him.) Filoni and Favreau are definitely good enough at storytelling to let such a separation linger not only off-screen for the fans (due to the slow production schedules even sans pandemic), but on-screen for the characters themselves. I am certain that if it had been up to them, we would've seen Din and Grogu reunited in the penultimate episode of The Mandalorian season three at the very earliest. That said, if it's true that Pedro Pascal doesn't want to play (well, voice, really; much of the physical acting is done by "stunt" doubles) the character anymore (at least not for a whole season at a time), this would IMO better explain them sacrificing some of Boba's already precious little runtime to squeeze in that story and hit the ground running on a full final season than Dan's theory of them wanting to evade backlash about what the point of season two was.
Imagine someone who's not that invested in Star Wars -- so didn't care to watch or track The Book of Boba Fett -- but who watches The Mandalorian because it had been "the thing that everyone's talking about". It's going to be ridiculous for that person going from The Mandalorian S2 finale to the S3 premiere: "Why the fuck is Grogu back? What the hell am I watching? Wasn't the whole point to find a safe place for Grogu? Did Luke Skywalker never actually show up?"
basically boba fett takes Ls all the time, gets carried by Fennec and isn't even the main character of his own show. Once again Disney has ruined a fan-favorite character
@@johnl6192 yea it felt like three diff stories trying to be told in one. And they were unable to make them fit and work together. At the end of the day I still would say I enjoyed it but was left disappointed
Let's put it this way - before Mandalorian S3 starts, I'm rewatching S1 and S2 + episodes 5-7 from BoBF. And I could care less about the rest. Yes, Boba should have stayed in the sarlac pit.
What in the world happened with Robert Rodriguez??? I must’ve been one of ten people worldwide who really enjoyed everything leading up to the finale… but my god, that finale dropped the ball about as hard as a baritone. So many corny decisions, so many silly action shots, so much dogshit street-level skirmishing, so many missed opportunities. Rodriguez is a guy whose work I typically love, but this was wildly disappointing. The incessant need to reunite all the silly side groups really ruined this.
My jaw hit the floor when I saw Rodriguez directed that episode. It was really shoddy direction to be honest. Might be the constraints of the TV budget? The shots were just uninspired.
@@LabradorIndependent totally agree. If there was one word I thought would NEVER apply to Rodriguez, it’s “uninspired,” but there’s simply no better way to describe this episode 😭
For me, Boba Fett was entertaining enough and presented in a way that generations in my family could watch it together and talk about it after. People who don't normally watch the same shows all watched this: my mother 78, my brother 55, me 51, my sister 43, my son 16, and nephew 8, and looked forward to it every Wednesday. My son would help us older folks connect the dots to the animated series and comics, we older folks would share stories about our experience as kids seeing the first Star Wars movie at the drive-in in the seventies. I could stomach the occasional Vespa rider (hopefully won't see that again, though), for brining us out of isolation. So much of our time is spent in isolation from each other--going to separate jobs/school, being on separate phones, watching very different shows. This show brought family from 78 to - 8 years old into a shared experience, a rare common conversation -- about the things we loved and didn't like. If they don't continue Boba Fett series, I'm ok with it, as they told a complete story, didn't end with a cliff hanger. If they don't, I'm satisfied and more excited for Mandalorian and Obi Wan and being able to enjoy new takes on Star Wars and characters I've known since my childhood in new adventures, adventures I can enjoy with my mother and son.
My theory is that the series originally involved setting up a lot of characters, themes, and locations for Rangers of the New Republic. When that series got scrapped, I'm guessing that they were already in production and had to scramble to rewrite a lot of stuff on the fly. It's why the episodes that are the most uneven are in the beginning of the season.
Yeah, to me it felt like “well, if we take the first two episodes of the Mandalorian season 3, and include them here… we allllmost have a full season!”
This ^ 100%. That's why a lot of scenes are disconnected to the one right before it. But even so, they could have done a much better job. They should have used Cobb Vanth more. They also should have trusted Tem more and let him have more diaglogue/action, rather than giving it ALL to Ming-Na.
Yes, it was a little quick, but my auntie heart melted into a puddle during that tender moment where Grogu lept right into Mando's arms. Reminds me of my own little buddy when he sees me 🥺😭
Excellent review Dan! I felt this series spent time telling 3 or more seperate stories within this series. At times the presentation and pace of story telling both felt disjointed, yet left more questions on the table. "What is your angle?" : Cade Bane. This was a thought lingering through out the whole series about Boba Fett's motives for doing everything. There was a nice dose of creative chances taken with the call backs to other Star Wars time periods.
Cad Bane's question really resonated with me. And Boba's answers were very 'meh'. In fact, the final Boba/Fennec dialogue was somewhat silly... I paraphrase: This is MY city but I don't understand why these people like me; Maybe we're not cut for this but we're doing it anyway because if not us, then who? All of this dialogue is so empty of meaning and logic. I still don't think Boba is a badass nor do I care about him or his non existent motives. Lucky Mando and Grogu were there or this show would be a complete disaster.
We watched the whole series and we STILL do not know why Boba would stay with the people that enslaved and beat him. He talks about escaping to Anchorhead and then just doesn't. I think they may have cut a scene and just forgot to fill that narrative back in. WTF?
14:55 "What about Boba?" Now I'm imagining a different series/movie where a troubled, needy Boba Fett inserts himself into the personal life of his new psychiatrist, becoming endeared to his doctor's family and driving him crazy in the process. His psychiatrist is a protocol droid played by, of course, Richard Dreyfuss.
Undoing the Mando season 2 ending in BoBF was even worse than if they had done it in the first few episodes of Mando season 3. Not even sure why Ahsoka was around other than to just have her around with Luke. It was a big moment without the narrative to support it.
I'm still not sure what the purpose was structuring with the flashback narrative. You could tell the story from Boba escaping the Sarlaac pit to his time with the Tuskens chronologically and not much would change. The moments of flashing back didn't serve much narrative purpose to what was happening presently.
Dan you and me both man I even said it in my review which is now on my channel, I couldn't tell what the hell was going on this episode? Seriously this was a finale to a season of television?? Idk what Robert Rodriguez was smoking but clearly it made him direct something that wasn't anything like Star Wars or well put together. There is just sooooo much wrong with this episode and the bad far out ways the good. So disappointed man...
The Book of Boba Fett wasn't really a show; it was a series of "Hey, remember this?!" references to other Star Wars properties and products that people actually like or that LucasFilm is determined for you to consume.
Grogu had over 20 years of training at the Jedi Academy (more than Luke has) before Order 66. Luke even mentions that Grogu isn't LEARNING about the Force but rather REMEMBERING, so Grogu's choice (and the writer's choice) to reunite him with Mando so soon makes perfect narrative sense. He had nothing left to learn from Luke. Plus knowing what we know from Last Jedi Luke's school didn't turn out so well, so it's a good thing Grogu dropped out when he did.
I gave up on this series after three episodes or so. The episode where the power ranger moped team has a chase. I had to stop there. They used an actor way too old for Boba Fett. They immediately removed all mystery and intrigue around the character by showing his face a lot. The anti-hero "I will rule with respect" schtick fell flat in a big way. It made him seem totally toothless and passive, so not only did he look like a grandpa he acted like a kindly old grandpa too. This show had big "get off my lawn!" energy, like it could have been called Boba Fett's Neighborhood. It's like the creators, directors and writers all wanted to make sure there wasn't a single really bad guy around. Like they wanted to make sure every single person in the show was someone who you could be friends with. It really made the show seem completely sterile, safe, non-antagonistic. It didn't have any edge nor take any chances at all. It was like being served up a heaping plate of plain mashed potatoes. It had no flavor, no spice. This show should have been a revenge story, of this bounty hunter crawling out of hell and then undertaking a merciless, highly personal quest to eliminate and overcome various criminal underworld figures on the path to taking Jabba's seat. We could have gotten two seasons of development re: Star Wars criminal underworld, how it works, and how Boba Fett painstakingly pursues and overthrows it. The scene of him sitting on the throne to rule in Jabba the Hutt's stead should have been the final scene of the series.
I feel like the entire point of this show was to get all the characters where they needed to be for the Mandalorian season 3. I guess they succeeded in that aspect, because all the parts of this show that had to do with that storyline were my favorite. I honestly enjoy Boba Fett as a character the most when he’s around other people. The flashbacks were interesting, (if a little slow) because it showed missing moments in the story. The present day storyline was alright, but I feel like it could’ve been better. I just feel like there’s only so much you can do with Boba as an individual character.
Dan, loved your insights on this! I really wish they would've made BoBF just 5 or 6 short episodes. Then used the 2 Mando-centric episodes as the first two eps of Mando Season 3 or even edited the two eps together as a special "mini-movie" between BoBF and Mando 3.
