Star Wars fans were ecstatic to see Boba Fett, a character thought long dead, appear in The Mandalorian and make a huge impact. Now with  the new Boba Fett show on Disney Plus, we not only see Boba Fett’s journey after his appearance, but the events that preceded and led up to it.

The show follows Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) and his accomplice Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) after they essentially become crime lords on Tatooine, taking what once belonged to Jabba the Hutt before his demise. Episode 1 begins by showing Boba Fett in a capsule. It transitions to a flashback of Boba Fett crawling out of the Sarlacc Pit that had consumed him in Return of the Jedi and passing out in the sands. While he is unconscious he is stripped of his armour by Jawa scavengers, leaving him with nothing but his own two legs to walk on. Later, he is taken prisoner by a clan of Tusken Raiders. 

After some time and a failed escape attempt, the title card appears and we slap back to the present, where Fett is sitting in his throne being presented with tributes from several sources. He and Shand then go to a bar that is now under his control and are gifted with money. After leaving, they are attacked by assassins. Fett is left injured while Shand apprehends one of the assassins to interrogate. Boba Fett is rushed to his capsule to recover

 Suddenly we are back to the Tusken Raiders in another flashback, where Boba Fett and another prisoner are then taken to dig for water. However, this is disrupted by some sort of four armed monster emerging from the sand underneath them  attacking and killing the unnamed prisoner. Once it turns it’s sights to the young Tusken in charge of the prisoners, Boba Fett knowing he would be stranded if he let him die strangles and kills the monster with his own chains. This earns him a nod from the tribe leader and a drink of water as the episode fades to the credits. 

My most prevalent thought about the show is that despite there essentially being two plot lines, I feel much more engaged in one, that being the flashbacks. For starters it’s very interesting to see Boba Fett, a character feared across the galaxy, reduced to such a weak state right off the bat. The make up design (courtesy of Brian Sipe) does a fantastic job portraying this, as he looks incredibly dried up and weak while he is a prisoner. Also, to see him go from being a prisoner in episode one, to him climbing up the ranks and gaining respect in the next episode is a fun thing to watch.  Probably the best part about this part is it answers questions rather than raising them, it creates the question of how did he get to the position of crime boss by starting there which makes it a satisfying watch. Apart from the flashbacks, there is also the plot in the present. Honestly, I don’t care for it. It seems interesting, but feels too underwhelming. 

Something the show did particularly well was giving the classic Star Wars feeling. Despite the franchise only having one recent successful ongoing product, that being The Mandalorian, Star Wars has always kept that particular style, and when that style is coupled with actual good media, it makes a truly glorious experience. The editing and music actually made me smile. It is very similar to the Mandalorian, which is likely due to The Book of Boba Fett technically being it’s spinoff series. 

Now since only two episodes are out, the question isn’t as much is it a good show, rather does it have promise to be a good show, and do the first episodes set it up well? I think this show has a ton of promise to be very well done. Despite what I said about feeling underwhelmed with the plot of Boba Fett as a crime lord, that’s mostly due to the fact that those kinds of stories can’t just be done in two episodes. While yes I didn’t love it, I am anticipating it to get very good later on. On the other end I was immediately hooked with the plot of Fett gaining the respect of the Tusken raider tribe. There are so many possible directions to take it in that would be really cool.

My only actual gripe with it is it’s lack of accessibility, especially if you haven’t seen both seasons of The Madalorian. It picks up directly after so most viewers would be confused. Also the episodes so far have been very long. Episode 1 wasn’t too bad, running at 38 minutes. I say that isn’t too bad (despite most shows having only 20 minute episodes) because the next one clocks in at a whopping 52 minutes. In my opinion it gets a bit stale and boring. Sure the Madolorian has long episodes, but it is a very engaging show.  The pacing for it was well done which does sort of make up for it, but when something is that long, it becomes harder to watch due to you needing more time for it. Take shows with 20 minute episodes. If you have a bit of time you can squeeze an episode in or if you have a lot of time you can binge the series. With longer episodes, that makes it much more difficult to do.That coupled with the fact that you need to have seen the Mandalorian makes this a show that a fair number of people likely won’t find very welcoming.

Now if I had to rate this show out of 10 so far, I’d give it an 8/10. Episode one was a seven while the second was a nine. I am definitely excited to see what they do with it. This could be a very good show. In the future however, this could really range anywhere from a 4/10 to an 8 or 9/10. I try to remain optimistic because of the success of The Mandalorian, but as I’ve said, that show is really all modern Star Wars has. So it is equally possible that the show will be completely ruined by the end of season one. Is the show promising? Yes definitely, it has potential to be great. It will be interesting to see the direction they take it in, and what they do with both Boba Fett’s past and future.