As the sixth episode of the Disney Plus series The Book of Boba Fett has come and gone, one thing seems to be sliding into focus. What the public thought was the point of this show might not have been the point at all. Maybe this was never about starting yet another television series that would have multiple seasons and really examine the journey of a bounty hunter turned crime boss.
Maybe the show was always meant as a way for Lucasfilm and Disney Plus to simply set the stage for what comes next. Had the showrunners been upfront and honest about that from the beginning, perhaps the perception of the program could have been different. It would still be annoying and some of the episodes would still be downright bad, but at least it wouldn't be quite as confusing.
Now that the aim of the show seems to be more clear, there are still quite a few questions as to why those in charge are carrying things out the way they are. Right at the top of the list of questions is why The Book of Boba tends to always want to spend so much time on the least interesting aspects of the story every week. That could simply be a byproduct of the larger aim of the show. The series is all about setting up the mythos of shows like Ahsoka and Obi-Wan. There's also the question as to why in the world, for the second straight week, the titular character didn't have a single line of dialogue. The series is seven episodes long and two of them don't have Boba Fett say a single thing. At least he appeared this week? Though it was for just a second and his compatriots had all the speaking lines.
Is It Easter Already?
Episode 5 of The Book of Boba Fett made it clear that despite this show supposedly being a spinoff, the Mandalorian is going to play a big part in the final episodes of this first (final?) season. He was once again front and center at the beginning and the end of this episode and thankfully, Episode 6 was quite a bit better than its predecessor. There were still some real, very serious pacing problems, but at least the shifts in tone from ultra-serious to somewhat humorous weren't quite so jarring.
Mando was far from the only person from the Star Wars universe to make an appearance in this particular episode of The Book of Boba Fett. The official title of this episode might have been "From the Desert Comes a Stranger," but it might as well have been called "From Dave Filoni Comes Massive Fan Service." The promo image could have been Oprah telling everyone they all get an easter egg.
In addition to Mando, there was not one, not two, not three but five appearances by well-known Star Wars personalities from other Star Wars franchises. There was even more than one nod to the animated The Clone Wars series. While it's always nice to see the entire Star Wars universe get tied together with a nice, neat bow, two full episodes of this seems like a bit much. Especially when entirely too much time was spent on the wrong part of that universe.
Spending Time On The Wrong Things ... Again
At the beginning of The Book of Boba Fett, there was some concern that there was going to be entirely too much time spent on flashbacks than on what was happening in "the present." The last two episodes have had a very similar problem, even if the stories that were being focused on were different. Episode 5 spent entirely too much time watching Mando build his new ship. This episode spent entirely too much time on Grogu training up to be a Jedi. While again, those scenes were nice fan service, it seems as if not only was it not particularly entertaining, it might have all been for naught? Why spend that much time on the plotline that the show itself tells the audience is not going any further?
On the other hand, not nearly enough time was spent in Boba's runup to war against the Pyke Syndicate. Every scene that did spend time on that particular story was interesting and compelling. Every single one. And yet, it made up about 10 minutes of the entire show. It's pretty clear that Episode 7 is going to focus in on that plot, but there certainly could have been more story in that direction and the episode could have been the best of The Book of Boba Fett, by far.
It continues to be interesting to watch the writers of The Book of Boba Fett clearly be more interested in everyone else. They seem to be trying to convince the audience to do the same. Easily the best lines of the show and perhaps the entire series were delivered in this episode and they were delivered by people other than who is supposed to be the main character. In fact, Episode 6 went a long way towards making it clear that it should have made a spinoff series that focused on another character entirely rather than Boba Fett.
When the dust settled on this particular episode of The Book of Boba Fett, it showed an episode that was quite a bit better than the one immediately preceding it. However, it also showed an episode where the people putting the show together seem to spend entirely too much time on the least interesting aspects when there was plenty of time and energy to be spent elsewhere. The good news would appear to be that the season or series finale is going to focus in on much of what could have made this episode great. The bad news is that there is absolutely no guarantee that's actually going to happen when considering just how many missteps they've made along the way so far. In the end, it feels like this was the sixth straight time The Book of Boba Fett went out of its way not to capture the success of the show it spun off.
The Book of Boba Fett airs every Wednesday on Disney Plus