I am now afraid that Star Wars and Marvel Disney Plus shows will slowly devolve into CW quality shows, just for the sake of keeping their streaming content flowing. Book of Boba Fett is now a sign of this possible tendency.
I loved episode 5, but had exactly the same reaction Dan did. The reason this series was done, or so I thought, was to unpack a beloved mystery and bring the legend back to life in a meaningful way. Instead we got the story of his escape and recovery from the sarlacc and then a lot of cool Mandalorian stuff. The key problem for me was that the Mandalorian episodes were the stronger narrative with more consistent character development and satisfying arcs. This was more like the chapter of Boba Fett who Disney hasn’t figured out what to do with but wanted to put him into the universe because most fans, including the creators of the show, love the character. My key issue is that Boba Fett had 30+ years as a mysterious legend, then Lucas made him a child clone. Afterwards, Dave Filoni and The Clone Wars made him a revenge seeking child clone with a lot of grit and edge that gave us a better connection to his future and what made him edgy and special. Now this series unravels the entire story and he’s sharing the spotlight at all turns. To be blunt Cad Bane Boba Fett’s harder than Boba Fett in the Boba Fett series. The show was good, but it was really good for Fennec Shand, The Mandalorian, Cad Bane, Grogu, and had some Boba Fett moments.
The narrative issue you describe is not a one-off. The recent MCU series are all, to some extent or another, been used for universe building, and been less about good, coherent, self-contained stories. It really weakens the brand.
Really really strange show all things considered. They needed to just pick one idea and stick with it instead of mashing together a Boba Fett show and The Mandalorian. In the end both felt rushed and underdeveloped.
The made Boba to nice. He was suddenly a crime boss who didn’t want to do any real crime. The story was all over the place narrative wise and a 61 year old lead actor playing a character who was in his mid 30’s when we last saw him a week ago story time simply doesn’t work.
The premise of BoBF is full of potential. FULL of it. Sadly, the show couldn't even deliver a fraction of even our lowest imagination from said premise. The fact that the best episodes are involving the Mandalorian again speaks for the quality (or lack thereof) of Boba's story & action.
@@One.Zero.One101 A Mayor, mothertruker is just playing a small town Mayor, thats it. I don't understand the writing team and I dont understand why they though this is the direction boba fett needed to go its just baffling.
18:39 RIGHT?! it felt like that to me too, if Boba is just gonna step down after all that then what was the point? why did i invest the time and energy for seemingly nothing
Another commenter had a great idea that "The Book of Boba Fett" should have been a two part episode story arc within the Mandalorian season 3. I think this would have solved the confusion. Had episode 5 of this show be episode 1 of the Mandalorian season 3 then have episodes 2 & 3 be "The Book of Boba Fett" Part 1 and Part 2.
Boba should’ve been one of the most famous and bad ass bounty hunter in the universe. Watching this show he felt more incompetent than the power rangers kids. Robert Rodriguez delivered a lot of underwhelming action scenes as well.
Sounds to me like ep 5 and 6 should have been released after Book of Boba Fett ended as special episodes. Releasing these separately and before season 3 would be a good way to keep fans happy till the next Mandalorian is released. If you're going to make a series and name it after a character, then you better focus on that person and the path they are on. It feels like a disservice to do this. Also I don't like what they did with Grogu's story. What was the point of it all?
100% agree. What was the point of the Mando S2 finale if they were just going to reunite within 2 episodes anyway. Instead their reunion was basically just a footnote
so it's basically Nostalgia Wars now huh? the book of boba fett was mostly filler and it's incredibly depressing. "Boba Fett wants to be a crime lord and it's ruffling feathers" really isn't much of a story, especially if the conflict is resolved by his friend killing all the bad guys quickly in one scene. this series really felt like a marvel movie- a vehicle to gather lots of cool characters and have them team up in exciting moments. there are two scenes in particular that really stand out as hinting at the potential this story COULD have had. boba confronts the mayor: "here is some advice, running a family is more complicated than bounty hunting" in the last scene boba laments perhaps the life of a crime lord isn't something he's cut out for, despite the fact that he hasn't had to change anything about his criminal strategy. his opponents were vanquished with sheer brute force, and he never had to compromise any of his ideals to wrest political control from the mayor or the syndicate. the promise of boba having to learn about running a family was never delivered. i think it would have been a much better, compelling narrative to have boba compromise his beliefs, perhaps realise he must work together with another hutt faction or the corrupt mayor, and eventually he ironically becomes the kind of leader he previously despised. cad bane tries to intimidate boba: "whats your angle in all of this?" here we really see how flimsy the foundation for this set up really is. presumably holding the office of a warlord on a dangerous planet like tatooine is no walk in the park, so why is it worth it for boba to assume such a position that would put a target on his back? it would make much more sense if we see boba is actually using his opportunity as a warlord to advocate on behalf of the tuskens, maybe leading a full on revolt or at least negotiating some sort of political legitimacy for their community.
Episodes 5 & 6 was amazing no matter what the show is called, as stand alone episodes they were some of the best Star Wars I have seen. Some of the other episodes weren’t always great for me, the ‘mods’ apart from being out of place, they just seemed a bit useless. That last episode they weren’t really much use. Boba did a lot of walking into situations without any clever plans and I think that is what disappointed me. But it was ok. But once again episode 5 & 6 were truly amazing Star Wars.
Yea 5-6 felt good... they aren't perfect.. but it feels like star wars and there's a reason for why people act the way they act ect... This finale.. yea okay.. rancor is cool i guess.. but it's just one big action movie cliche.. I found myself wondering how I'd react to this if it wasn't star wars.. It'd feel like one of those B-grade action movies from the 80's/90's... and not in a good way.
I didn't have a problem with the Mandalorian episode, and I really loved the episode with Luke and Ahsoka, but yeah I think there should have been eight episodes so we could have devoted a full episode to building to the finale with Mando on the team. And yeah, I think they should have left Grogu coming back until Mando S3
The artwork during the finale end credits looked amazing and I would totally be hyped if I saw them pre-BOBF but the execution just wasn’t very good. This whole season was a few awesome moments floating in a pool of average.
I think what happened here was there was drama behind the scenes with Pedro Pascal and Lucasfilm so the Mando S2 finale was made to give them options going forward if he didn't come back, and Bobba Fett was greenlit at a time that was uncertain, and then Pascal came back so they wrote him into Bobba Fett's final episodes. I'm one of the many who checked out after the first episode then came back for ep5. Then ep6. And now ep7, which was really just a muddled mess that mainly served to reunite Mando and Grogu for the greatly anticipated Mando Season 3. The question is, will TM S3 begin with ep3? lol
Wow this isn’t remotely true at all. I think you’re watching too much alt-right Star Wars UA-cam like Star Wars Theory, Geeks and Gamers, and Grace Randolf.
@@connorsiedow5815 It always felt like Mando was just a character to test the waters before a big triumphant return for one of Star Wars's most loved characters. But I haven't seen 95 percent of the clone wars.
@@connorsiedow5815 WTH are you talking about? It was literally reported on in all the trades. I don't subscribe to any SW UA-camrs. But one thing that is certain is that SW is slowly going downhill and seems to be on that same path as WB/DC where every thing they do is reactionary. Which is unfortunate. SW really needs to let go of the past and move into the future. There's so much untapped potential, but they keep circling back to characters whose fates are already sealed. Not very compelling.
Episode 6 did not feel at all like the last episode of a season. Kind of a dud overall. Edit: oh that is because it is not the last episode. I guess I should watch ep.7 before finishing the review lol
I'd like to hear exactly what happened to all of John's original scripts .. bc I can bet there were like 3 or 4 more episodes that could've helped pay off all of these character moments that didn't really feel earned at the end... it felt like there was a budget issue .. and everything except the Mando stuff was like a cheaper version of what we were supposed to get ..
I couldn't agree more with everything you said! A great episode on it's own doesn't mean a great episode for the show that it is in. The Book of Boba Fett was a miss for me, even if I did love some stuff that happened. What was the point!?
You've really laid out the problems I also had with this show - it's not really about the Quality of individual episode and Moments, but about the big picture and the way plothooks & development seeds didn't pay off. And I think in the Future People won't engage with this as a show: they'll rewatch favourite epps, favourite Moments, but I highly doubt there are many People that Will watch all 7 episodes in order again.
My main disappointment is that I was hoping that "The Mandolorian" Season 3 would be focused entirely on Din Djarin and his quest involving the Dark Saber and Bo-Katan, and that we would be free of Grogu for most of the season. This took that hope away. Not that I dislike Grogu, but for once, I wanted to see the focus on the Mandolorian and his journey without being saddled with the responsibility of a child. We only got that in Chapter 5 of Boba Fett.
im a huge Grogu fan (have quite a bit of grogu stuff).. but ya i agree, It would of been nice for the season to quest Mando to reach Grogu with fun little adventures along the way.
It's also a bit like.. okay.. so we'll pick up season 3 with Grogu back in Mando's care.. when season 2 ended with him giving Grogu up so that he could train with Luke? That feels incredibly rushed and weird to me.
There is nothing conceivably wrong with a large scale shared universe where all the big players of the Era appear on each other's shows. In fact, it's preferable these days after the huge success of Game of Thrones and the MCU. So far, (for the most part) it's actually worked well for the Disney Plus Filoni-verse. However, Episode 7 of the Book of Boba was a massive letdown. The finale was a poorly executed mess (which also had the misfortune of following the excellent episodes 5 & 6). The fact is, Book of Boba should have had 8 or 9 episodes (instead of 7) so they could allow Boba's arc to fully mature, and his story a little bit more room to breathe.
This whole thing is Go-Bots and Transformers. Go-Bots were first to market but the Transformers were better. Mando is everything people thought Boba was but done better. Everything with Boba Fett was boring because Boba Fett is a boring character that deserved to get bounced into the Sarlac. 100% of his appeal is from fans using their imagination on a character that said and did NOTHING on screen. The flashbacks were dumb and boring. ffs HE TRIES TO FLY A SPACESHIP INTO THE SARLAC! Drop a grenade, fire into it, anything but hover within tentacle range to do what? Look inside it's tummy? Did he think his armor was laying on top?
There are some good elements in this show, but certain things have held it back for me. I think "fan service" (e.g. callbacks, references, crossovers, character appearances, etc. ) can work if it's incorporated sparingly and rationally, but I found it to be a little excessive and overboard in this series. For example, (spoiler alert), Boba riding the rancor while smashing giant droids seems to me like something that would come out of an exaggerated Star Wars parody.
What an excellent analysis/summary of BOBF. I def enjoyed episode 1 & 2 the most, and agree the resolution of the Tusken plot thread was poor. I like Mando & Grogu together, but the impact of The Rescue is diminished now. Thanks for the video
I really enjoyed the story as a whole. But if I'm honest I found the ending to be a little....safe. Perhaps I built it up too much, but it was pretty straightforward with few surprises. Still, I love this side of the SW universe and I had a lot of fun with The Book of Boba Fett.
Honestly, I 100% believe the reason why Disney brought the Mandalorian into this show was because they were afraid Boba wouldn't be successful on his own. I feel as though they thought Boba having his own show would not be as interesting as The Mandalorian has been so they shoehorned Season 3 in there in order to get fans to watch the show. A sad truth but its painfully obvious.
I agree with most of Dan's points, but I find it interesting that it doesn't bother me in this situation. It might be because this was a tv show vs a movie or because we're getting so much content and know more will be coming. With the sequel trilogy, so much time and investment was spent to make them and there was the 2 year wait in between each one so being mis-plotted seemed like a huge waste of opportunity. With BoBF, I don't feel the same sense of wasted opportunity and maybe that's because I can view it as a season in a larger narrative.
I mostly agree with your review. I was really interested in the political maneuverings and motivation backstory for Boba taking control of crime on Mos Espa. Then the Mando episode happens and we take a huge detour from the main plot. When we eventually come back to it all the interesting political manipulation disappears in favor of a battle where everyone is fighting separately. Boba Fett never takes revenge on the syndicate leader for ordering the death of his adopted Tusken family. In the end they eat space fruit and laugh together with no thought for the innocent civilians killed who might have been saved if Fett had just brutally killed the first wave of syndicate to arrive in Mos Espa. Basically it's a standard Disney show where it teases interesting ideas in the first half, then turns into a big fight in the last half where some things don't make sense and no one learns anything or grows in any way.
That season finale was horrendous for me. Robert Rodriguez directed the worst episodes of the season and the finale was just bad. I did not care. Cad Bane was the only highlight. I liked the show till the season finale, even the earlier episodes but the finale was a disaster!
"The Book of Boba Fett" Series gets a (2/10). From beginning to end, the series was a HUGE disappointment. Thats what you get when you chose member-berries, flashy quick cuts OVER storytelling, and character development. The Disney Star Wars universe, instead of expanding, just filled the universe up with more dribbly dog shit. "Who saw this coming?" People who actually were paying attention to the "story" and not memorized and having fan-gasom's over cameos. Thanks Disney. PS. Robert Rod, you played in the Star Wars sandbox.. time to leave...Take Danny with you.
Could not agree more. I simply cannot understand why they keep making shows/movies about characters that we already know (Han Solo for example, still can't believe that movie exists) instead of creating new characters or perhaps developing more obscure ones. That would benefit from actually giving us something new and intriguing as well allowing more creative freedom. But I guess the people behind Star Wars now is not interested in being creative.
I felt Hawkeye was the same way. The individual parts were great, but it was more future world building than an individual show that stands on its own. For better or for worse.
This season actually reminded me of why I stopped reading Marvel and DC comics. I'd get invested in a story, in a specific arc, but once, maybe twice a year it would get completely derailed by making the series part of some big company-wide crossover event.
Yeah....XMens Mutant Massacre started it, and was awesome, but then they started doing these events every four months or so. i was out!
This comment really hit me hard. Plus the inconsistencies. It feels less like multiple writers playing in a singular sandbox but instead multiple sandboxes making for a mess.
To be fair I would say DC at least has been far more consistent than Marvel comics when it comes to big resets.
Like flash tompson venom who gets derailed by that weird spider man arc
Say what you will HE is the best venom
My problem with the show was that it could have taken the Space Western of Star Wars and crossed it with a Mob Drama. A Man Called Horse mashed up with The Godfather. But there doesn't seem to be any commitment to concept. Din Djarin could have made an appearance and not have it turn into Mandalorian Season 2.5. This should have been Boba's and Fennec's stories. If they didn't want to focus on the underworld or the people of the Outer Rim, then why make this show?
The duel with Cad And Cobb was cut straight from the good the bad and the ugly.
@@aureum7479 It's a Mexican standoff, a standard for Westerns.
@@aureum7479 except the good, the bad and the ugly had a standoff between 3 masterful gun slingers who all wanted to kill each other because they were coveting the same treasure. It was the climax of the film.
Meanwhile, this stand off was cool without a doubt and a great introduction to Cade Bane but that's it. And then they wasted his character with the lamest stand off in star wars with an extremely unsatisfying death. Wtf
@@TheRonster9319 It's hard to have intense standoffs with so much plot-armor floating around every cross-series character
They were engrossed in telling the story they wanted to tell and focused less on fan's expectations on BF. They ruined BF (which I think is still recoverable maybe he can change) and injected their vision of Star Wars which hurt the show. I'm still in for the ride bcuz of how good Filoni/Favreau's vision of Star Wars is.
I absolutely agree with your analysis. I was so bummed to see Grogu return to Mando so quick. Wiping out all that was created in the previous two seasons with one swifts stroke.
After Mando Season 2, I expected one season without Grogu - perhaps because the story would get a bit too dark or dangerous to drag along a kid.
Yeah. It reeks of “Disney wanted Grogu back for season 3 because they didn’t expect him to become popular” (you have to keep in mind that season 2 of The Mandalorian was already in production when season 1 was first released, so it was kinda too late to change the ending)
But that would mean lost merchandise sales. And that is not something Disney can allow!
They did this before with Luke throwing away the lightsaber just for a Joke in the movie. The writing is the worst Thing in the History of storytelling. Because they have no artistic pretensions. They just follow a formula that repeats itself over and over again.
Y’all playing right; Because last year he said he hated the ending of the Mandalorian season 2 because Grogu left with Luke
"What was the point of this show?" pretty much sums up how I feel. Lots of cool things and scenes but no overarching themes.
The crime boss story was a mess. They really needed to do a better job of setting up the criminal underground, who the players are, how they operate, how Boba was planning to take over and how he was planning to replace the worst criminal activities with legitimate businesses. It doesn't have to be super detailed like The Wire, where they showed every level of a criminal organization, but they should have done enough worldbuilding so that you at least had more than just vague guesses of how the criminal underground works.
This show would have made more sense if they showed bob's rise to power rather than him trying to maintain power. Would have made his motivation more clear
Exactly. It was just a bunch of words about doing things better but nothing was shown about why the gangs are so bad. I'm not even sure what businesses any of them had besides the one casino.
It was also weird that he was considered the main crime boss and in control of Mos Esba or all of Tattoine or something, but why? It was him, Fennec, and two pig dudes. Why did they pay tribute to him in the first episode or care about him at all? He had to recruit a bunch of hipster teenagers on Vespas just to have some kind of numbers.
I think you have hit it. The writers don't really know what goes on in a criminal underworld, so they couldn't write it well. Heck, what even is spice and how do they get it? The scene with the sheriff and the drug runners had me wondering why they were there. Was their manufacturing done nearby? Did a ship land and make a drop off? Is spice even illegal on a planet run by various syndicates? Why should Boba care whether it goes through or not? He wasn't the new crime boss, he was the new lawman come to clean up the town, and really, that was not the direction he should have gone. This is another example of Disney having to reform every anti-hero.
@@One.Zero.One101 Pretty much. This whole series was a Disneyfied promo for more shows and merch. I knew from the first episode they were going to ruin the Boba Fett lore.
Short answer: they wrote themselves into a corner by doing the mandalorian first.
The larger proplem is two fold: the mandalorian already did the show that Boba fett should have been. And Fett is too popular for Disney to make a bad guy outright. So they tried their "they're a misunderstood anti hero" thing they do with all their antagonists now.
There was nowhere for fett to go on his own. Unfortunately, this show was doomed to mediocrity from the start.
This, I always thought Mando was a character just to test the waters for the return of Boba Fett.
I don't think they thought mando would be this popular.
It kinda screwed over boba fett.
Mando is what boba fett should be in the eyes of the majority of fans.
Fett could've been an anti-hero and it would've been completely fine. He is a villain, after all.
Which to be is so stupid. It's clear they wanna take Din down the path of being Mand'Alor, so why not just leave Boba Fett as a bounty hunter? That's pathetic they couldn't think of anything to do for a simple character like Boba.
I don't think the problem is that they did The Mandalorian first; it's that The Mandalorian was a very specific solve for the problem "how do we make a Boba Fett show that isn't stupid and make the character worse in retrospect?". The fact that they then introduced Boba Fett into that very show was a bad choice. Giving him his own series was a *really* bad choice, and they had no clue how to do it or what to do with the idea at all, so they just made a big part of it The Mandalorian: Prelude to S3 - Ignore the Entire Point of the Previous Two Seasons.
I think the problem with this show was that it was marketed as "being it's own show" but then Disney went and made it about the Mandalorian. So Boba got his own show but it's more about Mando than about Boba
There were a few fun moments in this finale. However I wasn't satisfied with the ending overall. I thought alot of opportunities were missed and it could have been so much more. I actually felt the artwork at the end was more powerful than the show itself.
why does the production value remind me of 1995 with weak costumes and fake looking green man pigs ???? wtf is this garbage?
@The Bass Connection, see right there is an opinion i can get behind. she was concise without being whinny which is about how I felt about the episode personally
@@scph321 Robert Rodriguez. His episodes look amateurish
It was filled with cliches. There was a part where the mod biker guy with one robot eye did a spin to shoot his gun for absolutely no reason. Just to do a spin. At one point the final episode felt like a Star Wars parody it was so bad
I enjoyed the finale.
Its been a strange run. I never felt all that emotionally invested in Boba's present storyline and the flashbacks felt like they held all my interest. Then Mandalorian season 3 took over and I just don't understand why they felt like they needed to put all that here. Like I enjoyed it very much but it feels entirely out of place. That reunion that happened in this finale, I almost felt no emotion at all, it felt entirely underwhelming to be placed here at all. Mando being in the show is completely fine but I don't know why they decided he should bring half of his show with him too. I have seen a lot of people say things like "how could you not like seeing Luke & Ashoka & Grogu etc." the thing is that I liked it a lot but they completely sacrificed this show for those things when they could have just had it all in Mando S3 and it would have fit in completely fine. It didn't need to be HERE at all.
I totally agree, and if the writers felt like the Grogu/Mando reunion would be awkward in mandalorian S3 then why not make that season all about Mando and Grogu feeling lost without eachother and reunite as a satisfying S3 finale?
Correct. They rushed and botched Din and Grogu's reunion - which has the effect of rendering the first two seasons of The Mandalorian (the best SW content since the OT, btw) entirely moot. It also takes away the great driving emotional subtext behind the series - the bond between father and son, and the pain of separation and drive for reunion - and trivializes it. They really couldn't let this story build legs and lead to incredible reunion in S3?? It had to be done THIS quickly? And THIS awkwardly?
I totally agree with you here. It would’ve been a fun side mission for just Mando. They had Grogu (almost immediately) give up the Jedi path and then turned around and kept on using his force abilities as the “deux ex machina”. “Is he gonna do the hand thing? Is he gonna do the hand thing? He did the hand thing!!” It just doesn’t work for me anymore.
And even then, they further assassinated Luke by making him just like the old Jedi and desiring for Grogu to break his attachments to be trained. Luke would NEVER follow that idea that a jedi must give up personal attachments. It was so bad that I just want them to leave Luke alone. And Askoha was completely pointless, just there for fan service and exposition. No actual stake in the story. This show was really bad.
@@SefniVinalonn I’m gonna piggyback off you to add that the choice actually made me lose respect for Grogu too… he gave up on being a Jedi after JUST meeting up with Luke just… because? (edit: sure because he missed Mando sooooo much, lame!) And then they’re gonna showcase his force abilities in the finale still like it’s still supposed to wow us.
It felt like The Book of Boba Fett should've been a two-parter within a season of The Mandalorian. Just narratively all over the place. Setting up the Pike Syndicate to be this big bad but apparently all you needed was a Rancor and Fennec being an assassin (i.e. herself) to take out this sinister organisation that's been running this illegal spice trade for many years. It's absolutely baffling how many plotholes there were and how quick things were resolved without any explanation. Also, what's happened with Robert Rodriguez and shootouts? He used to be awesome and clever with those sequences (see Desperado and Once upon a time in Mexico), but all the episodes he's directed and has had action in them have been so poor and boring!
This was the same thought I had watching this. There was no reason to be its own series, should’ve just been a story arc in Mandalorian season 3. The story would’ve been better off and a lot of fat could’ve been trimmed.
Actually I think that was a great idea to have "The Book of Boba Fett" be a two part episode arc within the Mandalorian Season 3 show. The first episode of Mando3 could have been this shows Episode 5 then episodes two and three be "The Book of Boba Fett" Part 1 and Part 2. That and have the episodes be a more linear format and not flashbacks. Personally, I had no issue with the flashbacks for the show in fact I liked them more then the current events but when you look at the season as a whole it didn't really payoff for me using that structure. I was hoping to see the female tusken that trained Boba show up at some point still alive to tie back to his past with them but it didn't happen. And I totally agree with the Rodriguez thing, his episodes were my least favorite of the show. The last episode was his best episode and far better then his previous but I still didn't like his episodes compared to all other episodes. Episode 2 was one of my favorites focusing on Boba & episodes 5 and 6 were some of the best episodes in star wars television. I agree that the focus was a little all over the place, I really wanted more of a focus on Cad Bane with the showdown and less about the robots & mods. I think it would be interesting to get more lore mentioned or discussed on his past with Boba. I know many who watched clone wars & other shows had all that deep backstory but for anyone who hadn't watched those shows they needed just a bit more to up the emotional stakes of these two facing off.
You have to wonder why boba didn't just send fennec to assassinate the pyke leader. She didn't even break a sweat killing them
I was just commenting that CowBoy Bebop on Netflix was allowed to show infinitely more love to Robert Rodriguez than the scifi show actually directed by Robert Rodriguez was allowed to
Totally agree: Rodriguez had so much fun with his movies, but this show was so dull!
I also think that narratively, re-introducing Grogu and his choice would have more weight if they had left it hanging and not produced an answer until Mando season 3. They realized they had some weakness in Boba Fett's story, and tried to glaze some of it over with an, "awwww" moment. And the whole Mando story suffers for it.
I'm sure there will be flashbacks of how Grogu chose in Mando S3.
Nah, they wanted to set the table & get everyone in place for S3. So they can start right off the bat.
@@phoenixrising8231 why you say that like its a good thing now people who go from mandalorian season 2 to season 3 are going to feel very confused and kinda dumb because before watching season 3 they now have to watch this shitshow. We spent 2 seasons trying to find a fucking jedi to take grogu only for season 3 to start from scratch and honestly ruining a great ending.
That choice happening only 20 minutes into his Jedi training is really frustrating
This episode certainly had some great moments, but overall it was a major let down. Robert Rodriguez has to stay away from Star Wars in the future. All 3 episodes of this show he has directed are by far the worst, mostly look terrible and dont feel very Star Wars at all. This one again focused far too much on characters we hate. The 'mods' and the twi'lek get far too much screen time. Also Cad Bane was under used and the drawn out action sequences with the droids got kinda boring. Hate to say it again, but most of the good stuff revolved around Mando. It was nice to see Boba actually do some stuff for once but even still it was underwhelming.
p.s the conclusion to Grogu's choice was a bit underwhelming too. Just drops Luke Skywalker like a bad habit? Kinda nullifies the finale to Mando season 2 and ep 6 of this and everything they promised.
well said...some of the episodes are almost a parody as I presume Rodriguez is good at.
I don't think Robert Rodriguez is rhe issue here. Yeah his episodes could have been better but with so many cooks in the kitchen he was probably given a list of things they were doing in the show and didn't leave him much room to do his own thing.
@@mercurialfunk Looking at episode 3 I think that was entirely down to RR. That tone is present often again here and it couldnt be more out of place. Ep 3 was an absolute disgrace. After that he doesnt deserve another shot.
The first one was not bad and was directed by him
Honestly depressed after this show haha. Not bc of the story, even though that was disappointing but finding out a filmmaking legend like Rodriguez either phoned it in or lost his touch. The acting and action was so poorly done in his episodes. His action has always been fun and kinetic, but the last episode was just so boring, slow, and made no sense. Krssantan hobbling down the street had me laughing in frustration. Let’s see BD Howard get her own Star War film to direct please!
Felt that Grogu going back to Mando pushed the story back. I could see Disney execs greedy with that Grogu merch money , forcing creators to add Grogu in the story.
I think it's kind of the heart of Mandolorian that he is a bounty hunter ronin type with a kid. There are alot of samurai stories like this like wolf and cub.
It works as a series of cool and fun Star Wars moments. It also works as a prologue to Mandalorian Season 3.
It doesn’t, however, work very well as it’s own show. It speaks volumes that some of the best episodes felt like a different show entirely.
The issue is that the characters in the main plot - basically all of Boba’s new allies - have almost no time to develop. Why should any of us care about the rebellious teens/mods joining Boba? Outside of the extended lore, why should we care about Krrsantan? Even Fennec didn’t get explored all that much. Everyone felt like they were just there to shoot blasters when needed.
Then there is our protagonist - Boba. One minute he’s trying to be ruthless. Next he’s trying to be kind. His leadership never felt competent since he almost always just followed the advise of others. Episode 2 was great stuff for him, but beyond that it just wasn’t compelling.
I’m very excited for Mandalorian season 3, but this show is a cautionary example of the brains behind this tv universe not entirely knowing how to tell a gripping story. Mandalorian works due to an episodic structure with a steadily advancing overarching narrative in the background. But that same style doesn’t work for a more condensed story. It felt like a lot of episodes were just the story on a treadmill.
It makes me somewhat cautious about upcoming series like Kenobi and Ahsoka. And while I like all these shows being connected. They need to be careful not to be too dependant on The Mandalorian to keep people invested. If the only way to tell the story is to turn it into episodes of the Mandalorian, then why bother with another show?
They dropped the ball. It was fun, but the story was a mess. Tons of great setup, with absolutely no resolution.
I just pray Kenobi does not suffer the same fate. I think the fact that they’re calling it a mini-series means there should be no narrative jerking around
Honestly, I am not sure why we need a kenobi series. Kenobi was keeping a really low profile after the fall of the republic, he can't have been doing something that impactful or noticeable. Also using his lightsaber would be a no no since jedi were being hunted and he was probably the second most wanted jedi after yoda
I'm just gonna say it, Kenobi has no business of being a mini series or even existing. We don't need it. Even if the show provides quality entertainment, it's still going to be bad for the overall narrative of Star Wars. Obi Wan and Vader shouldn't meet before A New Hope. And apparently they're going to be fighting twice. WTF? Also, if they have Obi Wan leave Tatooine, then he's failing as Luke's protector, and if they have him stay on Tatooine, then there's only so much they can do with him other than maybe having the stories all be flashbacks.
Just for fun, I think the show would've benefitted from this timeline.
Boba Escapes Sarlacc
Boba loses armor
Tuskens take him and train him (with a four years later reference to know how long it's been since Return of the Jedi)
Train action sequence to prove his new found worth and way of doing things
Tuskens are lost to the "biker gang" and now Boba has a new outlook
Boba saves Shand, steals Slave 1, and gets revenge on biker gang/looks for armor
Brief callback to Mando season 2 getting his armor back (this gives us a better idea of the timeline during Mando season 2)
Boba takes Jabba's palace
Boba finally heals in Bacta so we don't have to see the tank again (no flashback)
Boba starts demanding respect from town etc. Boba rarely takes off helmet to be more intimidating. Deals with the Hutt's and gets the Rancor.
Boba hires the mods (maybe the speeder bikes aren't so colorful and out of place)
Boba visits the Sanctuary
Boom. Rest of the show stays mostly the same. Great story, just the early parts needed some help pacing.
Its a mess as was the last episode.
The show would have benefited a lot if they had done a better job of portraying the passage of time. Boba was supposed to be with the Tuskens for 4-5 years but they made it seem like it was only a few weeks or months. Boba wore the same thing for most of the flashbacks and that Tusken kid didn't grow.
Same thing with Mando and Grogu. They made it seem like Mando just gave Grogu to Luke like a week ago. And Luke only trained Grogu for what? A day? That really undercuts the emotional farewell between Mando and Grogu. It also makes Luke's choice to Grogu meaningless. Grogu was with Mando for months and he's been with Luke for a few days, of course he'll choose Mando.
Totally agree, the full arc and character development, as well as the progression of the story would have worked waaay better by telling the story in chronological order, the choise of flashbacks was very damaging, I wonder if that format was forced by executives worring that people woul get bored with the first episodes in the chronological order...
Also minus the early grogu mandalorian reunion as it makes no sense and feels rushed.
No
Ten years from now someone who didn't watch these shows week to week will watch mandalorian season 3 and be so confused about why Din and Grogu are together and not know that they needed to watch Boba Fett first.
It's bound to happen as soon as Mando 3 comes out. Most D+ viewers are "casuals" and are going to be very confused.
They will probably insert episodes 5-7 of BoBF in between seasons 2 and 3 as little miniseries labeling it as season 2.5 or something of that ilk.
When I first saw that Boba was getting a show I hoped that each episode would be an adventure from Boba's life. So, the framing device would be Boba is sitting on Jabba's throne like Conan the Barbarian and telling stories from his past. Each episode we would see him collecting bounties as a younger man. Interacting with the empire, flying Slave I around Star Destroyers. Battling other bounty hunters like Cad Bane or Bossk. That would have been so much cooler than what we got.
That could be season 2, and that could be really cool… but people would complain about there being too many flashbacks again.
I heard someone compare this to Iron Man 2 and I thought that was right on the money. The actors are good and there's some good moments and concepts, but they are so distracted with what else is happening elsewhere in the universe that they don't concentrate on the story they should be telling. As a result the narrative turns into a muddled mess.
Lots of great moments here, but they lack focus and are dragged down by missed opportunities.
I guess the big thing for me that I need maybe more clarity on was the shifting motivations for boba fett. He wanted to enter the criminal space and did it in a flashy way but seemed to balk at the concept of doing actual real crime. When fennec mentioned that the spice trade was lucrative I felt like Boba Fett’s heart wasn’t really into being a crime boss. Crime is all about incomes( theft, drugs, protections and other rackets) without lucrative illegal stuff at best Boba is running a benevolent protection racket at the end of this series. He wanted to get paid by making better decisions than the people he worked for and seemed to do nothing but make bad decisions throughout. If the point of the series is that boba realizes he’s not cut out for the crime boss life then maybe that’s okay but I don’t get that vibe from him in the final scenes. I feel like fennec shand would have actually made a more effective crime lord with boba as her chief enforcer.
Well said, it really is as simple as that, Boba Fett isnt meant to be a crime boss. He's a bounty hunter, a warrior.
Very much agree with you Dan. I summarize this as:
-Boba = Setup without enough Payoff
-Mando = Payoff without enough setup
The reunion with Grogu happened in a 'wtf you're here!?' moment in the middle of a chase and this was only 1 episode after Mando made the hard decision to leave Grogu with Luke. That heaviness, along with the Mandalorian S2 finale goodbye, is greatly diminished by the too-soon reunion... that smells of corporate desperation to get casual Baby Yoda fans back on board. Guess they weren't confident they could compel audiences with other characters and subplots.
The weird thing is: there was never even an attempt to have a STAR wars streaming season without Grogu. Do you think that the show was being written, then Kennedy et al. Inisisted on bringing back Grogu, and the writers just didnt want to do massive rewrites?
@@jaustill237 With this structure of THIS show, I wouldn't be surprised about anything being shoehorned in lol
@@jaustill237 Oh, it was definitely Kennedy and/or Chapek who demanded "Baby Yoda" be back ASAP. (Same for the - supposed - protagonist of the show being a really swell guy with nary any gray to him.) Filoni and Favreau are definitely good enough at storytelling to let such a separation linger not only off-screen for the fans (due to the slow production schedules even sans pandemic), but on-screen for the characters themselves. I am certain that if it had been up to them, we would've seen Din and Grogu reunited in the penultimate episode of The Mandalorian season three at the very earliest. That said, if it's true that Pedro Pascal doesn't want to play (well, voice, really; much of the physical acting is done by "stunt" doubles) the character anymore (at least not for a whole season at a time), this would IMO better explain them sacrificing some of Boba's already precious little runtime to squeeze in that story and hit the ground running on a full final season than Dan's theory of them wanting to evade backlash about what the point of season two was.
Imagine someone who's not that invested in Star Wars -- so didn't care to watch or track The Book of Boba Fett -- but who watches The Mandalorian because it had been "the thing that everyone's talking about". It's going to be ridiculous for that person going from The Mandalorian S2 finale to the S3 premiere: "Why the fuck is Grogu back? What the hell am I watching? Wasn't the whole point to find a safe place for Grogu? Did Luke Skywalker never actually show up?"
basically boba fett takes Ls all the time, gets carried by Fennec and isn't even the main character of his own show. Once again Disney has ruined a fan-favorite character
Why does Star Wars feel like one step forward two steps back
I agree...you want to detach yourself but your curiosity keeps it going.
That Vespa gang was worse than the Holiday Special.
It was a show that had all the building blocks there, but in the end it seems like the structure was a rush hatched job.
“rush hatched job” lol wut
@@johnl6192 yea it felt like three diff stories trying to be told in one. And they were unable to make them fit and work together. At the end of the day I still would say I enjoyed it but was left disappointed
Let's put it this way - before Mandalorian S3 starts, I'm rewatching S1 and S2 + episodes 5-7 from BoBF. And I could care less about the rest. Yes, Boba should have stayed in the sarlac pit.
I wouldn't go that far. His appearance in Mando was fine. It's just that this show fucking sucks and shouldn't have been made.
I agree with ASD. Mando Season 2 handled Boba quite well. Then the garbage that is Book of Boba happened.
What in the world happened with Robert Rodriguez???
I must’ve been one of ten people worldwide who really enjoyed everything leading up to the finale… but my god, that finale dropped the ball about as hard as a baritone.
So many corny decisions, so many silly action shots, so much dogshit street-level skirmishing, so many missed opportunities. Rodriguez is a guy whose work I typically love, but this was wildly disappointing. The incessant need to reunite all the silly side groups really ruined this.
He can direct kid's films, or hard R-rated films. This show was in-between unfortunately
@@kingofthesharks bam, I believe this may be exactly correct.
My jaw hit the floor when I saw Rodriguez directed that episode. It was really shoddy direction to be honest. Might be the constraints of the TV budget? The shots were just uninspired.
@@LabradorIndependent totally agree. If there was one word I thought would NEVER apply to Rodriguez, it’s “uninspired,” but there’s simply no better way to describe this episode 😭
For me, Boba Fett was entertaining enough and presented in a way that generations in my family could watch it together and talk about it after. People who don't normally watch the same shows all watched this: my mother 78, my brother 55, me 51, my sister 43, my son 16, and nephew 8, and looked forward to it every Wednesday. My son would help us older folks connect the dots to the animated series and comics, we older folks would share stories about our experience as kids seeing the first Star Wars movie at the drive-in in the seventies. I could stomach the occasional Vespa rider (hopefully won't see that again, though), for brining us out of isolation. So much of our time is spent in isolation from each other--going to separate jobs/school, being on separate phones, watching very different shows. This show brought family from 78 to - 8 years old into a shared experience, a rare common conversation -- about the things we loved and didn't like. If they don't continue Boba Fett series, I'm ok with it, as they told a complete story, didn't end with a cliff hanger. If they don't, I'm satisfied and more excited for Mandalorian and Obi Wan and being able to enjoy new takes on Star Wars and characters I've known since my childhood in new adventures, adventures I can enjoy with my mother and son.
What a wholesome comment. 👍
My theory is that the series originally involved setting up a lot of characters, themes, and locations for Rangers of the New Republic. When that series got scrapped, I'm guessing that they were already in production and had to scramble to rewrite a lot of stuff on the fly. It's why the episodes that are the most uneven are in the beginning of the season.
This. The disjointed nature of this series proves something was off with the production and writing.
I like this theory.
The timeline fits: Disney announced in May that Rangers wasn't moving forward, and Book of Boba Fett ended filming on June 8th.
Yeah, to me it felt like “well, if we take the first two episodes of the Mandalorian season 3, and include them here… we allllmost have a full season!”
This ^ 100%. That's why a lot of scenes are disconnected to the one right before it. But even so, they could have done a much better job. They should have used Cobb Vanth more. They also should have trusted Tem more and let him have more diaglogue/action, rather than giving it ALL to Ming-Na.
The Hutts were established as the main antagonists in episode one, then in the next episode they’re gone. Wtf?
Yes, it was a little quick, but my auntie heart melted into a puddle during that tender moment where Grogu lept right into Mando's arms. Reminds me of my own little buddy when he sees me 🥺😭
It really felt like they filmed 5 episodes, realized that it was an awful show, so they decided to retrofit 2 mandalorian episodes into the middle.
Excellent review Dan! I felt this series spent time telling 3 or more seperate stories within this series. At times the presentation and pace of story telling both felt disjointed, yet left more questions on the table. "What is your angle?" : Cade Bane. This was a thought lingering through out the whole series about Boba Fett's motives for doing everything. There was a nice dose of creative chances taken with the call backs to other Star Wars time periods.
Cad Bane's question really resonated with me. And Boba's answers were very 'meh'. In fact, the final Boba/Fennec dialogue was somewhat silly... I paraphrase: This is MY city but I don't understand why these people like me; Maybe we're not cut for this but we're doing it anyway because if not us, then who? All of this dialogue is so empty of meaning and logic. I still don't think Boba is a badass nor do I care about him or his non existent motives. Lucky Mando and Grogu were there or this show would be a complete disaster.
We watched the whole series and we STILL do not know why Boba would stay with the people that enslaved and beat him. He talks about escaping to Anchorhead and then just doesn't. I think they may have cut a scene and just forgot to fill that narrative back in. WTF?
14:55 "What about Boba?"
Now I'm imagining a different series/movie where a troubled, needy Boba Fett inserts himself into the personal life of his new psychiatrist, becoming endeared to his doctor's family and driving him crazy in the process.
His psychiatrist is a protocol droid played by, of course, Richard Dreyfuss.
Undoing the Mando season 2 ending in BoBF was even worse than if they had done it in the first few episodes of Mando season 3. Not even sure why Ahsoka was around other than to just have her around with Luke. It was a big moment without the narrative to support it.
I think it was nice of them to let Boba Fett guest star in the last episode. 😉
I'm still not sure what the purpose was structuring with the flashback narrative. You could tell the story from Boba escaping the Sarlaac pit to his time with the Tuskens chronologically and not much would change. The moments of flashing back didn't serve much narrative purpose to what was happening presently.
Dan you and me both man I even said it in my review which is now on my channel, I couldn't tell what the hell was going on this episode? Seriously this was a finale to a season of television?? Idk what Robert Rodriguez was smoking but clearly it made him direct something that wasn't anything like Star Wars or well put together. There is just sooooo much wrong with this episode and the bad far out ways the good. So disappointed man...
LEAVE HIMI IN THE SARLAC PIT!? Dirty deeds, done Dan cheap. Roasting my boy over the coals.
Robert Rodriguez. That's what happened to Boba Fett.
The Book of Boba Fett wasn't really a show; it was a series of "Hey, remember this?!" references to other Star Wars properties and products that people actually like or that LucasFilm is determined for you to consume.
Grogu had over 20 years of training at the Jedi Academy (more than Luke has) before Order 66. Luke even mentions that Grogu isn't LEARNING about the Force but rather REMEMBERING, so Grogu's choice (and the writer's choice) to reunite him with Mando so soon makes perfect narrative sense. He had nothing left to learn from Luke. Plus knowing what we know from Last Jedi Luke's school didn't turn out so well, so it's a good thing Grogu dropped out when he did.
Now that you mention it, Shand taking out the Pikes, has serious parallel to Arya and the night king in the end of GoT.
Standing ovation Dan! You hit it out of the park.
Can somebody please tell me how Luke knew to send Grogu to Amy Sedaris or even Tatooine in general????
The main take away: those two giant droids may look imposing, but really have terrible aiming
Those syndicate Ai techs oughta be shot but then the droids would miss
I gave up on this series after three episodes or so. The episode where the power ranger moped team has a chase. I had to stop there. They used an actor way too old for Boba Fett. They immediately removed all mystery and intrigue around the character by showing his face a lot. The anti-hero "I will rule with respect" schtick fell flat in a big way. It made him seem totally toothless and passive, so not only did he look like a grandpa he acted like a kindly old grandpa too. This show had big "get off my lawn!" energy, like it could have been called Boba Fett's Neighborhood. It's like the creators, directors and writers all wanted to make sure there wasn't a single really bad guy around. Like they wanted to make sure every single person in the show was someone who you could be friends with. It really made the show seem completely sterile, safe, non-antagonistic. It didn't have any edge nor take any chances at all. It was like being served up a heaping plate of plain mashed potatoes. It had no flavor, no spice.
This show should have been a revenge story, of this bounty hunter crawling out of hell and then undertaking a merciless, highly personal quest to eliminate and overcome various criminal underworld figures on the path to taking Jabba's seat. We could have gotten two seasons of development re: Star Wars criminal underworld, how it works, and how Boba Fett painstakingly pursues and overthrows it. The scene of him sitting on the throne to rule in Jabba the Hutt's stead should have been the final scene of the series.
I feel like the entire point of this show was to get all the characters where they needed to be for the Mandalorian season 3. I guess they succeeded in that aspect, because all the parts of this show that had to do with that storyline were my favorite. I honestly enjoy Boba Fett as a character the most when he’s around other people. The flashbacks were interesting, (if a little slow) because it showed missing moments in the story. The present day storyline was alright, but I feel like it could’ve been better. I just feel like there’s only so much you can do with Boba as an individual character.
Tusken boba fett was my favorite part, that biker gang was my least favorite part.
Dan, loved your insights on this! I really wish they would've made BoBF just 5 or 6 short episodes. Then used the 2 Mando-centric episodes as the first two eps of Mando Season 3 or even edited the two eps together as a special "mini-movie" between BoBF and Mando 3.
Ooh, that sounds like a good idea. Wish they had done that.
I am now afraid that Star Wars and Marvel Disney Plus shows will slowly devolve into CW quality shows, just for the sake of keeping their streaming content flowing. Book of Boba Fett is now a sign of this possible tendency.
I loved episode 5, but had exactly the same reaction Dan did. The reason this series was done, or so I thought, was to unpack a beloved mystery and bring the legend back to life in a meaningful way. Instead we got the story of his escape and recovery from the sarlacc and then a lot of cool Mandalorian stuff. The key problem for me was that the Mandalorian episodes were the stronger narrative with more consistent character development and satisfying arcs. This was more like the chapter of Boba Fett who Disney hasn’t figured out what to do with but wanted to put him into the universe because most fans, including the creators of the show, love the character. My key issue is that Boba Fett had 30+ years as a mysterious legend, then Lucas made him a child clone. Afterwards, Dave Filoni and The Clone Wars made him a revenge seeking child clone with a lot of grit and edge that gave us a better connection to his future and what made him edgy and special. Now this series unravels the entire story and he’s sharing the spotlight at all turns. To be blunt Cad Bane Boba Fett’s harder than Boba Fett in the Boba Fett series. The show was good, but it was really good for Fennec Shand, The Mandalorian, Cad Bane, Grogu, and had some Boba Fett moments.
Agreed. All four of them vastly outshone Boba. They were just much better characters.
"Once upon a time on Tatooine" would have been a fitting title.
The narrative issue you describe is not a one-off.
The recent MCU series are all, to some extent or another, been used for universe building, and been less about good, coherent, self-contained stories. It really weakens the brand.
Really really strange show all things considered. They needed to just pick one idea and stick with it instead of mashing together a Boba Fett show and The Mandalorian. In the end both felt rushed and underdeveloped.
Robert Rodriguez directs Star Wars as if it’s Audience are 6 year olds.
I mean… it is. I hate to break it to you but Star Wars is for children
The made Boba to nice. He was suddenly a crime boss who didn’t want to do any real crime. The story was all over the place narrative wise and a 61 year old lead actor playing a character who was in his mid 30’s when we last saw him a week ago story time simply doesn’t work.
The premise of BoBF is full of potential. FULL of it. Sadly, the show couldn't even deliver a fraction of even our lowest imagination from said premise. The fact that the best episodes are involving the Mandalorian again speaks for the quality (or lack thereof) of Boba's story & action.
@@One.Zero.One101 A Mayor, mothertruker is just playing a small town Mayor, thats it. I don't understand the writing team and I dont understand why they though this is the direction boba fett needed to go its just baffling.
18:39 RIGHT?! it felt like that to me too, if Boba is just gonna step down after all that then what was the point? why did i invest the time and energy for seemingly nothing
I think the shows problems could've been fixed if the show was just called "Star Wars: Bounty Hunters"
That title sounds a lot more generic than what this show actually is.
Another commenter had a great idea that "The Book of Boba Fett" should have been a two part episode story arc within the Mandalorian season 3. I think this would have solved the confusion. Had episode 5 of this show be episode 1 of the Mandalorian season 3 then have episodes 2 & 3 be "The Book of Boba Fett" Part 1 and Part 2.
@@roguechevelle I like that. Go for a Clone Wars approach.
Boba should’ve been one of the most famous and bad ass bounty hunter in the universe. Watching this show he felt more incompetent than the power rangers kids. Robert Rodriguez delivered a lot of underwhelming action scenes as well.
Sounds to me like ep 5 and 6 should have been released after Book of Boba Fett ended as special episodes.
Releasing these separately and before season 3 would be a good way to keep fans happy till the next Mandalorian is released.
If you're going to make a series and name it after a character, then you better focus on that person and the path they are on. It feels like a disservice to do this.
Also I don't like what they did with Grogu's story. What was the point of it all?
100% agree. What was the point of the Mando S2 finale if they were just going to reunite within 2 episodes anyway. Instead their reunion was basically just a footnote
Dude, you nailed the overall consensus and I agree 100% with everything you said
Comes down to structure and pacing. Need tension and pay off to earn moments. This all felt rushed to me.
so it's basically Nostalgia Wars now huh? the book of boba fett was mostly filler and it's incredibly depressing. "Boba Fett wants to be a crime lord and it's ruffling feathers" really isn't much of a story, especially if the conflict is resolved by his friend killing all the bad guys quickly in one scene. this series really felt like a marvel movie- a vehicle to gather lots of cool characters and have them team up in exciting moments. there are two scenes in particular that really stand out as hinting at the potential this story COULD have had.
boba confronts the mayor:
"here is some advice, running a family is more complicated than bounty hunting"
in the last scene boba laments perhaps the life of a crime lord isn't something he's cut out for, despite the fact that he hasn't had to change anything about his criminal strategy. his opponents were vanquished with sheer brute force, and he never had to compromise any of his ideals to wrest political control from the mayor or the syndicate. the promise of boba having to learn about running a family was never delivered. i think it would have been a much better, compelling narrative to have boba compromise his beliefs, perhaps realise he must work together with another hutt faction or the corrupt mayor, and eventually he ironically becomes the kind of leader he previously despised.
cad bane tries to intimidate boba:
"whats your angle in all of this?"
here we really see how flimsy the foundation for this set up really is. presumably holding the office of a warlord on a dangerous planet like tatooine is no walk in the park, so why is it worth it for boba to assume such a position that would put a target on his back? it would make much more sense if we see boba is actually using his opportunity as a warlord to advocate on behalf of the tuskens, maybe leading a full on revolt or at least negotiating some sort of political legitimacy for their community.
Episodes 5 & 6 was amazing no matter what the show is called, as stand alone episodes they were some of the best Star Wars I have seen. Some of the other episodes weren’t always great for me, the ‘mods’ apart from being out of place, they just seemed a bit useless. That last episode they weren’t really much use. Boba did a lot of walking into situations without any clever plans and I think that is what disappointed me. But it was ok. But once again episode 5 & 6 were truly amazing Star Wars.
Yea 5-6 felt good... they aren't perfect.. but it feels like star wars and there's a reason for why people act the way they act ect... This finale.. yea okay.. rancor is cool i guess.. but it's just one big action movie cliche.. I found myself wondering how I'd react to this if it wasn't star wars.. It'd feel like one of those B-grade action movies from the 80's/90's... and not in a good way.
I wish we could all dance like Bobba from episode 2 😭
He looked so happy dancing with his likkle stick
Dance Bobba! Dance!!
Ok. Now I feel sad for Bobba 😣 Why would he dance, when all of his fellow dancing raiders are dead 😔
I didn't have a problem with the Mandalorian episode, and I really loved the episode with Luke and Ahsoka, but yeah I think there should have been eight episodes so we could have devoted a full episode to building to the finale with Mando on the team. And yeah, I think they should have left Grogu coming back until Mando S3
I think your absolutely right with your comments about “narrative slight of hand”. That was a great catch, nice job!
The artwork during the finale end credits looked amazing and I would totally be hyped if I saw them pre-BOBF but the execution just wasn’t very good.
This whole season was a few awesome moments floating in a pool of average.
Fantastic dissection, Dan. Absolutely 100% agree with your opinion on all points.
I think what happened here was there was drama behind the scenes with Pedro Pascal and Lucasfilm so the Mando S2 finale was made to give them options going forward if he didn't come back, and Bobba Fett was greenlit at a time that was uncertain, and then Pascal came back so they wrote him into Bobba Fett's final episodes. I'm one of the many who checked out after the first episode then came back for ep5. Then ep6. And now ep7, which was really just a muddled mess that mainly served to reunite Mando and Grogu for the greatly anticipated Mando Season 3. The question is, will TM S3 begin with ep3? lol
Wow this isn’t remotely true at all. I think you’re watching too much alt-right Star Wars UA-cam like Star Wars Theory, Geeks and Gamers, and Grace Randolf.
@@connorsiedow5815 It always felt like Mando was just a character to test the waters before a big triumphant return for one of Star Wars's most loved characters. But I haven't seen 95 percent of the clone wars.
@@connorsiedow5815 WTH are you talking about? It was literally reported on in all the trades. I don't subscribe to any SW UA-camrs. But one thing that is certain is that SW is slowly going downhill and seems to be on that same path as WB/DC where every thing they do is reactionary. Which is unfortunate. SW really needs to let go of the past and move into the future. There's so much untapped potential, but they keep circling back to characters whose fates are already sealed. Not very compelling.
Hey Dan!! Long time fan from Botswana...been watching your stuff since your movie fights days. Great content still
Episode 6 did not feel at all like the last episode of a season. Kind of a dud overall.
Edit: oh that is because it is not the last episode. I guess I should watch ep.7 before finishing the review lol
I love the way you structurally analyze this. Other channels had a lot of ranting which is shallow and not constructive. Keep on the great work!
I'd like to hear exactly what happened to all of John's original scripts .. bc I can bet there were like 3 or 4 more episodes that could've helped pay off all of these character moments that didn't really feel earned at the end... it felt like there was a budget issue .. and everything except the Mando stuff was like a cheaper version of what we were supposed to get ..
Maybe the title of the show The Mandalorian isn't in reference to Din Djarin but to Grogu. A character that can combine the best aspects of both.
Should have been The Book of Fennec cause Ming-Na, as always, is awesome.
She is, but she was also a bit one note. Compare her to Agent May from Agents of Shield, the only one reason I had to watch that show.
It was just an uneventful mishmash of quality that ends with look pew pew how cool are we.
Amen.
I couldn't agree more with everything you said! A great episode on it's own doesn't mean a great episode for the show that it is in. The Book of Boba Fett was a miss for me, even if I did love some stuff that happened. What was the point!?
It was not a great episode on it's own.
You've really laid out the problems I also had with this show - it's not really about the Quality of individual episode and Moments, but about the big picture and the way plothooks & development seeds didn't pay off. And I think in the Future People won't engage with this as a show: they'll rewatch favourite epps, favourite Moments, but I highly doubt there are many People that Will watch all 7 episodes in order again.
My main disappointment is that I was hoping that "The Mandolorian" Season 3 would be focused entirely on Din Djarin and his quest involving the Dark Saber and Bo-Katan, and that we would be free of Grogu for most of the season. This took that hope away. Not that I dislike Grogu, but for once, I wanted to see the focus on the Mandolorian and his journey without being saddled with the responsibility of a child. We only got that in Chapter 5 of Boba Fett.
im a huge Grogu fan (have quite a bit of grogu stuff).. but ya i agree, It would of been nice for the season to quest Mando to reach Grogu with fun little adventures along the way.
It's also a bit like.. okay.. so we'll pick up season 3 with Grogu back in Mando's care.. when season 2 ended with him giving Grogu up so that he could train with Luke? That feels incredibly rushed and weird to me.
There is nothing conceivably wrong with a large scale shared universe where all the big players of the Era appear on each other's shows. In fact, it's preferable these days after the huge success of Game of Thrones and the MCU. So far, (for the most part) it's actually worked well for the Disney Plus Filoni-verse. However, Episode 7 of the Book of Boba was a massive letdown. The finale was a poorly executed mess (which also had the misfortune of following the excellent episodes 5 & 6). The fact is, Book of Boba should have had 8 or 9 episodes (instead of 7) so they could allow Boba's arc to fully mature, and his story a little bit more room to breathe.
This whole thing is Go-Bots and Transformers. Go-Bots were first to market but the Transformers were better. Mando is everything people thought Boba was but done better.
Everything with Boba Fett was boring because Boba Fett is a boring character that deserved to get bounced into the Sarlac. 100% of his appeal is from fans using their imagination on a character that said and did NOTHING on screen. The flashbacks were dumb and boring. ffs HE TRIES TO FLY A SPACESHIP INTO THE SARLAC! Drop a grenade, fire into it, anything but hover within tentacle range to do what? Look inside it's tummy? Did he think his armor was laying on top?
Isn't that though the writing? He was pretty much a blank canvas.
Honestly most of the marvel and star wars shows on Disney plus is all over the place
There are some good elements in this show, but certain things have held it back for me. I think "fan service" (e.g. callbacks, references, crossovers, character appearances, etc. ) can work if it's incorporated sparingly and rationally, but I found it to be a little excessive and overboard in this series. For example, (spoiler alert), Boba riding the rancor while smashing giant droids seems to me like something that would come out of an exaggerated Star Wars parody.
Yea it works well in comic books and video games. I agree with the tidal wave of fan service as well.
It’s fan service done right
What an excellent analysis/summary of BOBF. I def enjoyed episode 1 & 2 the most, and agree the resolution of the Tusken plot thread was poor. I like Mando & Grogu together, but the impact of The Rescue is diminished now. Thanks for the video
I really enjoyed the story as a whole. But if I'm honest I found the ending to be a little....safe. Perhaps I built it up too much, but it was pretty straightforward with few surprises. Still, I love this side of the SW universe and I had a lot of fun with The Book of Boba Fett.
I agree. Everything from the finale screams typical MCU mediocrity. I felt like I watched the finale of Hawkeye in another wrapping.
Honestly, I 100% believe the reason why Disney brought the Mandalorian into this show was because they were afraid Boba wouldn't be successful on his own. I feel as though they thought Boba having his own show would not be as interesting as The Mandalorian has been so they shoehorned Season 3 in there in order to get fans to watch the show. A sad truth but its painfully obvious.
I agree with most of Dan's points, but I find it interesting that it doesn't bother me in this situation. It might be because this was a tv show vs a movie or because we're getting so much content and know more will be coming.
With the sequel trilogy, so much time and investment was spent to make them and there was the 2 year wait in between each one so being mis-plotted seemed like a huge waste of opportunity.
With BoBF, I don't feel the same sense of wasted opportunity and maybe that's because I can view it as a season in a larger narrative.
I mostly agree with your review. I was really interested in the political maneuverings and motivation backstory for Boba taking control of crime on Mos Espa. Then the Mando episode happens and we take a huge detour from the main plot. When we eventually come back to it all the interesting political manipulation disappears in favor of a battle where everyone is fighting separately. Boba Fett never takes revenge on the syndicate leader for ordering the death of his adopted Tusken family. In the end they eat space fruit and laugh together with no thought for the innocent civilians killed who might have been saved if Fett had just brutally killed the first wave of syndicate to arrive in Mos Espa. Basically it's a standard Disney show where it teases interesting ideas in the first half, then turns into a big fight in the last half where some things don't make sense and no one learns anything or grows in any way.
That season finale was horrendous for me. Robert Rodriguez directed the worst episodes of the season and the finale was just bad. I did not care. Cad Bane was the only highlight.
I liked the show till the season finale, even the earlier episodes but the finale was a disaster!
The mod biker gang were the worst thing to happen to star wars
"The Book of Boba Fett" Series gets a (2/10). From beginning to end, the series was a HUGE disappointment. Thats what you get when you chose member-berries, flashy quick cuts OVER storytelling, and character development. The Disney Star Wars universe, instead of expanding, just filled the universe up with more dribbly dog shit. "Who saw this coming?" People who actually were paying attention to the "story" and not memorized and having fan-gasom's over cameos. Thanks Disney. PS. Robert Rod, you played in the Star Wars sandbox.. time to leave...Take Danny with you.
Could not agree more. I simply cannot understand why they keep making shows/movies about characters that we already know (Han Solo for example, still can't believe that movie exists) instead of creating new characters or perhaps developing more obscure ones. That would benefit from actually giving us something new and intriguing as well allowing more creative freedom. But I guess the people behind Star Wars now is not interested in being creative.
Shows like a video game where you get to the end then wrap up all your side quests before going into the final boss battle.
I felt Hawkeye was the same way. The individual parts were great, but it was more future world building than an individual show that stands on its own. For better or for worse.
They cover the Jedi angle by Luke admitting he's not teaching Grogu anything, but rather helping him to remember. That is a clever out.
i go with the interpretation that "the book of boba fett" means that boba is the author, not the main charakter of the book
"Lots of individual moments to love" ---- That perfectly sums up Star Wars.